On the 16th March, MEP Francis Zammit Dimech hosted an event called, ‘’Find your voice in the digital space’’, in collaboration with the EPP and FZD Associates. This was held at the University of Malta, Valleta Campus. This event was aimed at artists and businesses who are willing to further their reach on YouTube and for aspiring creators aspiring to create and share their creative content.
Stella Cini – Youtuber and Speaker of Event
The Event commenced with one of Malta’s top and well known youtubers, Stella Cini. She introduced the event by giving a brief introduction on how she entered the digital space of YouTube. Stella was widely inspired by several different bloggers, youtubers and artists, to kickstart her career. Her love for make-up, fashion and hair-dos, along with her friend’s encouragement, led her to showcase her amazing talent on her own YouTube Channel. She admitted that the road to gaining views was difficult at first, but through several collaborations with a variety of different brands, she has managed to achieve a fan base of a staggering 100,000 subscribers. This has earned her the esteemed Silver YouTube Play Button in recognition of her great work on the social platform. After this brief introduction Stella introduced the host of the event, MEP Francis Zammit Dimech.
MEP Francis Zammit Dimech – Host
As a member of the European Parliament, Francis Zammit Dimech stated that through this event he would like to emphasise on the communication sector of culture as part of the new programme for European Cultural and linguistic diversity. This large project is targeted at the needs of cultural and creative sectors in promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity. Hon. Francis Zammit Dimech said that, YouTube is a creative outlet that we can use to expand our culture and creativity. He pressed on saying, that culture is a unifying process and that this is the European Identity we would all like to share. Everyone should work together past any boundaries as we now live in an era of endless possibilities. He proceeded by explaining how the YouTube Partnership Programme works as a monetization plan for those who get enough recognition to become endorsed by YouTube thus generating income for their channel. Hon. Zammit Dimech ended his speech by saying that, we should be open with one another, state our aim and learn from this enriching experience on YouTube.
Enrico Bellini – Policy Manager at YouTube
The event proceeded, with Enrico Bellini, Policy Manager at YouTube. Enrico explained the mission and aim of the platform. He said that it is Youtube’s goal to give everyone a voice, and show them the world through freedom of expression, freedom to belong and freedom of Information. He went on explaining how YouTube is there to ensure freedom of creativity, all within the community guidelines, as to assure that no harm is done to anyone. There are several policies to safeguard users on the platform such as, the ability to flag videos, the ability to file for copyright claims and the Content ID security function. Enrico concluded by showing what type of content one can find on YouTube, with a wide list varying from music to sports, from food to travel and much more.
Fabian Borg – Founder of Malta YouTube Community
Fabian Borg, the Founder of Malta YouTube Community was also present at this event. He explained how he founded YouTube in Malta and how he continues to advocate for more privileges offered to the Maltese by the YouTube Platform, so that one day we can become equal to other countries. Fabian stated that as it stands Maltese channels found on YouTube use only google ad sense, meaning that they get commissions from third parties, yet it is not sufficient enough. He emphasised on the fact that creation of content is expensive and time consuming and without proper means of payment it is difficult for Maltese youtubers to work full time on the platform. That is why Fabian, has created a petition so that Malta is removed from the monetization block and made part of the YouTube Partnership Programme. Fabian insisted that with each vote, we show our right to democracy, and that as a nation we show that we want to be part of the system.
Link To Petition: https://www.change.org/p/google-inc-google-include-malta-in-youtube-partner-program
Lia – Italian youtuber
Lia an 18-year-old youtuber, from Milan, also shared her passion for YouTube by showcasing a compilation video of her content found on her personal channel. She explained how she started YouTube at the young age of 14, to share her passion of getting in touch with people through fashion, trends, vlogging and make up tutorials. Lia concluded by stating that the best part of the YouTube platform is the community.
Workshops
The final part of the event was composed of four different workshops. The groups were split according to the difficulty each attendant chose. These were held by YouTube experts Anna, Martha, Olga and Philip, whom all expressed their knowledge on how to start up a YouTube channel, how to become relevant, and how to adapt to become well known. These workshops were highly informative and well-focused on what each person chose and the general feedback from everyone was positive.
Personal Review
I found the meeting to be very informative and interesting. The event was well thought out as it was a great experience, being able to see famous youtubers, other fellow youtubers, aspiring content creators, the YouTube team trying to help its creators and most importantly MEP Francis Zammit Dimech’s interest in this sector of culture. It is highly important that as a country we start to adapt and grow so that we have a further outreach. Events like these are a solid starting point for us to grow as a country in the digital world. Thank you to Hon. MEP Dr. Francis Zammit Dimech, for hosting such a wonderful event and to all those that participated.