Hosting the greatest events in the creator economy ft. Jacques Keyser

Jacques Keyser (0:00)

I deeply believe IRL events are going to become must haves, not nice to haves. With AI, the need for people to meet in real life is going to come more apparent, which is something that I certainly didn't see coming 10 years ago. As much as the creator economy doesn't feel that new, we are so early doors into this world.

SPEAKER_2 (0:27)

Today, we're speaking with Jacques Keyser, Programming Director at VidCon. Jacques is an expert in throwing events. He and I both believe that events are extremely important to the present and future of the creator economy. I asked Jacques a lot about VidCon and what it's taught him about the creator economy, as well as how to throw a great event. So enjoy.

You and I would both agree that for all types of media businesses, creators and traditional media businesses, events are more important than ever. I'm currently planning an event that, unless our publishing schedule changes, should be happening a week after this comes out in early October with a great partner in 11 labs. And it's going to be around 100 people. I would like some advice in planning this event. And I'm sure that anybody listening probably is thinking about what can they do with events this year too, right? Probably, let's say, anywhere from a few dozen up to a couple hundred people, I'd say is the range we're talking in. It's a much smaller scale than VidCon, but I want to learn from your experience. So I guess to start, what are the outcomes that somebody planning an event of a few dozen to a couple of hundred people should be focusing on?

Jacques Keyser (1:38)

The things that I have seen that that kind of really resonate with audiences, it's like, or what they care about is who's in the room, who can they meet and chat with?

So that's one thing, it's like, who's in the room? I think a big thing that people think matters, that doesn't matter as much as you think, is like, how does the room look like? How does the stage look like?

SPEAKER_2 (2:04)

Yeah.

Jacques Keyser (2:04)

Do you know what cool things are around? It's like, sure.

The most important thing is it's like, who are the people on stage speaking? What are the topics they are talking around? And who else is in the audience itself? Those are things that I think are really important, and curating that where possible.

And then just the fun element, how fun is it? All the events that I have been to, it's like the things that really stand out to me was almost what happens off the stage, what happens between the sessions. The sessions are great, but it's everything, it's almost like the reverse is a programmer. It's like, yes, you program what's on stage, but it's like, how can you curate the event of what happens in that 30 minutes between? Yeah, exactly. And I think that's the thing that a lot of people don't even necessarily think about, never mind curate. And I think the events that kind of stand out to me personally are the ones that think about that side of things. It's everything in between.

SPEAKER_2 (3:17)

Yeah, I mean, candidly, when I've gone to events, I typically, I'll make a list of like, oh, these are the things I think would be interesting to go to, these are the things I think I want to hear about. And then I end up going to maybe 60% of them and instead spending time talking to people I've met, right? That's kind of the most important thing.

Question about where people will waste the most money and time. I think the answer to both of those is what you just said, worrying too much about the design of the space and the room and the stage and all that. Besides that, these can be two separate things or the same thing. Where do you think people are typically going to fall into the trap of wasting the most time and the most money?

Jacques Keyser (3:57)

Honestly, I think for me as a programmer, I think it is that it's the optics rather than the tech. And it's something that I, again, check myself with every year. If I had an unlimited budget to run events, I would make the stage look amazing. It would have all the lighting. It would just look amazing. But actually, when I strip that all back, it's like the thing people really, people don't care about how the stage looked like. They care about, was the content good? And I think if you nail that bit, the rest is kind of fluff that people forget about. I would also say then on the other side of that, it's like looking from a speaker coming to the event. It's like spending your money on how can you make their experience good in terms of staging.