The Instagram Summit by Manychat aims to bring together more than 17,000 content creators from October 22-23, 2025, for a global virtual event focused on business development in the creator economy. Organized by Manychat, a conversational marketing platform with two million users across 170 countries, the event features industry leaders, including Zach King, Colin and Samir, as well as experts from Meta. This year, Manychat is expanding the summit to include an in-person component in Hollywood, California, on September 19.

“What we learned is there is this space that is kind of missing for creators, where they can gather together and learn not only how to create content, but also how to build a better audience, how to engage better, how to grow,” explains Anna Tutckaia, VP of Growth at Manychat.

The Instagram Summit began as an educational experiment with 3,000 attendees and has since grown considerably. As Anna explains, “The first event had 3,000 planned attendees, but we ended up getting 8,000, and eventually grew it to 17,000 last year.”

“When we started, we were tailoring content mostly to newly established creators,” Anna explains. “But as we grew, and as our audience grew with us, we started tailoring it to more mature creators.” This change reflects a broader shift in the creator economy, where success increasingly depends not just on viral moments but on establishing effective business models.

For 2025, the event is structured around three key themes: growing the right audience, selling smarter, not harder, and thinking like a business. “It’s less about how to create content because we learned that our creators know how to do that already,” notes Anna. “It’s more about how to create systems so you don’t burn out, how to create automations so you can focus less on things you don’t like and more on things you actually enjoy.”

Addressing Creator Isolation Through Community

One of the most compelling insights Anna shares is about the isolation many creators experience. “Being a creator is very lonely. It is a very lonely industry,” she says. “You need to think and figure out what type of content to create. You need to brainstorm mostly on your own. Not all creators have teams.”

This isolation extends beyond content creation to business operations. At industry events like VidCon, Anna has witnessed creators asking basic questions about taxes, team-building, and other business fundamentals, because they lack connections with peers facing similar challenges.

“I personally went to VidCon last year,” Anna recalls. “And I noticed that a lot of creators in the audience were raising their hands and they were asking questions about taxes and teams. All of that because they’re so lonely. They don’t have this connection with other people.”

To address this, Manychat has expanded its 2025 event to include both virtual and in-person components. The in-person event in Hollywood will create opportunities for face-to-face interactions. “Let’s facilitate in-person gatherings. Let’s bring together all of these creators in one space so they can learn from each other, form communities, and network,” Anna says. “There will be so many content creation opportunities right at the event, but most of all, [people can] connect and then also meet these big creators they follow and admire.”

Interactive Sessions and Engagement Formats

The Summit’s virtual format has been designed to maintain engagement despite the online setting. “We are always thinking about how to make our online event as interactive as possible,” Anna explains. The event will feature a mix of pre-recorded sessions, live presentations, and interactive elements.

One highlight will be Brock Johnson’s live reel review session, where attendees can participate by submitting their own content. “He’s not going to be presenting topics, but he is going to be reviewing reels live so everybody can participate,” says Anna. “It’s going to be a very interactive session.”

Other interactive elements include DJ Graffiti, who plays music live while reading comments from attendees. “He’s actually playing live, and he’s reading comments, and people are actually there, and they are dancing. It’s like a really cool experience,” Anna shares. The event will also feature round-tables where “people can join via Zoom, turn on their camera, and talk, like, with others.” 

Additionally, attendees will have the opportunity to create content with special stickers and effects, allowing them to make videos and share them with their communities. “No boring sessions,” Anna emphasizes.

Expert Speakers and Practical Business Strategies

The 2025 Summit features an impressive lineup of successful creators, including Zach King (23 million followers), Colin and Samir, and Brock Johnson, alongside business experts like Natasha Willis, co-founder of School of Bots, who has generated over $87 million for top-tier brands.

Meta, as Manychat’s official partner, supports the event with representatives who share insights about Instagram engagement and growth. “Since Manychat is an official Meta partner, Meta has supported us for the last five years. We have had speakers from Meta, and they shared all the interesting stuff around Instagram engagement and growth,” Anna says.

Session topics reflect the event’s practical business focus, with titles such as “How I Built an $87M Content System,” “Bulletproof Your Creator Business,” and “Transforming Followers into a Community.” These sessions offer concrete strategies rather than theoretical approaches.

“We want to make sure that the content is like playbooks; strategies that people can take and repurpose. It’s like less fluff and more real, how-tos,” explains Anna. “Because there is nothing worse than sessions where speakers try just to promote themselves.”

For creators interested in legal protection, especially in the AI era, attorney Brittany Ratelle will present on how to protect creative content from being repurposed without permission. “She is a lawyer and she will be sharing all the cool things on how to protect yourself as a creator, especially in this AI era where everything can be repurposed and your content can be repurposed,” Anna explains.

The Business Impact of Community-Building

While Manychat doesn’t directly profit from the event, the company views it as a crucial investment in the creator ecosystem. By helping creators build sustainable businesses, Manychat strengthens its own market position.

“If you were to look at the pure numbers, we are losing money to produce this event,” Anna admits. “But then we know what it’s going to do for this whole creator industry. And as this, you know, the effect on our business, it’s going to help us grow as well.”

The Summit’s impact is measurable in real business outcomes. Anna shares, ‘Last year, we received an email from one of the attendees saying, ‘Oh, my God, it blew my mind. I just made $300,000 based on what I learned from Natasha [Willis] School of Bots.’ And we’re just like, ‘Okay, we’re in the right business.'”

This focus on tangible results extends to Manychat’s product development. At the 2025 event, the company will announce new features.

From Lonely Content Creation to Business Community

For creators on the fence about attending, Anna’s elevator pitch focuses on community: “You don’t need to be alone. You need to come and join, so you can see others who are doing it at the same level as you are, and work together to achieve that goal. And second of all, you need to learn from folks who are already 10 steps ahead and just replicate what they have done.”

This emphasis on community-building within the business context represents a maturing creator economy. As platforms change and algorithms shift, success increasingly depends not on viral moments but on sustainable business practices and supportive professional networks.

As Anna puts it, “None of the workshops I’ve attended individually changed my life, but they all contributed a little bit. It’s a little thing here, a little thing there, an unlock here – and it all adds up. It builds your habits and shapes the way you think.”

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