For two days last week, a Topgolf in Las Vegas was the center of the user-generated content universe.
On May 21 and 22, 230 creators across the ecosystems of Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft converged in Las Vegas for the inaugural edition of UGCon, a conference for user-generated content creators hosted by the strategic advisory firm and media company Makeshift. The conference included 13 panel discussions featuring dozens of top creators — and a golf tournament whose champions received thousands of dollars in Robux, Minecoins and V-Bucks to the winners. (Disclosure: I moderated two panels at UGCon — which is pronounced “UGC Con” — and the event’s organizers provided GamesBeat a booth for interviews and meetings).
“The next billion-dollar Roblox company is probably in this room,” said Ed Barton, the vice president of games and interactive at Moonbug Entertainment, during a panel discussion on May 21. “I’ve got a shortlist in my head — maybe like 65 percent of them are here.”
Aside from its head-turning venue, what set UGCon apart from other conferences in the space was its explicit focus on creators across all UGC platform ecosystems. Other dedicated UGC conferences, including both platform-hosted conferences like Roblox Developers Conference and Unreal Fest and third-party events like last month’s WorldBuilder Summit, have featured more of a mix of creators and dealmakers, with agencies maintaining a significant presence. Although Makeshift operates its own agency business and UGCon was an open event, the organizers of UGCon explicitly curated a guest list of creator talent for the conference, and agency representatives did not speak on any panels at UGCon.
“Everything we do is about platforming creators. I’ve been to multiple Minecons, RDCs, and Unreal Fests. There are plenty of conferences for all the middlemen in the space, but a lack of ones for creators,” said Makeshift co-founder Trent Hensler in an interview with GamesBeat. “I loved how many creators told me this was the first conference they’ve ever been to; some brought their entire teams, and some hosted their own side events. We welcomed everyone that wanted to attend, but the way we promoted this event was by just messaging all of our friends on Discord.”
Beyond UGCon’s panel programming, the crowd at the event was a veritable Who’s Who of some of the biggest names in Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft. As a journalist who has covered the UGC space with great interest for years, I could hardly take a step through the venue without finding myself dragged into a conversation with an interesting creator or sharp-minded industry observer.
“The inaugural UGCon was invaluable. From a partnership perspective, I had more than 15 conversations that I believe brought value to Good Gamers and what we are building with branded integrations,” said Zack Billingham, the partnerships lead at the prominent Fortnite creator studio Good Gamers and a speaker at UGCon, in an interview with GamesBeat. “From a Fortnite/UEFN dev perspective, I was pleasantly surprised at the value Roblox and Minecraft devs offered us. While our respective UGC platforms are unique, I took something away from the others that I believe can contribute to the Fortnite ecosystem.”
The organizers of UGCon intentionally held the event immediately after Licensing Expo, a global brand licensing trade show that took place in Las Vegas on May 19-21. To promote UGCon, the conference’s organizers wandered the show floor at Licensing Expo with a giant 3D-printed coin, offering attendees a coin flip for the chance to get a free ticket.
“UGCon was incredibly valuable for us. The timing right after Licensing Expo meant there were a lot of new faces in attendance, which created opportunities to connect with people we might not otherwise have crossed paths with,” said Andrew Bereza, the director of business development for the Roblox development studio Twin Atlas, in an interview with GamesBeat. “The venue struck a great balance between industry talks and networking, making it easy to learn from the sessions while still having meaningful conversations throughout the event.”
At UGCon, I spoke to multiple attendees who compared the inaugural event to the early days of VidCon, the prominent annual conference for video creators. The audience at UGCon was brimming with passion and excitement for the medium of user-generated content, with the conference acting as a homecoming of sorts for UGC industry operators who rarely get the opportunity to meet with their peers face-to-face.
“We went from small ragtag groups on the fringes of the gaming industry to now running our own conferences, by UGC creators, for UGC creators, all while supporting the careers of tens of thousands of people,” said Bruce Blair, a longtime Minecraft server operator and project director at Ziax who attended both days of UGCon, in an interview with GamesBeat. “As someone whose entire career has been in or adjacent to this space, it’s great getting to meet professionals from other games’ UGC ecosystems and learn the similarities and differences and see how we can help each other grow.”
With the first UGCon in the books, Makeshift is staffing up to grow its event business further, with the company hiring Cristina Amaya as its head of event strategy and product. Amaya, who has previously helped organize industry events as an executive at companies like Dreamhack, Team Liquid, and Moonrock, contributed significantly to the organizing of UGCon. (Outside the capacity of her role with Makeshift, Amaya also worked with GamesBeat to help host GamesBeat Summit in Los Angeles last week.)
“I think the guys at UGCon are not only innovators, but they are community-centric, and genuinely care about everyone within the user-generated content community,” Amaya said in an interview with GamesBeat. “I’m excited to come on board and help drive events and community-focused initiatives moving forward.”
Prior to hosting UGCon, Makeshift developed event organizing experience by putting on smaller events and activations around industry conferences in 2025 and 2026, including a UGC-themed event in San Francisco during the week of GDC Festival of Gaming that drew over 140 attendees earlier this year. Makeshift plans to host “substantially more events in 2027,” with the goal of helping build a true annual event calendar for creators and businesses in the UGC space, according to Makeshift co-founder Ben Sarraille in an interview with GamesBeat.
“The first day of UGCon, we had enough people come up to us asking to sponsor, we could probably fund year two already,” Sarraille said. “That was a great sign, and it shows we can look to having multiple major events per year.”