The Goldenhour Conference Was Good: Here's How it Can Be Great

AKA, I went to an in-person conference called Goldenhour and it was a good time. If you like being around other creative people in the B2B world, you should go. Here's what I'd like to see next time:

I work at home. It’s great, but it also isn’t. I love being able to avoid a daily commute, control my environment how I see fit, and take concentration breaks at my leisure. The dislike I have with it is pretty singular: I don’t interact with that many people.

When I first heard about Goldenhour, an in-person conference sponsored by AudiencePlus, I felt the need to push myself to go. I’m glad I did, and if you work for AudiencePlus and are looking for support on hosting future events: you have mine. I’ll be back next year if I can manage it. For a first-time event, it went as well as one could expect. However, I haven’t been able to shake the feeling of what was missing. I believe if it is addressed, there’s potential for this event to be even better than it was.

(These thoughts are my thoughts alone and do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of my employer, Paddle)

Look at that joy

OG YouTube

I’m by no means one of the first YouTubers, but I have been contributing to the platform since I was in middle school (2006ish). I’ve made sketches, vlogged, and now I make video essays about things like hot-dogs. I’ve had more failed channel ideas than candles on my birthday cake. I also had the fortune of attending Vidcon’s second ever conference.

I went to Vidcon three consecutive years, 2011, 2012, and 2013. I saw the transformation from a smaller intimate experience to the massive convention it’s evolved into. I was just as much an introvert then as I am now. My parents encouraged me to go under the stipulation that I treat it like a networking event. I’m grateful they pushed me to get me out of my shell.

I made videos with my friends but for the most part, I would make videos in my room by myself. I’m pretty much still doing that, to tell you the truth… Going to Vidcon was an opportunity to network, yes, but also an opportunity to do something much more transformative:

Collaborate

In the almost 20 years of making videos on the internet, no advice has permeated more than this. “If you want to grow your YouTube/Vine/TikTok, you have to collaborate with others.” Each time I got a shoutout or made something with someone else, my audience grew every so slightly. At Vidcon 2012 I made a video* with folks I met online…

*If you really want to find this video, I’m sure you can. It’s too cringe for me to unearth myself.

But the coolest thing I got to do was attend a panel with two, at the time, major YouTubers (Joe Nation and Ethan Newberry) and make a video with them. The premise of the talk was that we would write, film, and edit a video in one hour. It wasn’t anything crazy cool, but if you’d like to see an 18 year old Benny Boy, I found the video (look for the picnic table blue shirt).

Was this video good? Debatable. If anything, it’s a time-capsule of 2010s fashion. It’s also a cool archive for me to reflect on and see where I came from. But the experience was unforgettable. It’s an impossible task to make something good with a hundred people and not a lot of time and yet we managed to pull it off.

While this experience was lead by Joe and Ethan, I felt an ownership over being a contributing piece to a greater whole. They had the resources to make videos with other large creators any time, but they didn’t have regular access to a room full of willing participants. In a way, we all needed each other to make the video happen.

I got to see how these guys made videos. I got to see that it wasn’t too different than my approach and figure out where I could make improvements and get rid of inefficiencies. It was a lesson in doing, not in listening to a lecture with a selection of interesting slides.

Check out the behind the scenes video here to see how it went down:

A Golden Opportunity

Goldenhour is not a creator economy conference. I recognize that the attendees of Vidcon 2012 and Goldenhour 2024 are not the same demographic. I’m not even the same person I was in 2012 and I attended both. I gather that the audience is more akin to be a marketing leader than an individual who is in the weeds creating like myself. Like I mentioned at the top, I will go back next year if they’ll have me. I met folks I didn’t plan on meeting and I connected with individuals I only knew from the other side of my computer screen. (James Carbary and I had a wonderful conversation).

Anthony Kennada and co had the unenviable task of making something from nothing, only able to use what they observed before to base their vision off of. I don’t think it would work if every session was “let’s make this thing together” but I would like to see some form of it.

To be honest, I don’t know as I would want to do that experiment from Vidcon again. I wasn’t sure if I was going to share that video with you out of fear that you might find my older, less refined work. If you do, Mazel Tov, breathe in that anxious guy throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. I admire the Benny Boy of the past, I think he felt more inclined to put himself out there, well beyond his comfort-level of the time.

I’d like to see future iterations of Goldenhour provide the space for collaboration. Don’t get me wrong, I think the spirit of this was intended. The 20th floor live-stream space was a neat idea and there was a small room with a couple of interactive activities. I also might have just completely missed seeing the space for these opportunities that already existed.

Having a “camera for every 20 people” is a great way to capture content on the AudiencePlus side. I’m sure this material will pay back dividends over the next few years. As one of the folks who pioneered “filming a season of a show in a day”, the value of this is not lost on me. This brings me to the crux of something I cannot get past: if the talks I’m attending are just going to be available after the fact, why am I spending my time listening in the moment?

Broader Industry Implications

That sounds more aggressive than I’d like. I recognize being in-person experience something is better than viewing it virtually. I wouldn’t be able to have intimate conversations with folks like I did and the opportunity to ask questions and interact with speakers after the fact is much more enticing than it would be online. AudiencePlus also advertised that anyone could attend the free virtual conference that was being simultaneously live-streamed. This choice was clearly intentional.

I feel there’s a larger issue at play here, one that goes beyond the scope of this conference. In my experience, learning by doing is the best way to approach it. We have phrases like this that exist like “building in public” or “product-led growth”, two ideas that evoke the feeling of observing a virtual experience before trying it yourself. The experience I pine for is not the responsibility of AudiencePlus or any other entity, but I hope that sharing these ideas challenges the sameness I see in the B2B world today.

Ideas are cheap, execution is everything, so here’s some inexpensive thoughts: what about a 24 hour film festival? Basically, one would be teamed up with other folks and you’d work together to see what sort of creative you can come up with in a specific amount of time. Think of the hackathons of other conferences, but apply it to video. The winner gets a free ticket to next year’s conference or a gift bag of equipment donated by a sponsor. If that’s too aggressive of a time commitment, hosting a film festival competition from B2B creators would also be dope.

A collection of creative minds is a wonder to behold. I loved seeing folks like Derick Rhodes show examples of work so I could believe what he was saying rather than a “trust me, bro” talk with data and memes. It was an excellent affirmation to be surrounded by folks facing the same problems I am. It was a privilege to talk about what I’ve learned like sharing the ProfitWell content playbook with Josh Spilker.

If anything, I was inspired to start this very newsletter because of my experience at Goldenhour. I wrote for 3 hours straight on my flight back, typing away on my phone until my thumbs were sore. It is incredibly easy to make content today, I’m lucky to be alive at this point in time. I don’t need other people to make, but I make better because of them.

What’s next?

The spectacle of my career is not lost on me. If I could tell the Benny Boy of yore that I am a full-time video creator, I know he would be thrilled. He would actually be incredibly jealous, but I’m confident he’d figure out mindfulness and perhaps go to a little therapy to get over it.

As you can tell, I feel insecure about sharing my unsolicited thoughts about an event, the process into which I have no insight. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ll reach out to further the conversation. I love to talk process and see the behind the scenes of how stuff gets made. Imposter Syndrome sort of defines me: who am I to question the hard work of other people? Why do I get to be here? Well, I’ve been doing this a while and I think I should challenge the notion that I’m some sort of phony.

Also, I bought a ticket.