I'm an ~Influencer~! | The Friday Update

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Friday Update, in which I give a little insight into what I’ve been up to for the past seven days.

What have I been up to this week?

This week, I had my first full-on “influencer” evening.

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to go to a Christmas party YouTube was throwing in London.

And, always intrigued to see what these things are like, I thought why not!

Of course, the first thing I did was ask around to see if any other creators I knew were going too. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to be just wandering around on my own the whole time. And, on discovering that Rohin from Med Life Crisis was thinking of going, signed up.

I’ve probably been to more impressive YouTube-adjacent events before.

A few years ago, I was invited to be in the audience whilst some climate-related TED talks were being filmed. And I’ve met up a few times with a bunch of the Nebula crew which is always good fun.

But, this was the most ~influencer~ event I’ve been to.

See, those other things were all with fellow nerdy creators. Educational folks, explainer folks, video essay folks. We mostly sat around chatting in nice, comfy clothes.

This event, on the other hand, was for all kinds of creators. Which meant it was incredibly ~influencer-y~.

For one, there was some pretty lavish entertainment. The line-up included one of the Sidemen (KSI’s group of mostly gaming creators) doing a DJ set as well as some dancers and singers.

There were also all kinds of photo opportunity points and props you could “make content” with.

There was even a dress code. (I ended up wearing a suit which used to fit slightly better and a red tie to be YouTube-themed).

A lot of the experience definitely involved being surrounded by incredibly cool-looking tall people and wishing the music was a tiny bit louder. I don’t think I’m built for being an ~influencer~.

But, I found some super cool folks to hang out with and there was a free bar so I also managed to give myself a big headache the next morning.

And outside of work?

I was actually a bit ill last weekend so there wasn’t a whole lot of opportunity for fun things!

Luckily, Hbomberguy had been kind enough to release his video about plagiarism on YouTube on the Friday night. I therefore lay in bed for a lot of Saturday and Sunday and watched some YouTube whilst trying to get better!

What have I been reading/watching/listening to?

As part of my big read through of John Le Carre’s George Smiley novels, I’m now onto Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Which is possibly the most famous of these books. And, I can already see why.

The third book, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is also excellent; and a brilliant alternative take on the Cold War from someone who was inside it.

The book between The Spy Who… and Tinker, Tailor was a bit of a dud for me, and so it was tempting to lose faith in the series. But, this is super gripping yet again.

The only danger is I end up staying awake too late reading it each evening!

That brings us to the end of this week’s edition of the Friday Update. I hope you’ve found it mildly insightful.

Thanks as ever for your generous support and I’ll look forward to updating you more next week!!