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VidCon’s new owner says it’s “the Super Bowl for creators,” but doesn’t have concrete plans to pump it up

VidCon’s new owner says it’s “the Super Bowl for creators,” but doesn’t have concrete plans to pump it up

When the Green brothers founded VidCon in 2010, there was no other event like it. Now, the creator industry is a $250 billion business that spans dozens of platforms and monetization machines, with millions of creators making their living from posting content; then, it was a collection of creatives who were doing cool stuff online, with no real expectation that their YouTube videos would turn into a career. VidCon was one of the only places for creators and fans to meet up, and was a hallmark annual social event.

But as our space evolved, more events popped up, most of them (like VidSummit and Creator Economy Live) biz dev-focused and more about getting creators face time with potential management, marketing, and merchandising partners than about arranging fan meet-and-greets.

This has left VidCon in kind of a weird spot, especially after its 2018 sale to Viacom (which later, through a convoluted series of occurrences, became Paramount Global). It tried flexing to embrace the TikTok era, and also experimented with an East Coast expansion that it cancelled after one convention, saying it wanted to “dedicate its full efforts and resources to VidCon’s flagship event in Anaheim.”

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So, what’s the deal? Can VidCon get a refresh?

Its new owner is hoping so.

Last September, Paramount Global sold VidCon to Informa, a London-based company that–through its “Fan Expo HQ” division–runs nearly 20 events, including Toronto Comicon, Megacon, and the Game Developers Conference. While Informa has history in putting on conventions for fan communities, the VidCon acquisition was its first move in the creator industry, and it’s been pretty quiet about its long-term plans thus far.

We still don’t have concrete details, but with VidCon 2025 kicking off a week from today, Fan Expo HQ President Aman Guptatold The Hollywood Reporter his team wants this event to “set the foundation for the future.”

“We have a lot of big, exciting things that we have planned,” he added.

Fan Expo HQ has a high opinion of VidCon; Gupta calls it “the Super Bowl for creators.”

That being said, the 2025 event won’t look too different from past conventions. This year’s VidCon will continue with its usual creator, industry, and community programming tracks, with some special-edition stuff to mark title sponsor YouTube‘s 20th anniversary.

Programming around that will include a creator game show, a live “Roblox Hunt,” and an outdoor experience adjacent to the Anaheim Convention Center. A keynote from YouTube Head of Culture and Trends Kevin Alocca and VP of Creator Products Amjad Hanif will mark 20 years of operation for the internet’s biggest video platform.

VidCon will also introduce a hall of fame that will honor OG YouTubers who shaped our industry before it was an industry. The inaugural inductees are VidCon co-founder Hank Green (curiously absent: his Vlogbrother/fellow co-founder John Green), Rhett & Link, and Grace Helbig. It seems like new inductees will be added each year.

Fan Expo HQ is eyeing other developments for 2026 and beyond, too. Gupta told THR Informa wants to “bring VidCon to the world. What that means is still to be determined, there’s still lots of work to be done in this space.”

VidCon has held a number of international conventions before, in countries and regions like Europe, Australia, Mexico, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi. Many of them seemed to quietly go the way of VidCon Baltimore, but perhaps Informa will reignite them.

Meanwhile, VidCon VP Sarah Tortoreti pushed that VidCon is a biz dev event, and a wellspring of fresh content opportunities for creators.

“We give creators as much flexibility as we can in terms of filming content,” she told THR. “We want that to happen, that’s part of the experience. The creators themselves also come not only to do business, they meet with friends, they meet with sponsors, they meet with the industry executives, because they get business done at VidCon.”

Based on these statements, Informa doesn’t quite know yet what it wants to do with its new acquisition. It wants VidCon to keep being a hub for creators (and to keep making it money), but how can it upscale the convention’s offerings to compare with other events’? And how can it expand VidCon’s presence beyond Anaheim in a way that’s both sustainable and valuable for creators?

Guess we’ll see for VidCon 2026.

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