Last weekend, I attended TwitchCon 10, a huge milestone for them, but my first. Twitch held their inaugural TwitchCon in San Francisco, with an attendance of 20,000. It’s jumped around over the years from Long Beach to San Jose to Las Vegas to its current home in San Diego, and even expanded to Europe in 2019, making it a semi-annual event. What has remained constant over the last 10 years is that TwitchCon is about connecting with its community, both in person and online.
The first TwitchCon featured a Keynote by then CEO Emmett Shear and the company streamed all of their panels on Twitch, a practice that, due to the sheer volume of panels, continues for select events. TwitchCon 2017 brought the first Esports tournaments. 2019 brought us TwitchCon Berlin, an over-18 con with all the familiar aspects of the American TwitchCon, with the addition of David Hasselhoff as a speaker.
Due to the pandemic, American and European TwitchCons were cancelled and replaced by a 12-hour virtual convention known as GlitchCon. This was also the time period where Twitch achieved stratospheric growth, with people stuck at home looking for something to do. The conference occurred over four virtual stages where viewers could find the events of their choice, much like the physical con, and 425 streamers took part in the event, with over 6.7 million viewers worldwide.
2023’s TwitchCon in Las Vegas was the con’s introduction to product demos, connecting streamers to the future of gear from companies like Elgato, as well as full panels and meet-and-greets. 2024’s return to San Diego replaced the concert experience that Twitch once provided with a block party, taking over the famous Gaslamp Quarter, full of food, drinks and entertainment.
Head of Community at Twitch, Mary Kish, looked back on the history of TwitchCon from a unique role as both an employee of the company for eight years and a long-time streamer. “It’s extraordinarily magical. I think we’re extremely fortunate and lucky to have such a loving, wonderful community of streamers, of content creators, of community members, that just love being here, and they enjoy spending time with each other. And we have the incredible joy and responsibility to make sure everybody has a good time, and doing it for 10 years!”
“TwitchCon, whether for creators looking to grow, communities looking to connect, or fans looking to be entertained, has sought for the last ten years over two continents to live up to the community it created.”
I also spoke with Twitch’s Chief Product Officer, Mike Minton, about his experience with TwitchCon. “I can happily say I’ve been at every single TwitchCon. So I certainly feel it in terms of how each has their own energy to them. They each have their own highlights in terms of moments we have with the community. They’re just really so important for us as staff to connect, to communicate, to listen and share what we’ve been thinking about.”
Talking about the evolution of TwitchCon with the execs, Kish shared what she misses from the early days of Twitch before its massive growth. “I’m obviously super biased because I’ve been a part of this journey of growth. But I think back in the day, because streaming was still really difficult to do, (but) if you were the first to paint on Twitch, if you were the first to do anything on Twitch, you probably got a lot of eyes because it was very inventive. As Twitch has grown, it’s gotten much more competitive.”
TwitchCon has been one of the company’s main platforms to announce the big changes upcoming for the year. This year added AutoClips, a partnership with Meta, new roles and more, but no TwitchCon is complete without learning a bit about the future of the company in Twitch’s keynote. Mike Minton shared his thoughts on having this platform to reach so many of their users at one time:
“One of the reasons we do that early in the convention is so that we can have the conversations, answer the questions and provide the clarity afterward,” Minton says. “But in all kinds of forums, I mean, we do Q&As in a panel format. We do them in small groups with certain streamers; we’re on the floor, we’re everywhere. So it is really by design that we get out here and share some of our biggest news in the context of TwitchCon.”
The addition of the panels brought an educational aspect to the con to help nurture the streamers who had the mindset Kish spoke of. Streamers can learn everything from how to best manage the platform to promoting themselves to actual tips on becoming a full-fledged performer. This year’s TwitchCon even featured improv lessons to help bring creators out of their shells and put their best selves forward on screen.
Mary Kish sees this educational platform as Twitch making their own investment in creators to mutual benefit. “We have recognized that the number one TwitchCon attendee is an affiliate,” Kish adds, “and we owe them this material to make sure that they’re growing effectively. That’s why we develop so many programs that are intended to help affiliates find each other, make meaningful connections and learn the tricks of the trade to grow some examples of that.
I asked both execs what it feels like after ten years of TwitchCon to walk the floor and see people connecting with each other, including those who only see each other at each year’s con, and celebrating their community year after year. “It’s always rewarding when you have that affirmative feedback that we’re on the right track,” says Minton, “Of course, we also get a lot of constructive feedback, and know that the community cares so much about this product.”
“It makes me feel really proud, yeah,” adds Kish, slightly tearing up at the thought. “There’s a lot of people that put their hearts into this show. We care very, very deeply about attendees’ experience, and we want everyone to have a really good time. When I see someone hugging another person in the hallway, when I see someone learning something at a panel, when I see people just hanging out in artist alley and finding a keychain that they love, I get like a lot of warm and fuzzies inside, and I kind of get emotional about it.”
TwitchCon, whether for creators looking to grow, communities looking to connect, or fans looking to be entertained, has sought for the last ten years over two continents to live up to the community it created. It hasn’t been without challenges and it hasn’t been without controversy, but Twitch’s future is designed by the voices of the community that helped it grow, so don’t forget to get on your mic.
