Anaheim, California is playing host to the 6th annual VidCon, and it’s happening as you read this. Originally conceived by Hank and John Green of VlogBrothers fame, this is the 4th time VidCon will grace the esteemed halls of the Anaheim Convention Center. Last year attendance peaked at about 18,000 people. That’s pretty impressive considering the first VidCon only had about 1,400 attendees. Over 5 years the number of VidCon fans has grown almost 1,800%. One could certainly call that a smashing success.
Creating an event for something so wildly diverse and rapidly evolving may be an impossible task, but it is one we attempt anyway, and with excitement, because we believe that online video is the most important cultural force since the motion picture. We believe deeply that we are in the very early, defining moments of an extremely powerful global force.
VidCon strives to be the physical center of that revolution.
With hundreds of featured content creators, VidCon 2015 is certainly trying to meet it’s aspiration. Perusing through the list of YouTube stars, I can’t help but feel a little out of touch. I recognize only a fraction of the names, and that’s only because I’ve seen them mentioned in other media. Maybe I just don’t pay enough attention to the credits on certain BuzzFeed videos, or maybe I’m just not interested enough in the nuts and bolts of creating and producing for YouTube channel. Either way, it seems like I have a lot of homework to do.
On a rather interesting note, VidCon has certainly attracted an impressive assortment of sponsors.
There are many, many panels and presentations from the myriad internet video stars and crew – enough for any video-phile to get their fix. There are also a good number of community Q&A sessions set up to give con-goers the chance to ask their favorite creators about whatever they want. This will definitely help inspire the next generation of content creators to help thrust the community that is internet video into the stratosphere. Who needs conventional TV when there are plenty of quality programs right at your fingertips?
