TwitchCon will be taking place on Oct. 20-22 this year, Twitch announced today.
For 2017, the social service is moving their convention to the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center in—you guessed it—Long Beach, Calif. Last year, more than 35,000 fans attended their San Diego-held convention.
This year, Twitch says it will be “extending its focus to encapsulate the interesting of its broader community,” which is likely in reference to Twitch IRL, the site’s newest programming category focused on live-vlogging content as opposed to only streaming videogames.
This expansion of the platform speaks to the convention’s own expansion and location change:
Twitch selected the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center for its design and location. The center features an impressive main theater and arena, while boasting 150 restaurants in a 10-block radius to accommodate the multitude of expected community meetups. It is also served by three airports—which will be beneficial for the extensive amounts of out-of-state attendees—and surrounded by numerous hotels at more ideal rates than previous TwitchCon locales.
Krystal Herring, the new director of TwitchCon, credits “the passion of [their] creators, exhibitors, and fans” for TwitchCon’s being able to double in size in its first two years. She goes on to share the company’s overall sentiment about celebrating and including the “newer broader scope of content” that the streaming platform offers at this year’s convention.
To keep up on information regarding the convention as it’s released, Twitch encourages users to sign up for their email newsletter at the TwitchCon homepage. Ticket sales info, an initial programming schedule, and call-for-content will be revealed in the coming months.