Hello! After last week's video I decided this week to do something a bit more chill as you could tell from the title
and the thumbnail. We're just gonna have a chill chat discussion about some conventions.
But before we get into it, I did just want to say thank you so much for the outpouring support from last week's video.
I honestly didn't expect so many nice things to be said, honestly,
I broke a lot of unspoken rules about YouTube in that video specifically,
I told you to unsubscribe if you bla bla bla bla bla, and that's obviously you don't wanna do that,
you also don't want a voice an opinion that's slightly controversial because the more you do that the more you alienate people and then make
People unsubscriber cause like "Whoa, he's not exactly like me
I'm not gonna like that", but honestly
thank you so much for allowing me to just speak my mind to be myself and you accept me for that.
That is so lovely to find out and it's just nice to know that like when I started making YouTube videos
One of the main things I did was express my opinion.
Yeah, that's right, I don't even know who that guy is, okay
Don't.. who the heck
Let's not talk about it. But yeah,
It is really nice to know that I can exist here and be myself and be a real person and you all accept me
So thank you. But on the matter of opinions, I thought today'd
be a really good time to express my honest opinions about mostly conventions that I've gone to
Spillin' all that tea for you
Whether that be from a fan perspective, a creator's perspective or as a featured creator's perspective. Why? I've been to so many
conventions at this point
I've been to eight Vidcon's, seven Playlist Lives and five Summer In The Cities
And I've got a lot of experience, not just as a creator. My first two Vidcon's, my first Playlist Lives
I was going as a fan
Okay
I've experienced these things
from working my way up and therefore I think I talk on the topic pretty well also Summer In The City is next week , and
I'm super excited to meet y'all. So I figured let's spill the tea on the
Actuality. Let's jump into it. That's right, we're jumping into it. Okay. I love you Phil. First convention- VidCon. Have you heard of it?
I'm assuming you have if you live in the YouTube space like I do. VidCon is a convention that takes place in LA, or rather
Anaheim it can fit a thousand people though five thousand people end up going and getting sunburned.. that's a different convention
Sorry, nevermind. When I first went to VidCon
It was literally just two thousand people that just liked online video and you just went to a hotel and hung out my favorite part
About VidCon wasn't going to the panels and it wasn't like going the shows even though I did love those shows
It was all about just hanging out in the hotel lobby and meeting other people that would like me and also
Hoping to find like a random celebrity Youtuber walk by so be like, oh my god
I remember at one point my first year like MeekaKitty walked by and I was like
"Meekakitty!" I tried to have a conversation with her for five minutes. It was just so nice
it was like the highlight of my trip. Now over the years VidCon has grown and grown and grown and I remember distinctly
around like year four or five it was not that great, like things had gone down
I don't know what it was specifically, but I feel like everyone could really tell don't know what it was but ever since that year
VidCon have
continuously improved so much so that every year since then has been better. Like the last year
I just went I honestly don't have anything negative to say kind of I do have a couple things little gripes
Like I said, I'm gonna do some honesty here, but for the most part VidCon was a well-oiled machine and I really loved it
One of my favorite parts about VidCon is the huge expo hall that they have in which there's loads of booths that you can go to as
A creator, as a fan as anyone really and explore. There's like really cool obstacle courses
You can get like free candy bars and stuff. It's a nice time. However recently after the like Viacom acquisition
It feels so much as an IP push of their products that it just doesn't feel as genuine to me
Like what does "Dancing with the Star"s have anything to do with online video? VidCon is the celebration of online video,
"Dancing with the Stars", the Nickelodeon one? I mean I get it,they're owned by Viacom
They try to push that but that did make me go
"Ah, that's not YouTube related" or musical.ly, whatever people are using these days. But, that really hasn't affected the panels or anything
There are still really really good panels if you're a small creator or a large creator and want to learn from other people
It's really useful to go to those and learn from other creators. It's great
One thing that VidCon implemented last year that I don't think they implemented this year
Which I really wish they had because it was my favorite part, was a Creator
Roundtable in which you're matched up with ten random creators and you sit around and just talk shop. You talk about anything
you have questions about, they're brought up. There's a moderator and it was so good. I learned so much
just talking to random people about their problems and my problems and it was like "wow" it.. Whether it be about like video editing or
About how to deal with certain problems online. It was so useful
The only way I think it'd be more useful is if they had recorded them and then allowed people to learn from them as well
Because it was in a closed-off room I think was put on by the Internet Creators Guild
It was a great idea. If anyone from Vidcon is watching this, please bring it back. It was, it was great
Definitely one of my highlights of last
Yes VidCon ten out of ten really enjoyed it. Moving on to the second one: Playlist Live. Playlist Live has gone through
So much growth since the first one I went to. I remember the first one I went to I literally didn't know anyone
No-one I knew had gone to this convention,
everyone went to VidCon and I was just there
Alone. And at this point there wasn't anything to do for fans or for small creators at the end of the night,
it's just "Featured Creator party,
everyone else
find something else to do". And so it was really sad and I literally just stood at a table and just watched people
going to the party and going, "oh is that.. is that Jimmy Wong? That's cool.
Oh man, it's cool, man. And I just sat there looking depressed. However, I did know one person whose videos
I really loved, his name was Dan Dobie. He came out of the party, saw me and went "What are you doing here?"
And I went "I'm not..
I'm not allowed in there", and he put a drink in my hand and went "just hold this and walk on through with me,
you're coming in" and it was one of the most wholesome experiences I've ever had,
I've done that so many times at this point to multiple parties where I see people I know I'm like "why aren't you invi..no no
No, you're coming in , you're coming with me", and I've tried to carry on that tradition.
I do feel like Playlist doesn't have quite as much to do if you are a
Standard-size creator as opposed to the fans like the fans they get meet and greets
They get a lot of these shows whereas the mid-size you get the panels and stuff
But there isn't as much differentiation. Playlist Live does know how to throw a party though
The ponies are really good, musics a bit weird, but the parties are phenomenal. Each one sponsored by different company and they're great
That sounds like I'm talking about the 1% here. Ok, swirling my wine glasses
talking about the Featured Creator parties that take us to Universal Islands of Adventure
sometimes, it's phenomenal. But, here's some honest gripes about Playlist Live. Have you been to a meet and greet at Playlist Live?
I'm sure you have the same issue I do. They kind of combine too many creators into one grouping
So this last year I was with Dodie, Connie, Doug A, Tom Burns, my good friend Chai, we got Jack and Jamie Jo,
There's probably more people
I'm honestly forgetting and there was so many people that when you went to the meet-and-greet
You might not have known half of them. You might not have known me, you could have just known Dodie
That's a likelihood to be honest. And guess what?
That's not gonna make a lot of people feel very loved in that meet-and-greet room, and that's kind of what happens. Now,
I honestly talked to people from Playlist Live, they're gonna be sorting that by next year
So I have full faith in them that that's gonna happen, it's not gonna be an issue.
However, one big thing that both VidCon and Playlist Live do that
I do not like and if anyone's watching this is such a small thing that would mean the world, I really hope they implement it
Lighting! Get some good lighting in those meet-and-greet rooms man!
You'd think that a convention that's put apart by online video and like you go to a section specifically for
Photography would have good lighting, but you'd be wrong
Both VidCon, it makes you look like you're in some dingy like expo hall and Playlist Live. It's just like, "Yikes
It looks like we're in a horror film or something." I do not understand why good lighting is not invested in, please
please do this. It would, it would just mean the world to me and probably every fan that just wants a nice quality photo
I know that my boy
Tommy Sanders brings his own lighting to conventions because he's just an organized little bean and I'm very jealous because his selfies always turn out
On fleek. So please, for the next year bring lighting, I'd love it.
Also
I would like to note that both VidCon and playlist
Have such such such good security compared to previous years. Like every year, it just gets so much nicer and more secure feeling.
I remember like VidCon like five years ago in which you couldn't get into an elevator without
loads of people just riding up and down screaming looking for someone and it was just really uncomfortable. Nowadays, it's great
I don't know how they do it but keep it up! And lastly, I'm coming for you. Tommy Boy. It's Summer In The City
What are all my honest gripes? Summer in The City is London's pride and joy,
I've been to the least amount of these because I moved to the UK a bit too late to go to all of them,
Sorry,
But it is a very good
convention. The issue I have with VidCon and Playlist is that they're in America. America is a huge country,
very diverse. If I have 33% of my audience in the US
they're so spread out, but the probability of them going to a convention
where I get to meet them is very low if it's only in two cities.
Fast forward to Summer In The City. The UK, you know, it's not that big and the public transport is pretty on fleek
so if you want to visit me in London
it's not that bad to do, everyone does it and so a lot more people know who I am at Summer In The City and it's really great.
So I have to spend a lot more time
out there because there's so many more people to me. Now, Summer in the City does try and position themselves as very similar to VidCon
and Playlist, but they do try and say they have a bit more of a community feel to it.
And I think I've been able to pin down why. They may try and pull some American creators over, whatever, but for the most part
it's still a British convention that is the celebration of British online video. And that's what I like so much about it,
it isn't just about who's the best of the best all around the world or whatever. It is about
Britain and I like that it is a good way for my, this is a biased thing, I like that
it''s like a big convention for my friends, like whoa, Dodie gets a huge show at the end of the night
that's cool. A lot of my friends also get huge stage time because you know, they're big in the UK whereas in the US
it'd just be, y'know like, "dab it on the haters and stuff" and
I just really like that idea- that it's a lot of people I know that get to be celebrated.
So yeah, like I said, that's a bit of a bias there.
STOP COMING DOWN HAIR
Now, in terms of how Summer In The City treats its creators compared to the other two
I would say it isn't as good, but that's probably down to budgeting like when you go into the green room at Summer In The
City, it's pretty bare-bones. You get your Tesco sandwiches and your apples
You know That's all you got, as opposed to like VidCon and Playlist where they're plowing you with alcohol and champagne and loads of delicious foods
I think it's a good thing that the green room is bare-bones
You kind of just want to go in there, get some stuf, quickly relax, and come back to meet viewers
I don't know if they've done this on purpose
at SITC but I viewed it like that and that's why I spend so much more time at SITC meeting viewers. There isn't
any like ridiculously comfortable place to just you know,
get drunk and eat food and just not do anything at the convention where I'm supposed to be meeting fans, and so most the time
I go in, quickly get a bite to eat and get a little drink and then run back out and stand on my merch table
and meet as many people as I can. I love it!
So like I said if you watch this and be like "oh, he's gonna be angry"
No, like I said, it's a good thing
One thing I do really like about SITC though is that I feel like the panels are a bit more on the pulse.
I remember last year when they made the YouTube Honesty Hour panel that had come out right after the hashtag had been trending and I
Went "That was such a good idea,
whoever like came up with that". And it was just a chance for people to be honest about their gripes about YouTube and
spill the tea and a bit of a positive environment where we all constructively talked about it. It was a good idea
so, like I said
it does help when you have a bit more of a community behind it as opposed to a corporation. But then another gripe that I have
and that's just because I think I've been spoiled from Playlist Live and VidCon is there is no
Hotel culture at SITC. At VidCon,
you know,
everyone stays at the same hotel. At Playlist you all stay in the same hotel and at the end of the night, you know,
you'll be walking down the hallway and there'll be like a party in this room, a party in this room,
and you've got a party in your room, you know people coming over, different cliques hanging out. It's so nice.
I love that. You get to hang out with everyone at night. At SITC,
you know, everyone lives in London for the most part,
you got a couple up north, but most Youtubers are living in London. So they don't really give anyone a hotel,
it's probably down to budgeting. And so I live in West London, okay? It's very far for me,
I don't even care if I get to invoice my cab or my taxi I'm not gonna invoice the Tube for instance
I mean c'mon, it's the Underground
It's just, it's an hour of my life both ways because I live so far away
and also I just want to hang out with friends more, I want to be able to just hang out in that hotel.
I wish that was a thing. Some creators get the ability, I think, if they're international, but hey, SITC, I'm American
all right? I'm international. Does that count.. please? At the end of the day though,
I am really thankful that I get to go to these conventions and meet so many of you. Despite last week's video,
you might be thinking "Evan's never meeting people again." Absolutely not,
like I said
I was so charged with happiness that so many of you came out in droves to support what I was saying in last week's video,
I'm just so excited to meet you all again. Like you know, maybe I'll comment on your shoes, who knows?
Maybe I'll like sign a poster on your face. It started thread
I don't know, but if you want to know what I'm doing at SITC next week
so hopefully we can hang out, here is my schedule up on the screen. Boop. That was the sound effect
right. And if you've ever been to one of these conventions and you agree with me,
or maybe there's something I've left out, some gripe you'd like fixed, please, tell me in the comments below.
Hopefully people from these conventions watch and we can all make our conventions better. It'd be great
But yeah, other than that, hopefully I get to meet you at a convention
Otherwise, if you can't meet me there, meet me every Sunday on this YouTube channel because I make new videos every Sunday
Be sure to subscribe or click that bell to be notified when the new videos come up. Thank you so much for watching
I hope you have a great rest of your week. I'll see you next time. Goodbye