YouTube FanFest Mumbai returns to city to connect content creators

It was sometime in 2008 We had been sitting with a bunch of friends at one of their houses A Jethro Tull album was playing on the computer when one of them said that there is a fantastic live version of a particular song Do you guys want to watch it he asked Watch it we thought wondering What does he mean Does he have a CD or something of the live concert And thats when he logged on to YouTube to play the video for the track he was talking about We had only heard about the nascent online platform until then after it had just been launched in India that very year But then what our friend did that evening is without any exaggeration change our worldNow 10 years later YouTube has of course metamorphosed into the sort of corporate giant that shapes content across innumerable platforms And once a year Google which owns the website organises YouTube FanFest in various cities across the world The basis for it is simple Popular content creators mdash or YouTubers mdash are brought within an arms distance from their fans performing live across a range genres be it music comedy or dance And in the process the local and international performers also pick each others brain trying to find avenues where they can collaborate in order to increase their number of followersGlimpses from the Hyderabad edition of the YouTube FanFestTake Collins Key for example A magician who came into the limelight three years ago with Americas Got Talent Key has now evolved into a YouTube star with almost 11 million subscribers Hes in Mumbai at present for the FanFest that will be held in the city this weekend and the Californian says I am excited to join forces with some really big Indian creators around as well as about performing live before 10000 people We have seen an enormous amount of Mumbai in two days while doing some street magic that we plan to build content around I am surprised to see the number of fans I have in IndiaCollins KeyFans he adds are in fact the source of many of his video ideas The shift I made from being just a magician to someone who does other videos as well was primarily fandriven I was constantly asking them what other type of content they would like to see outside of magic And a lot of them said Hey we would love to see you do something with food Or Hey we would love to see you jump into a pool with 1000 worth of slimeThat sort of online engagement will now be played out at a more physical level at the FanFest which will also involve meetandgreet sessions We have something called a Creator Camp too where all the performing artistes give other YouTubers tips on how they can enhance their content Its like a tutorial Raashi Sanghavi one of the organisers informs She adds that one of the biggest challenges was to ensure that the Indian edition of the event matches the standard seen in other places around the world The quality that you have elsewhere is not that easy to find in India And this event is not like one of our indigenous music festivals which is completely our own We have no reference point for them But thats not the case here So meeting those international standards is something we had to constantly think aboutOn March 23 7 pmAt Jio Garden Bandra Kurla ComplexLog on to insiderin to RSVP Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates