VidCon London 2019

It's been a crazy weekend, embracing all things YouTube, listening to some of my favourite creators and having a whole lot of laughs. Many of these moments were captured in my vlog which you can see here or below but there were several things I didn't show or mention...

VidCon London was held in the Excel Centre for its first year in the UK. Compared to the first VidCon in Amsterdam in 2017, it was a little bigger but still on the small side. Offering a range of creator and community events, it seemed relatively balanced although, as it grows I think it would be good to offer more panel-like opportunities for creators as some of the creator options felt a little repetitive. The weekend provided a lot of chances to network with other creators and had a number of creator chats available by lottery which if you managed to go to, were very worthwhile and interesting experiences.

Highlights

Creator chat with Mark Ferris- An obvious favourite as I love his videos and I always thought he came across really well and as someone I'd love to talk to, so to have the opportunity to do this was amazing. He was as lovely, bubbly and funny as I expected which made the chat a really memorable experience. We got the opportunity to not only ask questions about his YouTube experience but also to chat with the other creators in the room who all had different channels and experiences so it made for an interesting discussion as well as allowing me to find new channels to check out and subscribe to. Overall, it was quite a relaxed and enjoyable time and was lovely to speak to him in person as well as hearing from his manager who seemed equally as bubbly and lovely!

Panels- There were several notable panels from the weekend, many I loved for different reasons. Boss Women Who Kick Ass Panel was an uplifting, funny and fairly educational chat. I learnt a lot from the panellists- Saffron Barker, Hannah Witton, Elle Mills and Hazel Hayes. Hazel made me laugh a lot especially when conversing with Hannah... they seemed to bounce off each other and show different experiences and attitudes really well.
My Online Life vs My Offline Life was an interesting panel although it wasn't the most useful one I went to. What I enjoyed most was seeing Kian and JC interact with each other, the panel in general and the audience. I've enjoyed watching their videos for a long time so it was cool to be able to see them in real life especially as they seemed to act in more or less the same way as in their videos. It made a nice bonus when Kian joined despite not being on the original line up.
Let's Talk Mental Health was one I most looked forward to as someone interested in mental health and actually creating a mental health magazine for my final project at university this year. I also love Gabbie Hanna and so was happy to see her on the lineup for this. The chat was very informal and didn't provide as much information as I expected but it did discuss the experiences and opinions of the panellists which was intriguing and also made me laugh a lot so thank you TomSka!
Laugh it up didn't offer the amount of humour and laughs that I expected and in fact I really didn't find Life of Boris funny at all although he seemed to get a lot of laughs from the other panellists and audience members. What I did enjoy about this panel was Jack Howard's questions, he made a point of recognising the lack of women on the panel and addressed the issue, wondering if they could have done more to offer more diversity.

Gabbie Hanna's performance- In the closing show, there were a number of enjoyable performances and games to watch but the highlight for me had to be Gabbie singing Medicate. As mentioned before, I'm a big fan of her videos and incidentally, her poetry and music. Medicate is the latest of her songs, all of which I loved so I had been hoping all weekend that I would get the opportunity to see her perform this live. She did not disappoint as her vocals and overall performance were amazing. She also ended with a rap (I think this is what you would call it?!) which was very powerful, deep and emotional, it definitely took me aback.

Jack and Dean presenting- The hilarious duo never disappoint and as they presented the opening show, the laughter seemed to pour out of me. They bounce off each other so well and even react to the things on stage and in the audience in a very humorous manner. All in all, it added to the show and rivalled Rhett and Link's entertainment and humour factors.

Creator networking- Saturday afternoon/evening offered the chance for creators to network and even offered drinks and snacks. Although I didn't quite do what it was designed for, it was an enjoyable experience and offered me the chance to talk to some of the creators I watch who I happened to bump into. It was slightly awkward as I felt weird approaching a group especially within the creator area and so made eye contact a few times before approaching but when we did go up to them, it was lovely to have a chat. Molly (Beauty Spectrum) was the one I spoke to the most and enjoyed chatting to about VidCon and how our experiences had been but Hannah (Fabulous Hannah) was also great to talk to, although I didn't end up talking to her as much.

The expo hall was fun but I found there wasn't as much to do in there as it first appears. It looks full and exciting and does offer fun opportunities but for the most part, is just a place to sell and buy and in future, I think it would benefit from more games or fun activities!

Did you go to VidCon? What did you think? I'd love to hear about your experience and thoughts in the comments. If you enjoyed this post and want to see more from me, you can follow my social media links in the top right-hand corner or subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

Love, Steph x