Inside ZCON 2024: UTA Next Gen Brings Together Over 500 ‘Besties’ to Discuss Gen Z, Entertainment, Social Impact and More

Over 500 marketers, speakers, executives and more gathered in Brooklyn on Thursday and Friday for ZCON, a conference focusing on how to reach the Gen Z consumer.

Orchestrated by UTA Next Gen, an agency that operates within UTA’s entertainment marketing division, ZCON featured a slate of diverse Gen Z speakers and panelists across multiple industries, including Olympic gold medalist Laurie Hernandez and actors such as Avantika (“Mean Girls”), David Iacono (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Brian Altemus (“Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin”) and Bailey Bass (“Avatar: The Way of Water”). Standout moments included a presentation from social entrepreneurs Neeka and Leila Mashouf, whose company Rubi Laboratories manufactures textiles through the process of carbon capture, in effect creating a carbon-negative supply chain.

Head of Next Gen Ziad Ahmed said in an interview with Variety that being at the conference was a “pinch-me moment.”

“That so many people have really joined us on this journey that believe in what we’re creating is so heartwarming and fulfilling,” he said. “This is why I do what I do: to get to platform the voices that I think more people need to be listening to. To see folks embrace that with so much joy and positivity and curiosity — it means everything to me.”

The first day of ZCON concluded with the inaugural Club Cosmo Awards, a show produced in partnership between UTA Next Gen and Cosmopolitan that honored 36 Gen Z creators, brands and trends. Among the honorees was actor and comedian Chloe Troast, who opened up about her recent departure from “Saturday Night Live” ahead of the show’s 50th season.

“About a month ago, I found out I wouldn’t be returning to my dream job on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ Very Gen Z of me to get fired,” she said. “There are not a lot of people in this world that can relate to you when you lose a job like ‘Saturday Night Live,’ besides maybe Adam Sandler, Jenny Slate, Michaela Watkins, Joan Cusack, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Robert Downey Jr, Billy Crystal… but no way you know their names. Even so, I felt broken. And who better than my ex-dressing room roommate [Molly Kearney] to call me, get me out of bed, and help me see the forest through the trees. Literally, they helped me get out of the city and I spent a month in nature. Touched grass. Gained some perspective. ‘SNL’ was my dream, and now I have a lot of time to dream new dreams.”

ZCON’s Friday programming focused on social impact, touching on topics like mental health and voting. Attendees then broke out into groups to engage in different activities with nonprofits The Jed Foundation, Born This Way Foundation, 5 Gyres, Noise for Now, When We All Vote and Strategy for Black Lives.

When asked what she hoped attendees took away from ZCON, UTA Next Gen executive Shaina Zafar said, “The buzzword for ZCON is ‘bestie.’ So I hope everyone finds someone new that they actually had a meaningful conversation with…So much of ZCON is just bringing our best friends together across generations and across industries, and that’s what I hope ZCON feels like.”