Recently, I went on vacation to sunny California to go to VidCon. I’ve always been more of a casual fan of YouTube, or more specifically, content creators on YouTube. However, I am in no way an expert in all things YouTube and/or VidCon. Regardless, I was excited for the opportunity and experience to meet YouTubers, discover new ones, and see what they had to say about the industry. So, with that out of the way, here’s what happened at VidCon 2017.
The First Day
To start, I didn’t know that the first day of VidCon’s really just registration day. Everyone there’s really only there to get their passes in the registration hall. So, I, along with my companions, ultimately spent a few hours sitting outside in the sun. But at least there were water stations and food trucks for everyone walking and waiting around. All in the hopes of catching a YouTuber walking around to meet fans. Thankfully, we got picked up a few hours later only come back that afternoon to catch the Awesomeness Festival Kickoff Concert. There, we got to see Los5, Julia Nunes, Tanner Patrick, and my personal favorite, Leroy Sanchez.
The next day’s where things really kicked off. We started the day off at IHOP to meet up with the ladies from ClevverTV. There, we took pictures and free breakfast, which was a great way to start the day. After that, we headed to the convention center, walked around and saw panels featuring internet stars. We walked around the booths, took pictures, and even got some free swag. And that’s the epitome of what happened for the next two days of Vidcon as well.
The Rest of the Convention
However, the panels, to me, were the best part. I’m not necessarily a huge YouTube watcher. To be completely honest, I have a few chosen YouTubers that I watch on a regular basis (namely, Grace Helbig, Mamrie Hart and Hannah Hart pictured above) and I’ve heard of a lot of popular internet influencers. But I’m definitely not well-versed in the world of YouTube. But through the panels, I got to discover new people like YouTubers BriaAndChrissy and Jessica McCabe (from How to ADHD) and learn a little more about things that I was more interested in.
As a person who isn’t an avid YouTube watcher, Vidcon, in my opinion, wasn’t really worth $150 each, especially since it only let us roam the first floor. For those of you who don’t know, there are three different passes you can buy: community, creator, and industry. We only bought the community pass but with the others, you could go upstairs to the other floors to discover other booths and meet other YouTubers. The other two passes cost more money and that doesn’t even include the cost of meet and greets. So in all, Vidcon was fun but overpriced, especially for someone like me who isn’t obsessed with the YouTube platform and/or the people who have gotten famous off of it.