VidCon Volunteering 2016
There’s nothing quite like volunteering at VidCon. You get to be in the best place in the world with the most wonderful group of people ever. I’ve never found a group of people I’ve felt more comfortable with so quickly, and I know that the friendships I’ve made through volunteering at VidCon are ones I will treasure for years to come.
This year I had the honor of being a MOD for the signing hall. Essentially, this meant I had to make sure all of the volunteers working in the signing hall knew what they were doing, answer any questions from attendees or direct them to someone who could, and make sure signings were going at the right pace.
The signing hall is my absolute favorite place in all of VidCon. There’s so much energy in the room with the fans being excited to meet their featured creators. I love being able to witness that that all day and be a part of what makes it possible.
There were two very special parts about the signing hall this year. As a MOD, I got to work more directly with contracted staff, one of which was Talia, a good friend of mine I met last VidCon. I was so, so excited when I heard I would be working with her all day because of how long it had been since we last saw each other. I was worried with her being staff I wouldn’t see her as much, but boy was I wrong about that. We had a blast messing around during down time, and it literally could not have been a better experience any other way. I do have to mention, though, that the rest of the signing hall staff were amazing too. Makenna was super nice work and hang out with, and it was a pleasure to get to know Erin a bit more from last year. Teryn, though. I can’t give her enough thanks. She is the signing hall manager and just a huge role model for me. She absolutely kills it in the signing hall and is so fun to work with. I am honored to say I have her autograph on my Crew badge.
The second very special part was an adorable little girl in an Anna dress. During the last signing, she went up to Makenna, who had helped out her and her mom a couple times throughout the weekend, and asked for her autograph on her Frozen hat. It was the most precious thing I had ever seen. And then later on, she was the second to last person in the last line to meet MatPat, the last FC in the signing hall. She was just saying the darn cutest things, and with the combination of the cuteness, the relief of being done, and how ridiculously tired I was, I started laugh-crying. I felt a bit pathetic, but it was such a great way to end the weekend.
I want to give a ginormous thanks to all the seasoned SuperMODs for welcoming us newbies with open arms. I also want to give a very special thanks to Adrienne for somehow wrangling all of us together. You will be missed next year, but I wish you all the best with your new job. And of course a thanks must be sent to @edwardspoonhands for allowing VidCon to exist in the first place. It was a privilege to work with the of entirety of the volunteer leadership team and everyone who helped make this VidCon happen.
There is no doubt in my mind that I will be at VidCon next year.
But until then, DFTBA.
