LIFESTYLE COLUMN: VIDCON 2011

A Convention to Capture the Attention of Tweens Almost as Much as YouTube Itself

By: Ahmed Best

August 3, 2011

Recently it seems everything entertainment-related has a “Con” in its suffix. From the celebrity infiltrated “Comic-Con” (where there are very few comics) to the often-denied “AdultCon” (that I’ve never been to…really), to AhmedBestCon, where one can interact with all things me.  Okay, so the last one doesn’t exist (yet). However, this past weekend, I had the privilege of attending the second annual VidCon at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. I was a bit ashamed that a swinging, hip gad about the Internet town like myself hadn’t heard of VidCon before now. Even with all the time we all spend on the Internet, VidCon is still a relatively unknown convention. It won’t be for long: It will soon be the hottest ticket in the whole “Con” world.

VidCon founders Hank and John Green had always been interested in the online video community. In 2007, they decided to become a part of that community and started their own channel on YouTube (vlogbrothers). The success of the vlogbrothers channel and growing admiration for their subscribers sparked another idea for Hank and John: to get all the online content creators and fans out of their personal basements and hold a convention in a larger, cooler collective basement (and other rooms, of course) at a snazzy location. Thus, VidCon was born to be a raging 'tween success. It is also a great place for those of us interested in trying to learn what this whole online video mishigas is really all about...

There are two tracks to the three-day VidCon extravaganza: the community track and the industry track. Both tracks are huge proponents of YouTube and all things YouTube-related. The ubiquity of YouTube has proven, time and time again, that it is an video entertainment juggernaut online and beyond. There is now an entire class of celebrities that are exclusively YouTube created, nurtured and supported. Directly after a main stage presentation of “New YouTube Tools and You,” led by YouTube's own Thomas Purnell Fisher, I was introduced to Andrew Huang, a “YouTube-er” whose channel (songstowearpantsto) has made him the online video generation’s sound stylist du jour. After a few minutes of the pants-wearing serenade, I suddenly realized that the bar was sounding only a tad sweeter than a two-minute hip hop definition of crunk juice. It’s not that the performance wasn’t inspired; it was the fact that a) I know what crunk juice is; and 2) I realized that this artist's output, much like most of the YouTube celebrities in attendance, wasn’t aimed at my target demographic. The bar was. Also, most of my demographic has no idea about this weekend's events, and therefore, the bar is empty. 

As my second succulent, minty fresh mojito caressed my lips, I began to wonder about my digital existential life. I have a YouTube channel and Facebook page and a Twitter feed and a MySpace profile (yes, I still have a MySpace profile), but I don’t have nearly as much traffic on any of these to put me anywhere near someone like the Gregory Brothers (who were there and rocked the house). It appears that my appeal to the 12-17-year-olds who power online video isn’t as powerful as I thought. I then thought, "Maybe I should start writing songs about black colloquialisms that were used in the '70s and translate them to kid slang of the 21^st century". As you can tell, that mojito was good. But before I could continue careening down the sugar-and-rum highway, I was pleasantly interrupted by one Corey Vidal (no relation -- I asked). Corey is a YouTuber whose channel is partnered with the company, and whose video, Star Wars (John Williams Is The Man) A Cappella Tribute Medley, has scored some 14,828,428 hits. As Corey introduced himself to me, he was prepping for a panel that outlined, for me, what VidCon is.

Corey's panel was led by David MacDonald, head of YouTube operations in Asia. Corey and David were giving tips on how to drive international audiences to your channel. The single most important thing about this panel was what made the purpose of VidCon crystal clear. Online video/YouTube is a video search engine with an emphasis on entertainment. The goal is creating enough data to appear first in search results. If you get in early, you get in easy, and often, you get hits. Those hits may then transfer into subscribers. If you get enough of those subscribers, you can become a partner and then you can start countin’ Benjamins. Notice I said data and not video: Many things drive content to your video. One of the biggest is the ability to make your subscribers feel like they can interact with you. Another is low production value. Yes, low. Subscribers like to believe if you can do it, they can do it too, and that lack of pretentiousness makes them like you more. VidCon exists to share tools, tips, and tricks to manipulate data, get you noticed by subscribers, meet with those like-minded subscriber hunters, and make online video a force in the entertainment world.

From online grown talents Rhett and Link achieving the goal of reaching the big small screen, to Comedy Central’s Tosh.0, whose show is constructed around online video, it’s no secret that for some, online video can sometimes lead to a career in a larger traditional medium. There were so many TV execs in attendance on Thursday’s industry day just hoping to trip over a YouTuber they could turn into a TV star. This gave certain higher-ups in the YouTube offices a bit of flat screen envy. YouTube’s main pitch the entire weekend was the hope of being in control of the largest screen in your house. VidCon and its community would probably beg to differ: This is a generation who has grown up with TV as their secondary entertainment delivery choice. Why sit in front of a passive TV screen when there’s a personal digital entertainment stalker in your pocket alerting you of a new video you can pass around to your network? Companies like Blip.tv and Maker Studios know this: Both have attracted venture capitalists and have imported millions into the online architecture, and are already beginning to mold the next generation of online video celebrities. 

While Hollywood waits and tells you what VidCon is not, VidCon attendees know the online video world has become a brand new model of entertainment. It is a model that is proud not to be TV and it is well on it’s way to being a new billion-dollar industry. VidCon unites a community that’s riding on the back of a young, strong, ferocious dragon, and it’s about to release its first breath o’ flame.

Consider yourself warned and grab some s'mores.

The next VidCon is already booked into the Anaheim Convention Center for July 2012...

Photos by Brian C. Janes