TwitchCon 2017 announced for late October

TwitchCon 2017, the third annual convention for the Twitch community, will take place from Oct. 20-22, Twitch announced today.

Although TwitchCon will remain in California, Twitch is moving the event near the other major city in the state. This time around, the convention will be held at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center in Long Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles.

In 2015, Twitch held the inaugural TwitchCon in its hometown of San Francisco. TwitchCon 2016 ran from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 at the San Diego Convention Center, the same venue that hosts Comic-Con International. More than 35,000 people attended the three-day show last year.

It might seem odd for TwitchCon to take place in a different city each year, but in a news release announcing this year’s event, Twitch said it selected Long Beach primarily because it believes the location of the city will provide a better experience for attendees. The company pointed to the three airports that serve Long Beach, all of which are within 25 miles of the convention center, and noted that there are 150 restaurants within a 10-block radius “to accommodate the multitude of expected community meetups.”

Twitch also said that attendees will be able to secure cheaper hotel rooms in Long Beach than were available for previous TwitchCons. Interested parties can head to the TwitchCon website to book rooms for the event at a discounted rate. Note that ticket sales aren’t live yet — Twitch said it will provide ticketing information at a later date.

“It was through the passion of our creators, exhibitors, and fans that TwitchCon doubled in size in its first two years,” said Krystal Herring, the new director of TwitchCon. “Our goal this year is to continue celebrating all things Twitch, including the newer broader scope of content on our platform.”

Herring is referring to Twitch IRL, a new category that the company launched last month. Twitch has been expanding for some time beyond gaming-centric streams to add content such as “social eating” and The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. Twitch IRL encourages people to livestream their everyday lives, the same way that YouTube vloggers post videos of their daily activities. The move from Amazon-owned Twitch is a shot across the bow at Facebook, which introduced Facebook Live last year. In order to facilitate Twitch IRL streaming, the company will soon add livestream functionality to the Twitch mobile app.