Hey everyone - a couple of weeks ago I went to VidCon - I met some incredible people,
had fun times and have been very inspired to try out new things - but I also had some
mixed feelings on some aspects of VidCon - so hopefully I can share the time I had there
with you!
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Hi everyone!
I'm Inés from Draw Curiosity and right now I'm in Amsterdam and I'm here for VidCon Europe,
I arrived quite late last night - I was a little bit grumpy at the start of the day,
basically I'd spent the past 2-3 weeks just working non-stop on different video projects,
my DPhil, different things I'm applying for - and I was very excited to come and then
it turns out the flight I had was overbooked and I was guaranteed to be on the next flight
but noooo.
And I landed much later in Amsterdam than I was expecting, but, as soon as I met up
with my friend I forgot all about my grumpiness.
I don't like generalising about nations but I swear, I am yet to yet to meet or have a
Dutch friend who is not super friendly and super generous, so everything is good.
In fact, my friend was really kind to set me up in his girlfriend’s apartment which
was very stylish and traditionally Dutch, and also with a handy-dandy Dutch bike, meaning
I got to cycle in every day.
GoogleMaps: "In 400m, turn left onto "Euro-paper-line" (Europaplein)
Now, this was the first VidCon ever held in Europe, and compared to the US edition it
was very small - especially for those with creator badges - which made it very cosy.
Personally, I found the best part of the VidCon programming to be the creator chats, in which
we got to have a round-table discussion with a creator - and in my case I met Shini Somara
- whom I had met before on Simon Clark’s livestream, and Dodie Clark, who is as lovely
in person as she is on YouTube.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the creator keynotes, in which we learnt some valuable messages:
MatPat: "our minds are psychologically primed to actually react more strongly to negativity"
Kati Morton: "and I want you to say five positive things about yourself"
and enjoyed some beautiful performances by creators I knew, and creators that I’ve
just discovered.
The other main portion of programming I attended were the creator panels, and whilst I enjoyed
most of them I did feel they were mostly aimed at people who were starting out their journey
on YouTube.
Now this is fine because I know many people who purchased tickets were in that boat, but
personally I felt I was the wrong target audience.
The session I felt inspired me the most was one on livestreaming.
Fun fact - I’ve been invited to give a guest lecture online in July, and I thought it would
fit perfectly on Draw Curiosity, so I thought it would be a good idea to learn a bit more
first so as not to screw up.
And in a beautiful twist of fate, Shini encouraged me to livestream with her (and Brian) at the
very end of VidCon, so I ended up putting those skills into practice sooner than I expected
- and it mostly went well until the internet cut out and we moved into a hotel lobby where
we were simultaneously trying to recover a livestream whilst also being very tired and
and also meeting Hank Green in person, as you do.
Of course, the best part of VidCon is and will always be the people - I met creators
I’ve known and admired for a while - shoutout to Kati Morton - whom by the way is lovely
and we have actually filmed a video together on the topic of mental health and neuroscience,
Soliloquy - it was great to see you again, Patrick from Name Explain, Jill Bearup, Simon
Clark, Brian from Real Engineering, Shini, Benny the Irish Polyglot, Carrie-Ann Philbin
from GeekGurl Diaries - I know I'm definitely missing people out here... and many wonderful
new creators and people too, Wendover Productions, Real Life Lore, my awesome new producer Dave,
Creative Reindeer, Maddie Moate, Dan Maw.
Also shoutout to Wouter and Brian, both of you told me you'd be coming to VidCon and
you were both absolutely lovely, as well as the other ten-twenty people who recognised
me.
I guess of all places, VidCon is the place I'd expect for that to happen, but I’m still
always surprised that there are people who watch me and actually recognise me - so thanks
for saying hi!
Overall, I did have a lovely time in Amsterdam - but combined with late nights and loooots
of cycling, it was overall quite taxing for me - as VidCon progressed I looked more and
more out of it - so here is my last criticism of VidCon.
It’s all nice and dandy to have reminders that we should eat and look after ourselves
plastered everywhere, and you know, I accept it is definitely our responsibility to take
care of ourselves - but you can’t run an event that people will want to make the most
of given they’ve paid a hefty amount for it, and not have proper food at the venue!
The creator lounge had no food, and the only food stall I found were some *cough*
overpriced hotdogs, and sweets [veggies will starve]...
Given the event runs from 9 till 9, coinciding with most normal food opening hours in the
Netherlands, I would’ve expected the conference to have more in the way of food, or a clear
time slot that was designated for eating.
I'm a Spaniard and I value my lunch breaks, so my suggestion is to shorten inter-panel
breaks from 30 minutes to 20 minutes, and insert an hour and a half break in the middle
of the day so that people can go and eat and network and make friends without missing anything
or starving.
I mean, even Hank was hungry at the end of VidCon.
Hank: "I have food up in my room, and I'm very excited about it because I've only had
a bag of M&Ms today" I definitely did get a bit loopy towards the
end.
Simon: "Inés just decided that we were going to go to a sex show"
But, I did have a good time, and slept very well the following week.
Anyway - thank you so much Amsterdam for a lovely time - and to all of the lovely people
I met there - you were all amazing - and as always, thank you so much for watching me
and I’ll see you in the next one!
Bye!
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