It’s been almost six months since months since Creators HQ, Dubai’s $40.8 million initiative to get 10,000 more content creators living and working in the city, opened a digital industry makerspace in the Emirates Towers.
Announced at the third annual 1 Billion Followers Summit, the makerspace promised creator members a range of perks, including over 300 creative and biz dev workshops each year. Among its first 100 members were Dhar Mann (25 million subscribers on YouTube), Yes Theory (9.5M), The Anazala Family (10M), Supercar Blondie (21.5M), Germán Garmendia (1.7M), and Surthany Hejeij (14M, Instagram).
So, what have they and other members gotten to experience since Creators HQ’s launch?
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Well, to kick things off, it hosted onboarding sessions like an open house that gave creator members “an opportunity to meet the minds behind the initiative. The open house also gave creators more details about Creators HQ’s promise to help them get on the fast track for acquiring Golden Visas, which allow them (plus their families and employees) to live and work in Dubai long-term.
Then, for its first major event, it partnered with TikTok to host a five-day content creation crash course. The program was TikTok’s first bootcamp in the Middle East, was open to all Creators HQ members, and featured career creators and other experts covering topics like:
- Cameras, lighting, and angles
- Editing, coloring, effects, and CapCut
- Storytelling and content planning
- Monetization and brand collaborations
That bootcamp wasn’t creator members’ only chance to get expert instruction. Creators HQ has also hosted a number of debut workshops, including:
- “12 Months in 3 Hours: Map Out the Road to a Successful YouTube Channel” with Moktar Larbi, who helped develop The Anazala Family into a well-known family channel
- “Mastering Edits—Meta’s New Video Editing App” with Meta Partner Solutions Manager Bahjat Hindy and Meta Strategic Partner Manager Samer Jamal
- and an installment of its Learn from the Legends series, “Yes, You CAN! How to Make a Living With Less Than 100K Followers,” hosted by Mohamad Fattal, CEO of influencer marketing platform Alfan
Finally, Creators HQ had a sizable presence at the most recent World Governments Summit, where it brought experts like Nicola Mendelsohn (Meta’s Head of Global Business Group), finance podcaster Erika Kullberg, and Yes Theory co-founder Ammar Kandil to speak to world leaders and Fortune 500 executives.
Creators HQ has lots more programming planned for the coming months–and is already preparing the fourth annual 1 Billion Followers Summit. We’ll have more details to share on that soon.
Creators HQ is a Tubefilter partner.
