Next month, over 5,000 content creators and industry professionals will gather in Dubai for the third annual 1 Billion Followers Summit. This year’s event (running Jan. 11-13 at the Museum of the Future, the Emirates Towers, and the Dubai International Financial Centre) is expected to be 1BFS’ biggest one yet, with over 250 speeches, panels, workshops, and more.
It has a packed schedule, so for those attending, we’ve put together an official Tubefilter guide to the summit, highlighting what we think is its must-see programming.
1 Billion Followers Summit is offering three different programming tracks: Creator Economy, Technology, and Content. For this guide, we’ve plucked programming from all three tracks, so whichever most intrigues you, you’ll have our recommendations ready to go.
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All-track and VIP passes for 1 Billion Followers Summit are still available here. Folks who’ve already snagged some–we’ll catch you on the summit floor!
Here are our official picks…
SATURDAY, JAN. 11
- 10:00-11:00 a.m. (Dubai time): Hit the opening ceremony in Etihad Airways Hall
- 11:00-11:25 a.m.: Building Your Brand on LinkedIn with Brendan Gahan (CEO of Creator Authority) and Lara Acosta (founder and coach at LA Digital)
- 11:10-11:50 a.m.: Catch the latter half of How to Stay Relevant for a Decade with magician/creator Zach King
- 11:59 a.m.-2:15 p.m.: For those who speak Arabic, Mastering X: Grow, Engage and Earn like a Pro with content creators Abdallah Al Khareef and Abdallah Mashout
- 11:55 a.m.-12:10 p.m.: Storytelling in 2030 with mobile journalism expert and Seen TV co-founder/CEO Yusuf Omar
- 12:00-12:20 p.m.: The Art of Niche Reach with Trevor Rainbolt
- 12:20-12:35 p.m.: Unlocking the Future of AI with Meta with Fares Akkad, Regional Director at Meta
- 12:30-1:00 p.m.: Increasing CPMs For MENA Creators, a group panel discussing the “economic and creative roadblocks stifling growth” for creators in the Middle East and North Africa
- 12:55-1:25 p.m.: Is Your Content Yours? How to Protect Your IP with longtime entertainment lawyer Tyler Chou, who’s also founder and CEO at Creators Attorney
- 1:50-2:15 p.m.: Caspar Lee’s Journey from YouTube to Investing with (of course) Caspar Lee and Sasha Kaletsky, Managing Partner at Creator Ventures
- 2:15-2:35 p.m.: Why Creators Are Key to Shaping Media’s Future, a fireside chat with Fares Sayegh, CEO of Roya TV
- 3:05-3:20 p.m.: Aburob Fixes Your Account – A Live Roasting Session with YouTuber Ahmed Aburob (Arabic-language)
- 3:30-6:00 p.m.: Engaging Your Audience On Ground Works with creator Mosaed Al Fouzan (Arabic-language)
- 3:40-4:10 p.m.: Creator Science Podcast Live with Noor Stars
- 4:10-4:35 p.m.: Make Hollywood-Like VFX on Your Laptop with award-winning Visual Effects Supervisor and Technical Director Allan McKay
- 4:35-4:55 p.m.: Decoding the New Creator Landscape with Kudzi Chikumbu, former Global Head of Creator Marketing at TikTok
- 5:30-6:00 p.m.: Resilience, a keynote from longtime motivational creator Jay Shetty
SUNDAY, JAN. 12
- 10:00-10:20 a.m.: Building a Viral Brand with YouTuber Airrack and Zack Honarvar, co-founder/CEO at Creator Now
- 10:20-10:50 a.m.: Launching Billion Dollar Creator Products with Mark Vins, content creator and co-founder/CEO of Brave Wilderness
- 11:05-11:25 a.m.: Making Better Shorts with content creator/film director Adrian Per
- 11:20-11:50 a.m.: Why Your Short-Form Videos Are Failing—and How Storytelling Can Fix It with social media strategist Jack Appleby
- 11:50 a.m.-12:20 p.m.: The 14-Year-Old Who First Hit 1 Billion Views on YouTube Shorts with Georgio Khoury
- 12:20-12:40 p.m.: The Ups and Downs of Life As a Travel Creator with creators Eric Struk and Anderson Dias
- 12:20-12:40 p.m.: Rethinking Social for Creators and Brands with social media analyst Matt Navarra (Sorry, we know there are two for this timeframe, but they’re both equally good options!)
- 1:00-1:15 p.m.: How Dude Perfect’s $100M+ Deal Redefined Media with Tucker Brown (Managing Director of CAA’s investment arm) and Andrew Graham (Head of Business Development for CAA Digital)
- 1:40-1:55 p.m.: Data Speaks: Where Advertisers Will Spend in 2025 with Jasmine Enberg, VP and Principal Analyst at eMarketer
- 2:10-2:35 p.m.: Making it from Short-Form to Long-Form Content with a panel of experts
- 2:55-3:25 p.m.: The Unwritten Rules to Scaling Your Creator Business with creator Ahmed Aburob, creator/entrepreneur Marina Mogilko, and Abderrazak Yousfi (CEO At Media Digital Invest)
- 4:05-4:20 p.m.: AI’s Impact on the Creator Economy: Challenges & Opportunities with Jeremiah Owyang, General Partner at Blitzscaling Ventures and founder of Llama Lounge AI
- 4:25-4:50 p.m.: The Social Kitchen with culinary creators Abu Julia and Chef Shaheen (Arabic-language)
- 4:50-5:05 p.m.: How Gen Z Is Changing Fandom Forever with “fanthropologist” Meredith Gene Levine
- 5:10-5:30 p.m.: Meet the VTubers & Digital Twins, a panel with VTubers who are “building meaningful audiences who are entertained, educated, and engaged”
- 5:30-5:59 p.m.: Dark Humor Can Change Reality! with creator Ahmed Al Basheer (Arabic-language)
- 5:50-6:15 p.m.: Why MENA and Asia Will Rule the Creator Economy with Althea Lim (CEO at Gushcloud), Michel Chahda (co-founder/CEO at Talent Plus), and Esther Nguyen (founder/CEO at POPS Worldwide)
MONDAY, JAN. 13
- 10:00-10:40 a.m.: How Creators Are Winning In Next-Gen Games with AJ Dr Doom Shewki (co-founder/CEO of LIV) and Alex Carloss (co-founder of Edenic)
- 10:55-11:35 a.m.: Creating Trustworthy Medical Content in the Digital Age with creators Adam Bataineh, Abdullah Alalawi, and Ahmed Ezzat (Arabic-language)
- 11:35-11:55 a.m.: Creativity vs. Consistency with a panel of creators (Arabic-language)
- 12:30-12:45 p.m.: The Duolingo Playbook for Social-First Brands with Zaria Parvez, Senior Global Social Media Manager at Duolingo
- 12:50-1:15 p.m.: Fixing the Crappy Creator Pay System with Anthony Brown (co-founder/CEO at Breakr) and Fabienne Fourquet (co-founder/CEO at 2btube)
- 1:15-1:45 p.m.: Creating the Soundtrack for the Creator Economy with Epidemic Sound co-founder/CEO Oscar Höglund
- 1:25-1:55 p.m.: How I Raised the Richest Man On Earth with Elon Musk’s mother Maye Musk (Again, we know there are two for this time slot, but we figure these will both be interesting to different subsets of attendees.)
- 3:30-3:50 p.m.: Staying Creative While Following Brand Rules with content creator Max Klymenko
- 4:10-4:25 p.m.: Creators Rule the Future of Tech with Cathy Hackl, founder of Spatial Dynamics
