AI, workshops, Creators in Fashion, and more…Here’s what’s new for VidSummit’s 2025 creator biz dev conference.

In just over a month, VidSummit will return to Dallas, where it’ll welcome thousands of creators and other industry professionals for three days of hardcore business development.

Founded in 2014 by digital video/marketing guru Derral Eves, VidSummit was the first of its kind for our industry. While most previous events had focused on mass-gathering creators so fans would have a chance to meet many of their YouTube idols under the same roof, VidSummit immediately imposed a strict no-fans rule. Instead, it wanted to emulate the focused, bootcamp-like biz dev conventions of sectors like technology and finance, and be a one-stop, packed-full smorgasbord of information that career-minded creators could use to level up their channels.

“When I started VidSummit, it was because I saw a need,” Eves tells Tubefilter. “A lot of my friends who are creators saw themselves as a YouTuber, but didn’t see building an actual business out of it. I saw a lot of them come and go, and I wanted to help them see how I see the opportunity, which is that content creation is a very, very interesting industry.”

Why so interesting? “There’s a lot of traditional models that just work,” Eves says, “blended with new audiences and new strategies. We’ve been able to evolve and creators are now key figureheads in the economy. They see what’s possible and they think in different ways. They’ve grown into leveraging who they are, and at the same time they’re media companies, and they’ve been able to expand in so many different ways.”

Now, 11 years later, VidSummit “is what it’s always been,” Eves says: a place for these evolving, expanding creators to continue their growth via crowdsourced knowledge and community support.

VidSummit 2025 will be a three-day event offering dozens of panels and workshops featuring industry leaders and creators–from notable up-and-comers like Dzung Lewis to OG pros like HopeScope and Mia Maples–all with the goal of pooling creators’ innovative minds together and helping one another build out their content, companies, and teams.

In 2023, VidSummit moved from its usual home in Los Angeles to Dallas, a move that both sized up its facilities to accommodate more attendees, and put it in Texas, the U.S.’s fastest-growing hub for content creation alongside cities like Atlanta. Previously, VidSummit welcomed around 1,500 attendees per conference; in 2023, it shot to 3,000; and in 2024, it brought 3,500.

This year’s convention is expecting around 4,100 people, Eves says. They’ll each pay ticket prices starting at $995.

One big difference attendees can expect from 2024’s event to 2025’s? The current omnipresence of generative “AI.”

“The content creator economy is evolving with AI,” Eves says. “It’s going to change the way we create content, the way that business processes work, and so a lot of the presentations had to grow with AI.”

“But we’re not necessarily replacing the creation with AI,” he clarifies. “We want creators to leverage all the opportunities in front of them. We’re at the most interesting time for being a content creator. The economy’s matured, we’re seeing more sponsor dollars, ad dollars, creators making their own brands…It’s at the highest peak it’s ever been, and now we’re bringing a way to increase your production with AI.”

That being said, a large portion of VidSummit’s creator-led programming is case studies, and Eves specifically calls out Maples’ presentation as “about being authentically you, which I think is what’s going to stand out in a world of AI.”

Another case study Eves says attendees should look forward to is one from Jordan Barclay, aka Minecraft YouTuber EYstreem. His production studio Spawnpoint Media runs a handful of proprietary channels and hires fledgling Australian talent to host them. Last year, Spawnpoint scored a $5 million investment from Spotter, which it plans to use to open a multimillion-dollar studio in Melbourne. Amidst that cash injection, Barclay’s talk is about his strategic decision to lower the amount of content he produced–and how doing that doubled his overall revenue.

Attendees this year can also anticipate returning VidSummit favorites like the job fair, along with new additions like the opening of a third floor, which will allow for more creator presentations and workshops.

Workshops are something the conference tested out last year to a “great reception,” Eves says. Due to that success, it’s tripling the amount of hands-on, small-group workshops it offers, and is partnering with Adobe to bring in “some of their brightest employees, and equipment for creators to use,” he adds.

Last but certainly not least, Creators in Fashion, the catwalk show launched last year by MatPat-founded Theorist, will return for its second year–this time, in person at VidSummit.

The show will feature looks and walks from creators like Cassey Ho, Mia Maples, Mary Allyson, Glam Girl Gabi, Esteffanie, and Sydney Morgan, and will feature even more creators off the catwalk. Style Theory host and Creators in Fashion emcee Amy Roberts told us in June that Theorist’s goal with the show’s second year is, “aside from featuring all the creators who are doing amazing things in the fashion space, to be able to highlight as many creators as possible.”

Roberts will share emceeing duties with MatPat, who retired from appearing on camera for Theorist productions, but still works there behind the scenes (in between his Capitol Hill appearances, of course).

The Creators in Fashion show will take place on the last day of VidSummit: Thursday Oct. 9.

The convention runs Oct. 7-9 at the Irving Convention Center just north of Dallas.

You can check out tickets here, and stay tuned to Tubefilter in the coming weeks for a sneak peek of one creator’s presentation, plus our official guide to VidSummit 2025.

VidSummit is a Tubefilter partner.