VidCon 2010 is YouTube-only

posted on July 10th, 2010


I’ll start off with the fact that I dislike discovering events during or after they happen.

If you’re like me, then you’ll be sad to know that VidCon is happening right now. According to the official VidCon website:

Vid-Con is a three-day conference bringing together the brightest lights in the billion-views-a-day community known as the online video industry. Join us at the first ever gathering of the most influential and popular independent video makers online and the communities that have made them a force in the world.

It costs between $80-$140 per person to attend (depending when you registered), and is located in Los Angeles, California.

From my perspective, it appears to be quite similar to 2009’s YouTube Live — a pile of YouTubers (creators and fans) in one location to discuss how they got started, what they do, and so on. I don’t believe there were any “Hollywood celebrities” at VidCon. However, the line between Hollywood and Internet celebrities pretty much doesn’t exist anymore.

Now. I realise that YouTube is the largest video viewing platform on the planet Earth. *Insert blah blah statistics here* That said, I don’t understand why no other video sharing platform was involved with VidCon.

Yes, I work for Viddler (a bloody rad video platform), but I’m not bitter because it doesn’t seem like we were the only service to not be involved in VidCon. And I’m certainly not out of the loop; I keep tabs on what many other video services are doing, and any (not just video) tech conferences that are happening around the world.

Nothing in VidCon’s description says it’s a YouTube-only event. Though a lot of the graphics and personalities on the website sure implies it.

A video community does not have anything to do with the service the videos are hosted on. It’s about the videos, the creators of those videos, and the fans that absorb those videos.

If VidCon was a conference for the YouTube community, then I wouldn’t be writing this post.

I’ve only seen a few bits and pieces of content created from VidCon so far, and I listened to the livestream in the background while I worked today. It doesn’t seem much different from any other tech/media-based conference. It feels like the “popular” kids are just telling the beginners/fans how they got to be where they are. That helps, but people need to do to understand.

I really hope that makes some sense.

We need more fun and less blah blah.

I’ll be attending PodCamp AZ (a free technology unconference) in November. It’s only two days, but there will be much to learn and so much frickin’ fun to be had! It’s not just a video event, but many people attending do make lots of videos. I’m just mentioning this because it will be the next social event I attend, and anyone is welcome.

What did you think about VidCon? Did you even know about it? Will you be going next year?

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  • Inno
    I think it was a Youtube based event because it was put together by two people who primarily broadcast themselves ON youtube. They're probably just not as comfortable with other media sites. However, if you want to add more sharing sites, I'd definitely recommend either providing a suggestion or asking to participate. John and Hank are usually fairly open to ideas.
  • "That said, I don’t understand why no other video sharing platform was involved with VidCon."

    Did any other platform offer or request to be at VidCon as a sponsor or anything like that? I looked at the program pdf and yeah, it's YT heavy, but... I mean, I like other services better (unfortunately Viddler isn't one of those these days), but do you know of a single online video presence that's well known and ISN'T based primarily on YT? It's just the reality. I'd be feeling a lot more sympathetic if there were some sort of evidence that VidCon organizers only *allowed* YT to be there, but I'm not seeing it. It's also the first year, so I'd like to see how it pans out next year (if it even does). It also sounds like you weren't at the event, so maybe you missed out on hearing of some other video services presences being there. I doubt I would go regardless (every major Con seems to be on the other end of the friggin' country, which gets really old for us in the Midwest/East Coast area), but just playing devil's advocate. I see a lot of YT, sure, but that's really pretty representative of the video community, so it's not really a shocker.
  • VidCon is nothing we've not seen before. And to take 6 months to prepare? What? Call a few venues and organize a time and date, message some popular youtubers to spread the word, then print some banners? THAT took 6 months?
  • The event was run by the vlog brothers well at least thought of by them and apparent it was all organized from idea to the actual day in 6 months. I assume the vlog brothers knew other youtubers and just asked them if they wanted to be apart of it. From what I saw in videos, it didn't seem like much. It was just youtubers going up on stage and doing a bit and the rest was just a fan fest. Personally I only heard of it few weeks ago because shaycarl and Charles from ctfxc mentioned it but I think even at the time they didn't know much about it. Even the on stage projection and things didn't seem very professional. I think next year will be very different and yes there will be a next year because I assume they cashed in from this.
  • Yeah, I saw Rocketboom's interview with the Vlog Brothers describing how the event was formed.

    Now that the event is established I hope the larger video community (made up of smaller communities like Viddler, Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc) will get involved. I'd like to attend VidCon 2011, but I doubt I'll want to pay ~$100 to learn about things I already know and stroke YouTubers' egos. I've attended SxSW two years in a row without paying for a badge, and I still have lots of engaging conversations with people outside of the panels (which I can see videos of online after the fact).

    We'll see how this all pans out, I suppose.
  • Leaf
    It didn't seem like vidcon was about talent, wholesome friendships or creativity

    It seemed to be more about ego

    this is not surprising - but expected.



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