When 3,000 content creators took over Dubai: Influencers offer top tips for social media at 1 Billion Summit

It’s the year 2022. And creators have taken over. Or so it felt like at the 1 Billion Followers Summit that took place in Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah, on December 3-4. Around 3,000 content creators — including mega and micro-influencers — gathered under one roof, over a span of two days, to discuss all things social media and cement its place within the wider media industry.

With sessions such as ‘Is TikTok good or bad?’ and ‘Is there such a thing as ‘responsible’ creators?’, the summit addressed pressing questions about how viewers and creators can work in synergy to create a digital landscape that does more good than harm.

The audience members comprised social media creators, with anywhere from a few thousands of followers to communities of millions of subscribers, along with employees from some of the key social media players such as Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat.

In fact, the name of the summit derives from the total following of 1 billion people (approx.) of over 100 influencers that took to the stage to deliver panel discussions, workshops, meet-and-greet sessions for the largest event of its kind. “I have been so impressed with the UAE in general and the initiative they are taking to support content creation. They are also spreading so much awareness amongst the local population, with programmes in Arabic and now in English, with the New Media Academy,” said Uptin, a content creator of Iranian origins, with over 2 million followers online.

The summit organised by the UAE’s New Media Academy, launched in June 2020, aims to create greater awareness around new media initiatives. “I’ve been really blown away with how the UAE is so advanced, progressive and really understands the future of media to be content creation,” added Uptin.

Over the recent years, many content creators have also found a home in the country, moving here in search of better opportunities. One amongst them is Nuseir Yassin, popularly known as Nas Daily on social media. The Arab-Israeli content creator has stirred up the landscape of social media content over the last few years, growing a community of 60 million followers on social media.

“The UAE has become my home. I’ve been living here for the last two years, the country is very welcoming. It’s fantastic to see that the culture of content creation is being implemented in the UAE. People are encouraged to enter this field,” said Nuseir, whose team was closely involved with organising the mega summit.

The biggest content differentiator in 2022, according to Nas Daily, has been travel content and TikTok videos. “You see a lot of content being shot outside the house. Next year, you will continue to see that but you’ll also see a lot of AI-generated and VR content. Every single year, this is going to get bigger, not smaller,” added Nuseir.

The summit felt like a sort of alternative reality, where selfies and vlogging cameras were the norm, people had barcodes to scan an exhaustive list of all their social handles, as a way to introduce oneself, and small-talk revolved heavily around algorithms and what’s trending on social media.