Work Diaries: Planning Barrio YouTube Event with Martín Raygoza

We rehearsed with the teams and went over the presentations. We also checked all the experiences to make sure everyone knew what they were doing and where they were supposed to be at the event. We did sound checks and video checks, and made sure all the content rooms were working properly.

Day 1

October 17th arrived and we kicked off Barrio YouTube!

We took over a real neighborhood in the heart of Mexico City and used three full houses as our event venues. In the first house named “Like House”, we had our main conferences. A combination of YouTube executive speakers, creators and external experts took the stage to share tips and ways for creators to uplevel their skills in different areas. When thinking on how to execute I follow my 3 variables formula for an event -- something I created in my previous work, the formula is simple but effective: Fun + Useful + Local = Satisfaction. That's how the concept of Barrio YouTube came to life.

This is me with Kim Larson, Global Head of YouTube Creators, a minute before opening the first day.

We also had Todd Beaupré, Product Manager at YouTube; David Rosenstein, Director of Product Management at YouTube, and Patricia Muratori, YouTube Director for LATAM, coming to the event and talking to our creators in 1:1’s, which were super helpful. The creators gave us great feedback about the 1:1s. They were happy to be able to go into more detail about specific questions they had. I heard from so many creators that they valued having international directors from YouTube at the event to talk to them personally.

Mexican creators like Luisito Comunica and Berth-Oh took over the stage and did some myth busting in a fun and different way by playing a Jeopardy-like game. It was one of the most fun parts of the whole experience and I hope we can use it at other YouTube events. It gave a chance to pass important messages in a fun and easily digestible way. The audience (other creators) were also engaged since it felt like a playful moment between creators.

We had a full day of useful information for our creators at our first house

Our second house was a Shorts house, where we had our content rooms. The idea behind this house was to have a moment for actual video creation and not the typical photo opportunity.

So we created 5 rooms inspired by 5 of the most relevant verticals of content in Mexico: Gaming, Food, Fashion, Humor and Music. Each room was carefully designed to have visual elements and resources for creators to actually open Shorts and start filming their experience.

In the food room, creators worked with a chef in a competition to see who could make and style the best donut, and believe me when I say we got true museum art-like creations.

In the music room, our creators became true music rock stars. We had a studio with a professional producer helping them create their very first record. They could choose the genre they prefer from corridos tumbados (regional Mexican music), reggaeton or trap and experience what it feels like to be in the studio as a music artist.

For the fashion room, we focused on the upcycling trend and helped creators become fashion designers, giving new life to clothes. We knew we succeeded with this idea when we actually saw creators using their new clothes at red carpet events they attended after Barrio YouTube.

For the gaming room, we took the game out of the box quite literally and created a space for laser tag where the creators could compete with each other in this classic game. It was one of the most liked rooms!

Day 2

On the second day we welcomed new creators and took them through the whole Barrio YouTube experience once more.

Also, I had the chance to close the day by interviewing Arturo Elias Ayub, a very renowned entrepreneur, director and Shark Tank investor. It was a great moment for creators to hear about expert business tips in an open mic session. I learned 3 main things from him which I believe were his most important takeaways about entrepreneurship: 1. Know your numbers. 2. Be passionate about your business. 3. Have clear values and make sure to always follow them.

We wanted to make sure that press had the opportunity to experience Barrio YouTube and speak to some of our creators. I hosted some press, giving them the full tour and answering their questions. I was definitely tired since we actually opened the press tour at the very end of day 1 but I was also very excited. I knew it was just as important that our press partners had the best experience since we wanted to make sure they communicated what we were doing.

Last but not least, any celebration couldn’t end without a party! We decided to close this two day event with an awesome party for our creators in our third house, Play house. Performances from Alvaro Diaz, an up and coming urban artist, and BRESH were some of the most fun and GenZ moments of the night.

I had the chance to speak to many creators and we got amazing feedback. Many of them told us it was the best event they have been to from YouTube and from the industry. My favorite moment was definitely the Bresh performance. Maybe because it was the closing of the party and I was able to lose myself a little more or because the show was very good and fun. My second favorite thing was probably the food, it was great! I also heard very good feedback from everyone. We had one of the best street tacos in the city and also delicious burgers. I might have eaten a bit too much but it was worth it.

After 4 months of planning and hosting 280 creators in our two day event, this event took a huge amount of work from many people and teams from Marketing, Partnerships, Music, Legal, Security and our incredible agency partners. I would also like to take the time to thank each and everyone that put their heart and sweat into making Barrio YouTube as we heard from some creators: “The best industry event they have ever been to”.

This picture only includes some of the many people that were involved in the event.

At the end of the day, I stayed for an hour after everyone left with Pit Castro and Alex Bosch from the Marketing team and we celebrated together to salute a great event.