HelloWorld took place in Birmingham on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 October 2017, and featured names such as Tyler Oakley, Zoe Sugg, and Alfie Deyes.
TenEighty were lucky enough to go to last year’s event and more recently, we talked to Adam Perry (CEO), Jason Perry (Chief Creative Officer), and Paul Caslin (Creative Director) about their experience and highlights of HelloWorld in 2017.
We also asked them about how they took the feedback from 2017 and what action points the feedback sparked.
Adam Perry said that HelloWorld 2018 “will be an unmissable event with surprising moments created by unique collaborations between our audience’s favourite online creators”.
He added: “For a few days only, HelloWorld will put young people in control as creators bringing to life the real-world experiences they want, how they want them”.
The concept of the event will stay the same and Adam noted that “Main Street will be coming back, but there’ll be a new twist on things.”
“We believe we have the seed of something that will change the events space forever,” the CEO stated.
When asked about their favourite highlights about HelloWorld 2017, Adam said: “I’ve got a lot, but my biggest has to be the Camper Van Entrance.
“From the outset, we wanted our creators to walk up Main Street and separate the crowd, but logistically it never looked possible. However, our amazing event planners managed to pull it off at the last minute and we managed to create a real ‘WTF Moment’ – which is what we all wanted from day one!”
Meanwhile Jason Perry, Chief Creative Officer, said that his favourite moment was KSI‘s entrance: “It was an electrifying moment, watching it up at front of house with the other directors and seeing the reaction of the crowd was a very proud moment.”
Paul Caslin, Creative Director, said: “I think my personal highlight was about 30 minutes before we opened on the first day, we’d worked tirelessly for two days building Main Street with a huge production team and seeing it all come to life after two years of planning felt like a great achievement.”
We brought up some of the concerns of the creators in the YouTube community and the public about Hello World 2017, which accused the event of being “really badly organised”, citing problems with security, poor disabled access, lack of a schedule, and the billed show ending earlier.
TenEighty asked the team how they would address these issues in 2018, and Adam said: “Last year’s event was the first of its kind and, even with the talented team we have behind HelloWorld, there were teething issues.
“For the most part, these were resolved quickly, and the attendees were able to continue enjoying the HelloWorld experience unaffected.”
He continued: “A very small percentage of our audience didn’t have the experience they hoped for and were vocal in expressing that, but a large majority of the 10,000 people that attended HelloWorld 2017 had a great time.
“We have analysed social media sentiment during HelloWorld 2017 and the most common sentiment was joy. We are still receiving messages on our social platforms saying ‘HelloWorld was the best day of my life’ almost six-months later.”
We asked the team if they had any final words for fans who raised issues or were disappointed with HelloWorld 2017 and Adam said they learnt from their first event.
“We listened to all the feedback, we know what worked and therefore we’re in a fantastic position to make 2018 everything our fans loved about HelloWorld, and more.”
The details for HelloWorld 2018 are yet to be released, but Jason said that “our socials will be the best place to find out so keep an eye on them as there will be big announcements very soon”.
“Our plans are hugely exciting, and I can’t wait to start telling everyone about it.” Paul added.
Want More?
Read our recent interview with Jana Hisham, one of last year’s HelloWorld attendees, or read all about Emma Blackery‘s upcoming debut album.
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