BOSTON—Who is holding the fort down on the information ecosystem in your city?

The creator economy is about to be a $500 billion industry, and yet there are cities whose information ecosystem isn’t “activated.” The media landscape is strong, but it’s still fragmented. Creators are everywhere on social media, and people love and trust their journalists as well. And yet, the two rarely meet — and more importantly, they’re not supported by industry leaders, foundations, and brands.

The lack of a well-rounded information ecosystem often leads to what researchers call "content deserts" — areas where people lack necessary information because there isn't enough good journalism reaching social media platforms, even where a robust local news ecosystem exists.

This is because, whether we like it or not, creators and journalists are sometimes the same thing to the audience. People don’t know the nuances of journalism, and they don’t know the difficulty of being an independent creator — they just see you on their phone screen while scrolling on social media. That’s why it’s vital to connect the two, so they can work together to better serve their collective audiences.

And that is exactly what I did.

On Tuesday, I hosted my first major event ever with the Video Consortium to connect the storytellers of Boston. And the creators showed up. We had 200 people register and over 100 came: journalists, creators, newsroom leaders, brands, marketing agencies, and creator economy experts, all in the same room. Not to mention the amazing independent documentarians and filmmakers who are part of the Video Consortium’s network of storytellers.

It was a formless, fun night that began my journey of bridging the creator economy and journalism in Boston, after spending months traveling and learning from other cities nationwide.

Here are some of my biggest takeaways that will be useful for you, from some of the creators and experts I spoke to: