What You Missed At This Year's VidCon Web Video Conference

Last weekend, the first annual VidCon conference took place in Los Angeles. Created and organized by Vlogbrothers Hank and John Green, VidCon was created to be a celebration of web video, and it seems to have been a great success. With some big announcements from YouTube, to appearances by the biggest names in YouTube, a guy in a tongue suit, and even a ball pit! Read more about what went down last weekend at VidCon after the jump. Before I go into a rundown of the most exciting events and announcements that took place at VidCon, check out Rocketboom's video about the event below. The video includes interviews with Hank and John Green about the inspiration behind VidCon, as well as fans giving their opinions on the conference (or is it a convention?). Also, notice the guy in a tongue suit in the background at the beginning of the video. According to Tubefilter, this guy was dressed as a tongue to promote the Orabrush Tongue Cleaner. I can't decide how I feel about it. YouTube's Big Announcements Although VidCon wasn't organized by YouTube, the video site did make a couple of big announcements. The first news that YouTube announced was their new Partner Grant Program. YouTube's Partner Development Manager, George Strompolos, wrote about the new grant program on the YouTube blog: "The YouTube ecosystem is vibrant and growing fast. We have over 10,000 partners, and 94 of Ad Age's top 100 advertisers have run campaigns on YouTube and the Google Display Network. We've made great progress in the last five years. But we think we can do better. That's why today we are announcing the YouTube Partner Grants program that will invest five million dollars across select new and emerging YouTube partners. Our goal is to catalyze the creation of new ideas and production models from some of our most innovative and original content partners for the benefit and advancement of the entire industry." Eligible partners will be identified based upon their view counts, number of subscribers, growth rate, production expertise, audience engagement and more. Selected partners will have to submit a grant proposal to YouTube, and YouTube will transfer funds to partners that are approved. YouTube also announced that they are now supporting original video resolution all the way up to 4K. Until now, 1080p was the highest resolution offered by YouTube. 4K is the highest quality video resolution available at this time. Uncultured Project Illustrates The Power Of YouTube The Uncultured Project got a standing ovation at VidCon after showing their video 'The Boy Who Lived', in which YouTube 'Nerdfighters' helped to spread the word about damage after a cyclone in Bangladesh and to fund the rebuilding of a school that was destroyed. This video is a great example of just how powerful web video and the YouTube community can be in bringing about social change and making a difference in the world. The Station Plays 'Eenie Meenie Bikini' Live One of the funniest highlights of VidCon was The Station's live performance of their Justin Bieber Parody 'Eenie Meenie Bikini'. The performance included everything from an accordion to a marching band, a bunch of people dancing in gold body suits, John Green in a turkey suit and a guy in an elephant suit. A lot of YouTubers were involved in the 'Eenie Meenie Bikini' project, from Shay Carl to Lisa Nova and more. Lisa Nova, in a VidCon presentation by The Station, emphasized the importance of collaboration on YouTube, saying it is what keeps the site alive. Check out the original 'Eenie Meenie Bikini' video, as well as the VidCon performance below. Don't Forget To Be Awesome (DFTBA) Records DFTBA Records, co-owned by YouTubers Hank Green and Alan Lastufka, is an independent record label for artists that made a name for themselves on YouTube. DFTBA is an "initialism" for "Don't Forget To Be Awesome." At VidCon, Hank Green talked about the phrase "DFTBA", the record company, and sang a song about not forgetting to be awesome. A variety of DFTBA artists also performed at VidCon. The Elevator Announces Final Series, Complete With 3D Fans of the YouTube web series The Elevator had an exciting announcement at VidCon. The show's creator, Woody Tondorf, announced that the final season of the show will begin on October 7. One of the most exciting things about the final season is that select episodes will be in 3D, so get your 3D glasses ready! Check out the trailer for the final season of The Elevator below. Dan Brown Announces Dan 3.0 YouTuber Dan Brown, known for solving a Rubik's cube while jumping on a pogo stick and for creating one of the most complicated interactive YouTube games 'Who Wants to be a YouTubillionaire?', made a big announcement about his upcoming web series, Dan 3.0, at VidCon. The content in Dan 3.0 will be entirely viewer-influenced, with viewers giving suggestions and voting on what Dan will do in each episode. Dan is putting complete control of his life in the hands of his viewers. Beginning on August 2, for one year, Dan will embark on this exciting project, alongside Revision 3. Dan describes the show, and how the suggestion engine will work, in the video below. Dan says that he has absolutely no idea how this project is going to turn out, so we'll just have to wait and see! Nobody was quite sure what to expect from VidCon 2010, as it was the first conference of it's kind, but it looks like it turned out to be a great success. Fans mingled with some of the most popular names in web video, from iJustine to Shay Carl, SxePhil, What the Buck, Lisa Nova, Ze Frank and more; there were some exciting announcements and, as we mentioned before, even a ball pit! We look forward to seeing what VidCon 2011 will have to offer. Did you attend VidCon 2010? What was your favorite part of the event?

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What You Missed At This Year's VidCon Web Video Conference

Megan O'Neill

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Megan O'Neill