For the fourth year in a row, The Creative Collective NYC presents CultureCon. This year’s theme, CultureCon goes to camp.
This two-day festival at Duggal Greenhouse in Brooklyn celebrates black culture and creativity, bringing together influencers, artists, entrepreneurs, and professionals from a variety of industries to connect, collaborate, and learn. This year we grabbed a front-row seat to all the things CultureCon and now you get the details.
As the morning hours of October 5th settled around 7:00 am black and brown creatives around NYC awoke as they prepared to attend one of the biggest creative festivals, CultureCon. An annual conference created by The Creative Collective NYC, including a mixture of panels, workshops, activations, and networking opportunities. Founded in 2016 by Imani Ellis in her living room CultureCon was birthed with the idea of cultivating a community built on supporting each other’s dreams and assembling a collaborative space for creatives to increase engagement.
This year’s CultureCon presented by Creative Collection included presenting partners: MAX, Chase Ink, CÎROC McDonalds, Verizon, Shea Moisture, Prime, Clinique, Netflix, Kensington Grey, Advancement Project, ONYX Collective, Kickstarter, NBCUniversal, Universal, Gucci, 160/90, Audible, Amazon MGM Studios, Pinterest, LCKR, IONE Digital, NPR, The Center For Cultural Power, When We All Vote, Coca Cola, New York City, Wework, The Webby Awards, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Uber, Jordan, Leap Event Technology, Ace Hotel Brooklyn, Moxy Williamsburg, Thompson Hotels, and Wythe Hotel.
CultureCon 2024 Panel
During the two day festival attendees were able to visit panels hosted by the presenting partners including Gucci’s Manifesting Visions of Tomorrow, Amazon Prime Main Character Energy, IONE Digital Unlocking Creative Storytelling with AI, MAX: Mapping Your Route to the Top, and so many more. On our two day adventure, we were able to cover the red carpet, attend their recruitment fair, attend panels, and connect with creative individuals.
During day one NBCUniversal presented a Reality Check: NBCU TV Stars Shattering Mental Health Stigmas Onscreen featuring Olly Sholotan, Travina Springer, and Arlen Escarpeta. The panel highlighted how people of color tell impactful and nuanced mental health stories on screen. They discussed how their characters are shattering stigmas about mental and emotional health within the black and queer communities.
Photo Credit: Alysha Keys// @akfilm.archives
This was the second year that CultureCon hosted their creative career job fair that included Brooklyn Navy Yard, Warner Brothers, Verizon, Shea Moisture, 1060/90, Clinique, and more. During this career fair you could meet with recruiters from these companies to discuss roles, network, and find out about hiring opportunities, Additionally, you could take it a step further by meeting one-on-one with HBO Max recruiters at the MAX Brew Cafe.
Day one ended with a creative genius panel with Law Roach who spoke about his journey through fashion, and the obstacles he encountered on his road to success. He empathized that the importance of supporting your friend’s business financially outweighs supporting their business emotionally. To end the night off CultreCon hosted a southern-themed after party at South House.
As day broke on October 6th CultureCon patrons enjoyed a late start to their day as the festival opened doors at 10:00 am Sunday. Day two of CultureCon featured heavy hitters like Anika Nomi Rose, Cynthia Erivo, Tyler James Williams, and Yara Shahidi. It also featured the first ever CultureCon fashion show which consisted of 15 of the best dressed attendees.
One of the panels that stood out on day two was Let’s Talk Ca$h Flow And Funding Your Business. The panelists included Lanny Smith, Will Toms, and Candis Grace who discussed the importance of cash flow assets. During the panel Will asked “how many of you want to start your own business?” and hands flew into the air then he said “How many of you plan to sell your business one day?” and his hands dropped quickly. This moment was an eye-opener Toms mentioned that many investors look forward to you selling to a larger company someday. Indicating that you may believe you have everything planned out but when life throws you lemons you can make it into lemonade.
Photo Credit: Alysha Keys// @akfilm.archives
As day two came to an end we spent the last hour at the CultreCon Creative Genius panel with Tyler James William and Yara Shahidi both dipping gems about the industry. Imani Ellis asked Tyler “What piece of advice would you give to someone who’s in their waiting season?” and his response “You’re going to miss this time” received an array of nods in the audience. He went on the elaborate that his peers who are at the top often reminisce about the downtime they enjoyed when business wasn’t booming. Williams says to enjoy living in the now because when your time finally comes it will be hectic and nonstop. Yara opened up about her podcast, The Optimist Project, launching with SiriusXM.
Day two ended with a Closing campfire & cocktails presented by CÎROC at the creator stage which was an outdoor area. It emulated one of black culture’s favorite moments, black panties. The best part of the night was Tem’s surprise performance at the end of the night.
Terms Brings the Vibes as Culturecon’s First Ever Musical Performer During Closing Campfire Party, Presented by CÎROC
CultureCon 2024 was an overall amazing experience and gifted its attendees with great gems. If you plan on attending next year make sure that your fashion is up to par because the Con does not play.
