Partners Jump From Idea to Success During the Pandemic

Serving a community in need, Pop Culture Fans were provided an inclusive and accessible platform for celebrating and supporting artists, actors, writers, directors, influencers, fellow fans and exhibitors During Virtual Pop Expo on May 9 & 10

LOS ANGELES

(May 18, 2020)

In response to the disruptive shutdown of popculture conventions around the world and aiming to meet the needs of a community searching for a platform to commune and an outlet to sell merchandise, Virtual Pop Expo’s producing partners Kaleidoko, Experience Level Entertainment and Legion M, in partnership with Nerdbot, Auxxit, Addison Interactive and The Hashtag Show, joined forces over the course of six weeks during lockdown and delivered an innovative and seamless virtual convention from the 9th and 10 of May. In addition to the target community, VPE enabled the support of these charities’ Covid-19 related programs;

Feeding America, Treehouse, Direct Relief and Rise Against Hunger. The Expo proved that the demand for such virtual events is there – with audiences seeking experiences and connections centered on the things the love among other likeminded individuals. Many of the attendees were looking to replicate their experiences at physical conventions with significantly more having never been able to attend any type of pop culture convention before due to socio-economic or geographic limitations. The vocal audience responded that this form of experience delivered unique experiences they would look to continue through the end of the pandemic, and also shared that they would be eager to access these as augmentative events extending the physical conventions once those return.

Over 15,000 “attendees” consumed nearly 22 hours of inspiring and entertaining panels, interviews, musical performances and more from guests including; Dan Fogler, David Dastmalchian, Tara Strong, Dark Horse Comics, Ashley Eckstein, Greg Grunberg, Yeardley Smith, Al Jean, David Silverman, Joe Mallozzi, James Bamford, Sam Maggs, Heavy Metal, WWE, Troma, Bernard Chang, Leonard and Jessie Maltin, Tony Todd, Lloyd Kaufman, The Fluxx Capacitors and many more. All content production was delivered by partners Nerdbot Media and The Hashtag Show.

Through the course of the weekend, viewers were able to participate as they might in a regular con – with rich engagement in chat on the site and within the Auxxit platform’s “exhibition hall” plus the unannounced bonus of numerous attendees being invited in real-time to join the conversations happening in the live feed by giving access to the virtual studio. And, dozens of cosplayers submitted the videos of their own runways for a judged Cosplay Ball.

Virtual Pop Expo delivered on their goal of providing a platform that emulated the experience of actually attending a Con by providing an immersive, one-of-a-kind format for both attendees and exhibitors via integration with both Addision Interactive’s work on the Event Site and the Peer-to-peer Commerce and Community platform, Auxxit. Over the course of the weekend, Auxxit provided a space for communication

directly between attendees – with 1000 attendees enjoying the Friday Night Preview festivities on the mobile app – and connection to pop culture products. Through this experience, Virtual Pop Expo was able to drive over $25,000 of sales among their 100+ vendors over the course of the weekend.

To follow up on the future of virtual expos, including panel and celebrity appearances, the overall fan experience and exhibitor details, please visit VirtualPopExpo.com.

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