TwitchCon 2017 Wrap Up

Written by Deyvid Holquinn

Twitch, the popular website platform for live streaming, recently held their third annual convention, TwitchCon at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center. Trek Radio’s Deyvid was on location representing the station and exploring TwitchCon for the first time.

Initially launched as a platform for streaming video games, Twitch expanded to include categories for Creative Arts, Cooking and Food, and most recently, the IRL (“In Real Life”) category which focuses on general everyday content. This diversity of content was represented in the variety of activities and content presented at TwitchCon.

The main Expo Hall floor contained a mix of the activities found on Twitch. On-stage panels presented discussions about streaming such as what it takes to become a streamer, improving content, branding your channel, and more with popular streamers sharing their experiences and Twitch staff discussing the business side of streaming. The TwitchCon Esports Stage held several gaming tournaments with all the laser lights and spectacle of a rock concert. The Twitch Arcade offered attendees the opportunity to play classic stand-up arcade games including Donkey Kong, Centipede, Ms. Pac-Man, as well as popular pinball machines like Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Batman, and more. The Tabletop area brought attendees together to play classic and current tabletop games from traditional board games to pen-and-paper dice-rolling role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The Creative Corner featured several rows of booths for artists to display and sell their art, similar to the Artist Alley of other conventions. Vendors on the Expo Hall floor also promoted the latest technologies and equipment needed to stream high quality content.

While streamers use the IRL category to share their escapades out and about around town, or just to sit and chit chat with viewers, there are companies and organizations streaming in the IRL category like The Pet Collective which streams cute animal videos 24/7 on Twitch, with special live programming Monday through Thursday. The Pet Collective had a booth in a side room featuring actual live animals in an educational exhibit including a hedgehog, a snake, a tarantula and an alligator.

Like many pop culture conventions, TwitchCon offered attendees a wide variety of activities to enjoy solo and with friends, but also served as a great source for networking and learning the business of streaming entertainment content as an individual and as an organization. We look forward to growing our own Twitch channel and increasing our presence at next year’s TwitchCon.

Deyvid was able to conduct several interviews which will be added to this page soon. Check back for more coverage of TwitchCon 2017.

Did you attend TwitchCon? Did you take a photo with the Klingon at TwitchCon? Let us know in the comments below.

by Deyvid