15 49.0138 8.38624 arrow 0 both 1 3000 1 0 horizontal https://teneightymagazine.com 300 4000

Niche’s #CreatorDay at Twitter UK: Recap

By Poppy Dillon

#CreatorDay took place on 25 February at Twitter HQ in London.

The event, hosted by Niche, included discussions on the value of live broadcasting, how to sustain a career online, and retaining your creative integrity when working with brands. The audience was comprised of a whole range of different online creators, spanning platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.

We were there on the (pink!) carpet to welcome the creators as they arrived. Check out our snaps of Joe Tasker, Simone Partner, Ryan Doon, and Ben Towers:

Digital hosts Lucy and Lydia Connell were also at Twitter HQ for #CreatorDay, keeping everyone updated on the day over on the @TwitterUK handle:

The day kicked off with a talk from Helen Lawrence, Head of Creative Agency Development at Twitter, about what the platform is good for, and what a great brand campaign looks like.

“Twitter gives you this lens of what is going on right now in the world, and there’s no other platform that can really do that,” she said, sharing that her proudest moment working for Twitter was the day of the Women’s March. 

Photo by Jon D Barker

Helen emphasised that brands that have social purpose are most successful on the platform, saying: “If you can work with brands who have got that at the heart or if you can help a brand to actually find their social purpose, that content will do so, so well on Twitter. Especially at the moment, while the world is literally just tumbling into this dark abyss, if you can be that little light that’s touching people in it I think that’s a really important thing.”

Following this was a talk from Dennis Todisco, Head of Niche Community, who’d flown in from the US to talk about how to make impactful content that resonates with your brand.

Dennis revealed that he’d always been passionate about the culture around sneakers and clothes, and five years ago he pioneered the concept of “outfit grids”, an idea similar to one used by Kate La Vie in a Niche-led brand deal to promote HP’s Sprocket. “It really just sparked with a simple hashtag, and a simple way to celebrate this culture,” he said. “I just wanted to amplify the thing that I loved, the thing I was passionate about.

Photo by Jon D Barker

“Authenticity powers creativity,” he added. “[Even] with things that I’ve done, I’ve had brands that I don’t believe in hit me up and be like, ‘hey, we have crazy money, we wanna do this’, but the brand obviously doesn’t fit my scope of what I feel is true to that culture. I would say continue to do that, continue to focus on what you believe in, and you guys will continue to kill it.”

The first panel of the day featured Hazel Hayes, Oli White, David Vujanic, and Maya Jama. These creators covered a broad range of subjects from creative integrity and how to build and sustain your career online, right through to the responsibility creators have both to tackle tough issues on their platform and when it comes to offering advice to viewers.

Hazel was asked about the difference between success and achievement, to which she answered: “Success is whatever you define as success. I mean, for some people it might be, ‘I want to get to one or two million subscribers on YouTube’. For some people it might be, ‘I want to get enough of an audience to be taken seriously by a music label or a production company’. So everyone’s definition of success is different, for a start.”

In a discussion about brand deals and how to decide whether to say yes, Oli’s advice was always to go with your gut: “You don’t want to do something for the sake of it. I always try and look at something and I think firstly, do I love what I’m going to do?”

Read our full recap here.

Between panels, there was plenty of time for everyone to mingle, network, and even play the odd game of table tennis. Here’s Jeremiah Emmanuel playing a particularly intense round.

Photo by Jon D Barker

In the afternoon, we caught #CreatorDay latecomers Calum McSwiggan and Roland West being ridiculously cute, as always!

We also spotted CheekyHoussein and Amelia Gething showing off their dance moves (is that dabbing we see, Amelia?)

Next up was a discussion on “Mastering the Live stream”, and Twitter’s Will Hardy brought Niki and Sammy Albon, Josh Pieters, and Joana Jamil up to share their advice. 

The panel covered everything you’d want to know about live streaming, including the pros and cons of different platforms, what makes a great live stream, and the creative opportunities the format presents. Look out for our next Creator Hub article, where we’ll be sharing some of their tips!

Photo by Jon D Barker

Niki said that one of the best live streams he’d seen recently was one that Lucy and Lydia put out on Instagram. “I was like, this is really interesting to watch because if I was a fan, I would like to see that side of you where you’re being candid with each other.”

Josh went on to sum it up by saying: “If you think about ten years ago, people following people that they were interested in kind of got the odd news story, or something in a magazine, whereas now you can see what someone’s doing in that moment, and I think […] we haven’t even realised how powerful that is yet.”

During the panel, Will even gave Josh an idea for a Periscope stream, in which his actions are dictated by comments from fans. We expect to see this soon, Josh!

For the final panel of the day. Joivan Wade, Percelle Ascott, and Dee Kaate, collectively known as Mandem on the Wall, discussed their career on both online and traditional platforms.

Photo by Jon D Barker

The group described their journey from YouTube to television, radio, and film, as well as why they decided to return to online channels and set up their own platform – The Wall of Comedy – to spotlight new and emerging creators in comedy.

“All we want to do as creators is produce high-quality content and be paid for it, and TV is an avenue which gives us a platform to do that,” Joivan explained. “But now, with online and the way things are going streaming-wise, you don’t need TV, and we realised that, so we started to put our projects online and just really champion that.”

You can read our full write-up of the panel here.

The day concluded with plentiful prosecco and beautiful acoustic performance by Samantha Harvey and Doug Armstrong.

The audience (especially Niki and Lucy) were completely entranced by the music.

Photo by Jon D Barker

Thankfully, Samantha streamed the full set on Periscope so you can see the magical performance for yourself!

So, there you have it! From advice about live streaming and brand deals, to how you can keep a career online and keep your authenticity, #CreatorDay really did have it all.

Take a look at our highlights below to see more of what went down on the day.

Photos by Jon D Barker.

Want more?

Check out more of our #CreatorDay coverage, or find out more about Niche:

For updates follow @TenEightyUK on Twitter or like TenEighty UK on Facebook.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Published 27 February 2017.

About Poppy Dillon
@__poppydillon
View All Posts by Author
Connie Glynn: Unapologetically Pink
Oona King Advocates for Better Diversity in Advertising
28 December 2023
LiveMe’s Conan Zhang and Ellen Liu Discuss App, Live Streaming
22 April 2020
Buffer Festival Signs Multi-Year Deal with FAN EXPO Canada
14 April 2020
Here’s What We Know About Social in the City and TokFest 2020

Random Posts

22 October 2014
Jim Chapman To Judge Tesco Mobile Competition
23 February 2019
Representation Matters Panel at VidCon London 2019
11 April 2017
YouTube Creators Form Rebel FC Football Team
27 May 2020
Video Spotlight: Never Good Enough