The Basics: The organizers of VidCon—a ViacomCBS-owned convention for fans, creators, and brands in the online video space—knew they didn’t want to take a year off when the annual 75,000-attendee convention in Anaheim, Calif., was canceled. Instead, they created VidCon Now, a free series of online programming that launched on June 20 and ran through the summer. The ambitious undertaking featured a mix of virtual concerts, panels, meet-and-greets, networking opportunities, and much more.
Steal-Worthy Innovations: Organizers made two big changes from the in-person event: All programming was free, and it was stretched over a few months rather than one long weekend. Sessions took place Tuesday through Saturday, with new speakers and programming being announced every two weeks. Part of this strategy was realizing that VidCon is essentially three events in one, with different tracks for industry professionals, creators, and fans. Stretching the convention out allowed a few components for each audience each week, both to avoid the idea of “Zoom fatigue” and to keep excitement and engagement going longer.
Spreading the event out all summer also allowed the production team to learn as they go—and to vary the types of experiences offered. To accomplish all of this, the team quickly realized that just one virtual platform would not accomplish everything they needed, so they decided to mix and match. Zoom was used to produce some panels, fireside chats, and Q&As, and then was incorporated into interactive video platform Maestro. For workshops, the team used a platform called Shindig that allowed audience members to be pulled “on stage.” Larger concerts used cloud-based system Stage TEN, while virtual event company Icebreaker facilitated networking sessions and Chatalyze recreated meet-and-greets with creators. Discord was used for text-based discussions and community building.
Lessons Learned: Recognize that you can’t recreate everything in a virtual environment—and that’s okay, explained VidCon general manager Jim Louderback, who noted that the digital version was missing the convention’s photo op-heavy expo hall. He is optimistic that VidCon 2021 will take place in person—but acknowledges that many of these digital components will still be in place to accommodate guests who can’t travel. “There’s really this mindset of, ‘Let’s not just go away and sit in the corner for a year, and then come back and do what we’ve always done,’” he said. “Let’s build new ways of thinking about how we engage people, and the reasons why people came face-to-face in the first place.”
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