AntSol Travel

Want to be or already a social media sensation, want to fawn over a social media influencer in person, or want to know how your company could work with influencers?  VidCon is for all three categories! Everyone is here to record themselves and post about it online, however, I am still a bit camera shy and just did photos with captions. 

 VidCon is a fan convention/industry conference, originally started in 2010 by YouTube Creators, John & Hank Green at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles in 2010 & 2011 as a way to show that being a content creator can be a full-time career and show how creators, their community, and the media industry of navigating this new industry. Then the show moved to the Anaheim Convention Center in 2021. The show has grown a lot over the years and the Greens sold ownership of the show in 2018 to Paramount Studios, which now has shows in Abu Dhabi, Baltimore, Mexico, and Sao Paulo.

 In 2022, it was the first year after the 2020 closures. It was much smaller than previous years, with smaller scaled sessions and an expo hall, I went to and posted as my fourth video on AntSol Travel. Registration was in Hall D of the Anaheim Convention Center and needed proof of vaccination for COVID-19 or a test. In the exhibit hall, large content creators such as Odd 1’s Out & Gaming Grumps,  & companies who you sponsor or feature creators such as Fall Guys video game, and companies whose equipment would be used by creators & industry people such as Blackmagic Design’s cinematic cameras & they’re free to use video editor, Davinci Resolve, which I use to produce my videos. Davinci is free as costs are subsidized by their cameras for the industry people and their industry-level paid tier of the software. You can probably tell, I spent the most time there since I eventually want to get used to versions of their cinematic camera, and they even have classes on their cameras and software. 

There are three different pass types, community: the fan base for content creators, creators: people who create online content, and the industry: learning how companies can work with content creators. 

For 2023 VidCon was from Thursday, June 21 to Saturday 24th, 2023. Passes for community track for access to the exhibit hall & community panel and events, with four days at $169 or just Saturday or Sunday at $85. The creator tier is $249, with community-level events, along with exclusive creator networking & events, panels oriented for creators, and even pair up with a mentor. The industry level is $999 and get industry-oriented sessions on working with creators & their community, workshops, and networking. You can also get online access to streams of the panels & workshops for $199. I could register for the creator track, however, I am working all but three days of VidCon, with Wednesday being the only full day. I would casually go after work on the other days as I finished my work day at 3 pm. 

For 2023, it is planned to be much bigger and better than last year, with 2022 being the first VidCon after the 2020 closures. This year, badge registration was at the Anaheim Convention Center’s north hall. To get there from the Anaheim Marriott where I parked, I went down Hotel Way from the traffic circle, turn left on Katella, and keep going past the convention center I got there at noon and the line did not start moving until 12:30 pm. North Hall is badge pick up for community, creator, and industry tracks, along with a chaperone lounge as well, away from the busyness of the exhibit hall & outdoor concerts. The Anaheim Marriott is for After winding through the huge line, I scanned my ticket and got my badge, a total of an hour & fifteen minutes. You get a VidCon program, a month’s trial of the Paramont+ streaming service, a name badge to write your name with a permanent marker, and an RFID band that you need to tap in & out when going out of the VidCon area.  

After exiting the North Hall, I checked the program and there wasn’t any panel or open exhibit hall, however, everything else would be at the following three days. At least there are the food trucks, don’t forget to eat & drink water during conventions like this since you can easily lose track of time.   

Food trucks are by the Food Truck Smackdown food truck network. The trucks there are similar to the ones at WonderCon, you can see them with the link here https://www.comic-con.org/wca/food-trucks Entree costs are roughly $15 to $20 for most trucks. The Italian Ice I got was $8. The Convention Center concession stands for coffee is EcoGrounds coffee at the exhibit halls, coffee is roughly $3.50, and pastries are about $5. The main convention center food courts are in the exhibit halls as well with hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, pretzels, and premade sandwiches. Most entrees are $15, and drinks are about $7 at most. These are rough estimates since I already left for the day.