A huge thank you to everyone who showed up for Medium Day
Last weekend, over 10,000 of you came together to celebrate the power of human storytelling. Here are a few highlights.
Update as of 9/22/2023: You can now browse recordings of over 200 Medium Day sessions on our YouTube page.
We just hosted our first-ever virtual conference: Medium Day.
Like Medium itself, the day was full of stories worth telling and listening to. Authors shared authentic, personal points of view. Publication editors gathered their communities for inspiration and collaboration. Readers and writers learned about everything from humor writing to software development to cartooning to space exploration. Illustrators drew live cartoons. Scientists shared original research. Entrepreneurs offered practical wisdom. And so much more.
Most of all, Medium Day was a celebration of the communities you all have built with each other. In the words of writer Amy Sea, “My initial takeaway from Medium Day was we’re storytellers above everything else, but we’re also a community. The only way we can get better is to honor that.”
We loved that Medium Day reflected the diversity of Medium writers and readers, both in identity and session topics. Did anyone else have that feeling of bouncing between sessions and wanting to clone yourself so you could be in two places at once? Just us? At any given time, there was so much to learn and take in. It was a testament to the passion and enthusiasm all of you bring to this platform every day.
If you registered for the event, head here to watch all the recordings. Didn’t register? We’re sharing CEO Tony Stubblebine’s keynote on our YouTube page, and we’ve published a transcript of the keynote address here. The sessions were all recorded and will be available to view soon — we’re working on it!
Here’s an overview of Medium Day by the numbers:
- 12 hours total
- 240 sessions
- 350 speakers
- 11,000 attendees
- Attendees spent an average of 2 hours, 21 minutes with us during the day
- 254 recaps (and counting!) from the community on the Medium Day topic page
Beyond the numbers, here are a few notable moments from the day that our team can’t stop talking about:
- Everyone who joined the networking platform (a fun feature of Hopin that was a low-key hit of the day), and seeing comments from folks who got matched with our CEO for a 1:1 video chat
- This YouTube short on Medium Day with writing advice interspersed with videos of Johnny P’s Medium-Day-at-home experience
- Geoscientist and former NASA team member Dr. Tanya Harrison’s end-of-day session — not about her Mars research, but about getting personal in your writing
- Sophie Lucido Johnson’s session on writing and drawing the advice you wished you’d given yourself last week, last month, or last year
- The writing advice and ideas shared during Scott Lamb’s writing hour (one of those ideas: for Medium to share our official writing hour playlist — here is the Spotify link!)
- A live musical performance followed by a dramatic reading from Rand Bishop about coming out later in life
- Alex Hollender, Jan Drewniak, and Olga Vasileva from the Wikimedia Foundation taking us behind the scenes of how they redesigned one of the most ubiquitous websites in the world
- Kim Scott’s advice to ask teams for a word or phrase they can use when they notice bias
- Catherine Sanderson, Author & Psychology Professor’s sessions on happiness and courage. Turns out one of the most important ways to be happy is to build relationships — and not just romantic ones, but relationships with friends, family, houseplants (!) and colleagues
- Fanfare’s Eric Pierce, Simon Dillon, Sarah Paris, and Sheila Moeschen reminding us that “If you’re going to rant, do it entertainingly”
- The MuddyUm crew (Carol Lennox, Jadyn, Gael MacLean, Eric Filipkowski, Kayla Dunham, and Susan Brearley) becoming our “funny functional family”
- Cartoonists Pablo Stanley and Liza Donnelly’s delightful live drawings
And the vibes? They were immaculate. Even with some small tech hiccups — a perhaps inevitable aspect of running an event, for the first time, that’s unlike any event we’ve seen on the internet — the energy of the day was incredible. We know that Medium writers and readers are a supportive, thoughtful bunch, and the kindness of the community was reflected in the session chats, thoughtful Q&As, and engagement throughout the day.
Here are a few quotes from community members who attended and wrote their own recaps on the Medium Day tag:
“I found the whole spirit of those 12 hours of Medium Day reminiscent of the golden days of the internet, or the beginnings of social media — when idealism, seriousness, playfulness, open-mindedness and optimism were the tone and the mood… I’ve also been reassured that my particular kind of writing — carefully thought out and crafted essays and articles of some length on what interests me — continues to be welcome here.” — Karine Schomer, “Medium Day and the Future of Writing”
“Every session I attended gave me gems and tips that I wrote down — my notebook is overflowing with ideas and things to do going forward!” — Mino Akhtar, “Medium Is Passion Unleashed”
“What made me the happiest about Medium Day, other than seeing my peers and friends, was how brilliant everyone was. Writers are artists and communicators. Listening to them share their knowledge is like getting a seat beside the Most Interesting People in the Room.” — Amy Sea, “The Most Interesting People in the Room”
“I saw so many Medium presenters, ones I knew from before and new people I’d never run across before. They spoke of editing, writing, publishing, and current events, and they told their stories. I ended up following so many of them, intrigued as I was by their writing and their stories.” — Pauline Evanosky: writer, psychic, channel, “It’s a New Day for MediumDay.com”
And to all the presenters: Thank you for crafting such thoughtful, compelling sessions to share with this community. Here’s what a few presenters had to share about their experience on the presenter side of the (virtual) stage…
“So, I did a thing. I signed up to lead a workshop and co-host two others. Let me tell you, I was terrified, but I did it anyway. I spoke. I put my passion in place. I showed my face, my expression, my personality. And people showed up and asked me questions. People are asking me for the replay. I appreciate this feedback so much. It assures me the path I’m walking (I’ve been walking my whole life) is the way. I hope to continue to inspire, connect with creative people, write from my heart, teach, and help others succeed if possible.” — Samantha Lazar, “Writers Unite”
“I delivered a talk titled Learning by Blogging in one of the break-out sessions. I enjoyed the talk and interacting with the audience in a Q&A format. After nearly two years of blogging on Medium and with 60+ articles published, this Medium Day event offered me an opportunity to reflect on my blogging journey, summarize my experience, share it with the community, and, in turn, learn from and grow with the community.” — Wenqi Glantz, “Highlights From My First Talk on Medium Day”
“I had the honour of co-hosting the session “The Poetry Approach: A Creative Pathway to Transform Your Life.” with Jamie Millard… As a teenager I tried to share my passion for poetry on a bulletin board at school which, as you can imagine, was not really successful. 26 years later I am now able to talk about poetry with people from Canada, Croatia, USA and Germany which leaves me sitting in reverence.” — Sadhbh Adamea, “Thank You For Medium Day”
Your energy, your curiosity, and your words make this community what it is. What did you learn on Medium Day? What stuck with you? Should there be more Medium Days in the future? Share your thoughts on Medium, use the tag Medium Day, and browse the tag page to read each other’s reflections. Thank you for being there!
— Brittany Jezouit, Harris Sockel, and the team @ Medium
