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Disney kicked off its first creator event Created in L.A on Thursday night at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.
Over 350 creators, innovators and industry leaders came together for the first day of a two-day event with
the idea to exchange ideas, build relationships, and explore the future of creator-led storytelling and the business behind it.
Opening the evening was creator, entrepreneur and media personality Jon Youshaei. The event was conceived and hosted by Youshaei, whose career involves leadership roles at YouTube and Instagram, as well as his own success as a creator. He is known for in-depth interviews and behind-the-scenes conversations with creators and entertainers including MrBeast, Mark Rober and Kevin Hart.
Youshaei highlighted the power of the creators in the room, many of whom had traveled from Argentina, Australia, England, Netherlands, Canada, Georgia and Morocco to attend. He also highlighted their social media followings: “The creators at this event have over 800 million subscribers on YouTube, 80 million followers on Instagram and over 350 million followers on TikTok, which altogether makes over 1.6 billion followers combined.”
After sharing a brief history of the theater, Youshaei recounted his pitch to Disney about showcasing the work of creators. He told the audience, “I said, ‘Hey, I have this crazy idea. What if we premiere videos from creators on the big screen? I’m talking about the same videos we usually watch on our phones and our laptops, but have recently gotten so damn good that they deserve to be played in a theater, that deserve to be premiered on a red carpet, that deserve to be celebrated with 350 of the most creative people in the world?’”
The executives at Disney said yes, resulting in the creation of this two-day event, which also includes keynote speakers and conversations.
Dana Walden, president and chief creative officer of the Walt Disney Company, noted how special the theater i s for Disney, having hosted the premieres of iconic films such as “The Lion King,” “The Avengers,” “Frozen,” “Coco” and “Lilo & Stitch.”
She also acknowledged the vital role creators play in Disney’s ecosystem.
“What strikes me about this room is the instinct so many of you have for your audience. You know them intimately. You hear from them constantly, and you adjust in real time based on what they want. And that is very different from the kind of content that we produce.” She elaborated, “It can take years for our films and series to reach their audiences and for you it could be seconds. And there’s something that we can learn from that immediacy, from treating the audience as a true collaborator. My hope for these two days is that we’ll exchange ideas and learn from each other — that some of what makes your storytelling so special rubs off on us, and that some of what we’ve learned about telling stories over many decades will be useful to you.”
Walden concluded by expressing her hope that Created in L.A. would herald the beginning of incredible relationships. “Maybe we can tell some stories together.”
The evening concluded with Youshaei introducing the Golden State Award. The award recognizes strong filmmakers or subscriber count.
The first award went to Lucas and Curtis Nicotra, who go by the name Sticks. Their film “The Technoblade Movie,” premiered alongside Zach King’s parody of “Star Wars,” “Cardboard Strikes Back.” King received the second Golden State Award.
