We (as in WoodwardEnglish) had the incredible opportunity to be invited to NZCreatorCon 2024, held at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand. This event is the largest social media creator and branded content conference in Australasia, bringing together 250 of New Zealand’s leading creators alongside 250 brands and agencies, providing an ideal space for collaboration and networking within the creator economy.
The event started at 9am with breakfast followed by panels by TikTok and Meta (Facebook/Instagram). As a part of the introduction, an interesting point that was mentioned was that in the room, the creators collectively reached 50 million people with 12 of them reaching over a million. The weird thing (in my mind – you know, imposter syndrome) is that Woodward English was ONE of those twelve creators at the event (We reach well-over 1.3 million across just 3 platforms, without including the millions that visit our websites every month). Funnily, since I rarely appear in the limelight, it was soooo easy to go unnoticed. (Note: after this event, things are going to change for all of our own different brands.)
The TikTok Live Creator Panel included @paakadavis (NZ/AUS TikTok Live Creator of the Year 2023) and @Sebgowerart (who creates paintings LIVE out in nature)
The next session started with Aaron McDonald, CEO of Futureverse, and the current state of AI. Next, Jordan Watson (mostly known as the HowToDad) and Brodie Kane (an award-winning journalist who has been all over TV and Radio and social media and …) did a session about Podcasting and the realities about running your own.
After lunch (thanks to HarbourEats) there was another great session for creators by META (you know, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp).
At the META presentation, Kirsty Wilson (META Partner Manager, ANZ) and Adam Rollo (META Solution Manager) gave a fascination presentation about the ways the Instagram App uses its own algorithm to rank content (yes, including the secret sauce that everyone wants to know).
This was followed by Mike and Joelle Legg talking about their experiences becoming viral on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Oh, I almost forget, they talked about Threads being 1-year old and we got a special cookie to celebrate it. 🙂
After the META session, we all went to a variety of workshops including a TikTok “speed-dating” session, the opportunity to talk 1-on-1 with the Facebook team (as well as try out the META Oculus Quest 3 – which was SOOO much fun), we could do many activities to support Red Nose Day and general networking with other creators, brands and talent agencies.
At 5pm, we were given a Māori welcome and presentation (including Haka) before the Pullman Cocktail Party started.
The food that the five-star Pullman Auckland (Hotel) put on wasn’t just a buffet … it was an amazing work of art. The photos and videos do not do it justice. It is not often that I am impressed by luxury but this was next level.
Of course, there was an open bar, live music and many opportunities to connect with other creators and brands in a very relaxed environment. This was also MY opportunity to get on the 360° video machine (impressively without falling off – ok, it’s the camera that is supposed to move, not you).
Rob’s random thoughts …
It was SO MUCH fun getting to meet people of all walks of life. I was honestly a little hesitant at first due to my own misconception that the event would be filled with “young selfie-taking tiktok girls”. Fortunately, this was not the case and I met sooooo many fascinating people doing amazing things. I didn’t meet a single “I’m too cool for you” person the whole 12 hours I was there and there were some BIG creators. (Did I mention there was even the current Miss NZ there?)
One highlight of the cocktail party was everyone singing (or at least trying to sing) Bohemian Rhapsody at the end of the night. Yes, there is physical evidence of Rob squaking … I mean singing.
Surprisingly, YouTube was nowhere to be found at the event at all. That was a HUGE opportunity that they lost. I personally would have loved to have caught up with them.
I felt I learnt so much during the event and feel VERY inspired to continue with content creating and to finally start some weird projects we have had sitting on the sideline for so long.
For more details about the event, you can visit the official site of NZCreatorCon or just look for the #nzcreatorcon hashtag where you will find loads of videos, photos, 360-thingys and a bit of bad singing.
Thanks to CeraVe Skincare Australia & NZ for being the main sponsor of this event and for allowing me to bring Ange some goodies.
I honestly hope to get invited back again next year and fingers crossed that Ange can come as one of our other online brands.
Ver nuestra versión en español (See our version of this article in Spanish): NZCreatorCon en español
