{"id":465933,"date":"2026-09-16T19:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465933\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T19:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:54:09","slug":"vidcons-annual-creator-confab-is-leaving-anaheim-after-merging-with-lions-parent-of-cannes-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465933\/","title":{"rendered":"VidCon’s Annual Creator Confab Is Leaving Anaheim After Merging With LIONS, Parent of Cannes Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tVidCon<\/a>\u2018s flagship event for digital creators and their fans is leaving its Anaheim home after 16 years in Southern California.<\/p>\n

\n\tLIONS<\/a>, the company that produces the Cannes Lions<\/a> advertising and marketing festival in France, announced that it is merging VidCon with its creator-focused events in North America to create VidCon x LIONS Creators. Both LIONS and VidCon are owned by U.K.-based Informa PLC, an international events, digital services and academic research firm.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe primary home of VidCon x LIONS Creators will be the Insight to Impact Festival, LIONS\u2019 North American platform. Insight to Impact debuts in Denver in October 2026 before moving to Nashville in 2027, where the first VidCon x LIONS Creators event will be held. VidCon x LIONS Creators will also have a presence at Cannes Lions in June 2027, with further programming details to be announced.<\/p>\n

\n\tVidCon was founded by brothers John and Hank Green in 2010. It was acquired by Viacom in 2018<\/a>. Paramount Global, Viacom\u2019s successor company, sold VidCon in September 2024 to Informa.<\/p>\n

\n\tLIONS\u2019 Insight to Impact Festival brings together Informa\u2019s TMRE: The Market Research Event and Content Marketing World (and VidCon starting next year) along with expertise from across LIONS, including WARC, Contagious and Effie. The platform \u201cwill connect consumer understanding, marketing effectiveness and creativity for the North American market,\u201d LIONS said in announcing the change. <\/p>\n

\n\tFor the past three years, LIONS has run LIONS Creators, a program dedicated to the intersection of digital influencers and the creative marketing industry. Now, by bringing VidCon into LIONS, \u201cthe platform will guide the rapidly growing creator community through its next phase of growth, connecting the ecosystem, and helping brands and creators transform cultural influence into commercial results,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

\n\tLIONS said the move to merge VidCon into its North America business is part of a wider move by the company to evolve its global model across North America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and North Africa to be more accessible year-round.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe creator economy has never moved faster or mattered more within the global marketing ecosystem,\u201d LIONS CEO Simon Cook said in a statement. \u201cCreators are increasingly central to how culture is created and how brands connect with audiences. The introduction of VidCon is an exciting next step which will allow us to build out a dedicated global platform for an industry that\u2019s rapidly reshaping the marketing landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSarah Tortoreti, VP and business lead at VidCon, said: \u201cFor 15 years, VidCon has been the heartbeat of the creator community \u2014 the place where emerging and established creators, fans, brands, and industry leaders come together to celebrate digital culture in real life. Joining LIONS allows us to amplify that mission on a global scale. By combining VidCon\u2019s deep-rooted relationships across the creator economy with LIONS\u2019 unparalleled industry authority and global reach, we\u2019re creating unprecedented opportunities for creators to build their careers, for brands to forge authentic partnerships, and for the entire ecosystem to shape what\u2019s next together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLIONS said Cannes Lions, a global festival celebrating creativity, \u201cwill remain the centre of the LIONS ecosystem.\u201d Regional platforms will \u201ccomplement Cannes Lions by making more of LIONS\u2019 expertise accessible throughout the year, while creating stronger connections between local communities and the global stage,\u201d according to the company.<\/p>\n

\n\tLIONS is making changes in APAC and MENA regions too: <\/p>\n

Spikes Asia, after almost four decades, will become LIONS Asia in September 2027, in continued partnership with Haymarket Asia. The event, featuring the Asia Lions Awards, will combine Spikes Asia\u2019s regional heritage with LIONS \u201cintelligence, learning and community programs,\u201d according to the company. Programming will be developed with \u201ccommunities across the region, ensuring Asia-Pacific\u2019s distinct perspectives and innovations help shape the global conversation on creative marketing excellence,\u201d LIONS said.<\/p>\n

In December 2027, LIONS Riyadh will be introduced in partnership with Tahaluf \u2014 a joint venture among Informa PLC, the Saudi Federation For Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) and the Saudi Events Investment Fund (EIF) \u2014 and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Ministry of Media. LIONS Riyadh will serve the local creative and marketing community by providing access to global benchmarks, intelligence, and learning, while creating opportunities for local talent and work to connect with the wider international industry. The platform is intended to include a strategic alliance with Athar, run by LIONS\u2019 partner Motivate Media Group, complementing the established Dubai Lynx partnership across the region.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Cannes Lions 2026: The Pitches, Panels, Parties and Prognostication That Resonated Most During a Scorching Week on the Croisette<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VidCon\u2018s flagship event for digital creators and their fans is leaving its Anaheim home after 16 years in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,183469,8402,49356],"class_list":["post-465933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-cannes-lions","tag-lions","tag-vidcon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}