To preface this post, I have done a lot of talking on my blog about how much I enjoyed Vidcon this year. THAT FACT STILL STANDS! I loved meeting new people and creators, and as this was my first convention of this type, it was an incredible experience that I will never forget, that being said, the convention itself had a lot of issues that I want to address and I want to make it very clear where I stand on certain topics. On that note I highly encourage you to go watch Mogswamp’s video on this topic on his second channel called Moreswamp. It is a wonderful video and he covers many of the topics I will say here as well as giving the important perspective of both a creator and someone who has been to both past Vidcons and other conventions such as twitchcon.

To start I want to say that I was extremely disappointed this year in the fact that THE ONLY SPONSER OF THE WHOLE CONVENTION WAS AI!!! The lanyards as well as so much of the signage outside the convention hall and many of the booths inside the hall was AI advertisement and products. I find this incredibly disappointing as the entire point of this convention is to see the REAL PEOPLE behind the art form that is content creation. I also was disappointed in the fact that so many of the booths had seemingly nothing to do with the convention, now while this could obviously be incorrect as I do not know everything it made it feel as though the convention was more about corporations and businesses rather than the content creators and their fans. Along with that it felt like there was no thought put into the wellbeing or backgrounds of the content creators they invited or the material given to them at the convention (such as the stage set ups and seating for fans at performances and live events). My main point in that regard is lifesteal. Last year the lifesteal panel was one of (if not the) biggest panel at the convention. So many people showed up that the around 1k seats as well as standing areas where filled to see them. This year they had a live game. There was a tiny stage and it was hosted in the game zone. In the game zone there where around 60 TOTAL seats and the entire time there where people in the back playing the game set up. There was not nearly enough space not to mention that they got NO TECH SUPPORT FROM CONVENTION STAFF. In the beginning their Minecrafts where not working and they had to trouble shoot it themselves while actively trying to keep the crowd entertained with not a single Vidcon employee in sight. I personally feel that given the right materials and support, it could have been a truly incredible experience for everyone involved but it feels like because of how much of a mess it was they where not able to live up to their full potential which was, admittedly, disappointing. I was also disappointed in the way many creators where treated, being in the same lines for registration as fans leading to what felt like impromptu meet and greets that creators did not sign up for, the amount of harassment many creators faced from fans, and the fact that there was not much set up for creators so actually do, which Tubbo brought up during a live stream.

many people also have been bringing up the poor amount of advertisement for the convention itself. While this was not an issue for me as I began planing my trip for this convention over 9 months ago, many people have said that they had no idea it was happening until it had already begun or in some cases, it was already over. Along with that many of the meet and greets for creators where ether poorly advertised or poorly picked as many creators ended up with very few people (sometimes as low as 2 or 3) show up to their 2 and a half hour meet and greets.

one of the big things that I did in preparation for Vidcon this year was I made an individualized gift for each lifesteal member. There where 72 of them and the reason I made one for everyone and not just the people coming to Vidcon was because I made them over spring break which was the last time I had access to all my craft supplies, and at that time, who would be at Vidcon wasn’t announced yet, so I just made one for everyone. what the gifts where where little hear shaped bottles filled with red resin (I don’t have a pic but here are the bottles on Amazon)

(They may not have been these exactly but close enough)

on top of each bottle was a small leather name plate with a hand stitched red border. Each name plate had the name of a lifesteal member laser engraved on it.

This took an absurd amount of time and the stitches practically killed my hands but it was all worth it. Because there where so many when I got to Vidcon I knew I wouldn’t be able to give them to people individually, it just wasn’t realistic, so soon after I arrived I went to the lifesteal booth and gave the entire bag to the people at the booth at that moment (mapic, pofa, bacon, and jepex) and asked them to hand them out to people. Because of this I didn’t get to see many people’s reactions but the reactions I got from those 4, they made all those hours of work worth it. I was so worried that they wouldn’t like it or it wouldn’t be unique enough but the 4 of them where so impressed and it was so amazing! They promised to hand out the rest of them to everyone and I was so happy. After that every time I meet someone I told them to grab the bottle from under the table on the right of the booth, which was where they where placed. I later talked to one of the staff members at the booth ( I know he was in white but I never got his name, I’m so sorry bro) and he promised me that even though not everyone had been given theirs as of the last day of the convention, he promised he would bring them to the lifesteal dinner and hand them out, so big shout out to that dude, you are the best. I spent so many hours on these gifts and was so worried about them but it was all so,so very worth it and the few reactions I did get made my year! I really hope everyone got theirs and loved them as much as I did!

the second meet and greet I did was Tubbo. I, not wanting to make the same mistake as the night before, showed up at around 7:30 for the 10am start time. When I first got there we were sent to hall E where registration was. We were not allowed in the convention center as it didn’t open till 9. In the front half of hall E was registration but the entire back half was for lines. There were strips on the ground for people to line up between. The lines where set up the same as the meet and greet from the night before, you would start the line in the first slot and when that slot filled up you would move to the second slot and so on. I was in the back of the first slot when I got there. I sat there and read (big shout out to the inheritance game books, I read so many of them during the convention) and sat for about an hour before a staff member came in and told us that anyone that had an event between 9 and 10 should follow him. Originally I didn’t follow him as the meet and greet started at 10 but the gentleman behind us told us to follow in and run because the line didn’t translate over, so we did. We moved back outside and went across the outside area where we lined up outside to go through a metal detector to get inside. Me and my dad both went through, he got flagged as he had a work bag with him but I didn’t so I booked it to the meet and greet section. When I got there a guy scanned my QR code and I got in lane 3, which was the Tubbo lane. The friend I made the day before joined me in line and we were 8th, which was huge, it took half an hour until we where let into the hall and another hour before Tubbo came out. I got Tubbo to sign my lanyard and it was really cool to meet him. While he was signing it he apologized for his signature being bad but as I told him, I had seen some pretty shit signatures in those few days and in the grand scheme of things, his really wasn’t that bad. I loved meeting him and we had a lovely conversation. Tubbo was one of the people I was most excited to see and it was incredible! I realize now that I probably spent the same amount of time waiting in the line getting there early as not, but that’s ok, I had nothing better to do in the mornings and I enjoyed hanging out while in the lines. All and all, it was pretty great!

the first meet and greet I did at Vidcon this year was with shut up I’m talking (tommyinnit and jack manifold, I don’t think they have tumblrs but if they do someone please tag them). When I arrived at Vidcon I released I didn’t have a marker for people to sign stuff with so I may or may not have stolen one from the area with the big sheet of Vidcon paper. I waited in line for these 2 for probably 3 hours and I was really close to the front! The lines before entering the hall was a mess but they fixed it up a bit over the next few days. Once we got into the hall I was in the front section middle of the second line (for people who don’t know what I am talking about that is quite close to the front). The meet and greet started at 5 but lines started at around 3:30 ( at least that is when I got in line) and I ended up in the front at around 7 (the meet and greet ended at 7:30 I have genuinely no clue if they actually got to everyone or had to turn people away). During the last few minutes that I was in the line I started to talk to the people behind me and we really hit it off. We actually ended up meeting up for the tubbo meet and greet and hung out a lot over the next few days. When it was my turn I don’t went up and asked them to sign my lanyard. Jack was already holding a pen so I gave tom mine to use to speed it up. Tom then asked me if he could keep the pen, I told him, “well I stole it from Vidcon so you can donate it back if you want”. I let him keep the pen we took a picture and that was that. Telling that story to my dad later that night he was very upset he gave away the sharpie that we stole but I told him of course I gave it to tom when he asked, it’s Tommy, he gets what he wants and I sure as hell wasn’t saying no to him, hell if he had asked to keep my jacket that I spent hours on I would have gave it to him, because he is tommyinnit and I was going to give him whatever he wanted out of me. It was such a funny experience and I really loved meeting the 2 of them.

One of the best moments for me from Vidcon this year was when I met the lovely @aimseytv. I arrived at the convention center at 7:20 for the 10 am meet and greet and ended up being first in line which was so exciting! When I went up I gave Aimsey a hug and we started talking. About a minute into our conversation she asked where my hat was from. I told her that it was a Swansea city hat. I fully expected her to have no clue what this team was as we are not in the main league and not very well known. To my complete and utter surprise she told me she was born and raised in Swansea. I DID NOT KNOW THIS! I HAVE NO CLUE HOW I DID NOT KNOW THIS! I was so excited and immediately started to freak out. After calming down and talking about the team for a few more minutes we took a picture and I had her sign my lanyard. Aimsey is genuinely one of the sweetest people in the world and the fact that we connected over the soccer team I love so dearly made for such an incredible memory that I will remember for the rest of my life! Thank you so much Aimsey and go Swans!

Day one! BloodyMary

Day 2 Hazbin hotel and Resident Evil!

I have one with pangi too but I look really bad in it