Behind The Scenes Of ViewerCon: How Entertainment Expert Chris Witherspoon Is Giving Audiences A Seat At Hollywood’s Table

For more than a decade, Chris Witherspoon has been a defining voice at the intersection of media and pop culture. As a seasoned entertainment journalist and contributor for NBC News and MSNBC, Chris has spent his career interviewing Hollywood icons like Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep, and Viola Davis. However, after years of covering the glitz and glamour of the red carpet, he recognized a critical gap: the entertainment industry lacked spaces where fans could genuinely understand the mechanics of storytelling, and studios lacked direct communication with the people watching their content.

Driven by a mission to solve this issue, Chris stepped out from behind the reporter role and into the tech and into his entrepreneur shoes. First came PopViewers, which is a media and tech platform designed to cultivate better conversations around audience desires and content discovery. Now, Chris is bringing that mission to life physically with ViewerCon, a groundbreaking new cultural convention designed to upend traditional Hollywood practices.

Featuring an intentionally diverse lineup of powerhouse Black media figures, including Joy Reid, Bevy Smith, Taye Diggs, and the cast of Power Book III: Raising Kanan, ViewerCon is built on the idea that fans are no longer just passive consumers but active creators, critics, and collaborators. By blending stacked business panels with open access, Chris is creating an ecosystem where aspiring students, independent digital creators, and major studio executives share the same room, proving that the future of media belongs entirely to the audience.

Her Agenda talked with Chris about his career and his entrepreneurship!

Her Agenda:You started your career as a reporter and journalist. Now, you have evolved into an entrepreneur bringing us PopViewers and great events like ViewerCon. What was the exact moment or gap in the market that made you want to go behind the scenes and create a convention like ViewerCon?

Chris Witherspoon: For me, it happened gradually over years of covering Hollywood. I was fortunate enough to interview everyone from Academy Award winners to first-time filmmakers and rising television and film talent. Along the way, I realized something was missing.

We celebrate the finished product, but we rarely create spaces where fans can truly understand how entertainment gets made or where the next generation of creators can learn directly from the people doing the work.

I also saw a disconnect between Hollywood and audiences. Studios spend billions creating incredible stories, but they don’t always have meaningful opportunities to hear directly from the people watching them. That’s really where PopViewers started, creating better conversations between audiences and the entertainment industry.

ViewerCon is the physical manifestation of that mission. It’s built on the belief that fans aren’t just consumers anymore. They’re collaborators, creators, critics, influencers, and tastemakers. More than ever, fandom fuels tune-in, drives ticket sales, and shapes culture.

We wanted to create a space where a student could share the same room as Taye Diggs, Joy Reid, or the cast of Power Book III: Raising Kanan, hear directly from them, ask questions, make connections, and leave believing there’s a place for them in this industry too.

Her Agenda:Every new venture comes with a learning curve. What has been the biggest executive or logistical lesson you’ve learned during the process for a brand-new cultural event?

Chris Witherspoon: The biggest lesson has been that relationships scale before businesses do. People often assume the hardest part is producing the event, but long before production comes trust. Every sponsor, every speaker, every venue partner, and every volunteer is making a decision to believe in something that doesn’t yet have a long track record.

That means you have to become incredibly disciplined about communication, follow-through, and consistency. Every email matters. Every text matters. Every meeting matters. Every promise matters.

I’ve also learned that founders have to be comfortable making decisions with imperfect information. If you wait until everything is certain or perfect, you’ll never launch anything meaningful. At some point, you have to trust your preparation, trust your team, and keep moving.

Her Agenda:When someone is creating something new like ViewerCon, the hardest thing for founders to navigate can be securing partnerships and sponsorships. For the founders and media entrepreneurs in our audience, what is your advice for pitching a new concept to major corporate stakeholders and getting them to see your vision?

Chris Witherspoon: The biggest mistake founders make is pitching what they need instead of the problem they solve.

Sponsors aren’t looking to write checks. They’re looking to accomplish business objectives. They want to reach new audiences. They want authentic engagement. They want measurable impact.

So instead of saying, “Here’s my event,” I try to say, “Here’s how we can help you achieve your goals.”

The other piece of advice is to build credibility before you ask for capital. For years, I showed up on TODAY, NBC News, and MSNBC, reporting on entertainment, interviewing talent, and building relationships. ViewerCon wasn’t created overnight. It was built on more than fifteen years of trust that started the day I became a journalist.

And finally, don’t be afraid to hear “no.” Some of our strongest partnerships happened because someone wasn’t ready the first time. In many cases, a “no” simply means they need more information, more confidence, or more proof. Sometimes “not yet” is a much better way to hear it.

Her Agenda:With programming featuring Taye Diggs on vertical storytelling and the rise of creator-led content, where do you see the traditional Hollywood model failing, and how can emerging creators position themselves to get a piece of the pie?

Chris Witherspoon: I don’t think Hollywood is failing as much as it’s evolving. For decades, there were gatekeepers deciding whose stories deserved to be told. Today, audiences decide. A creator with a phone and a compelling point of view can build an audience before ever stepping onto a studio lot.

That’s changing everything, and honestly, I’m here for it. I think audiences are too.

The creators who will thrive aren’t waiting for permission. They’re building communities, owning their intellectual property, understanding their audience, and creating consistently.

At the same time, Hollywood still has tremendous value. The future isn’t creators versus studios. 

It’s creators and studios working together. Studios need creators who understand digital audiences, and creators increasingly need studios to help scale ambitious storytelling.

The people who genuinely understand and embrace both worlds are going to be incredibly valuable over the next decade.

Her Agenda:From Joy Reid to the cast of Power Book III: Raising Kanan, your lineup features powerhouse Black media figures. When curating the programming for ViewerCon, how intentional were you about ensuring the business panels reflected diverse, intersectional leadership?

Chris Witherspoon: It was incredibly intentional. Representation matters, but representation without access isn’t enough.

We wanted attendees to see people leading news organizations, building production companies, running communications teams, creating technology, producing films, writing television, and reinventing themselves across industries. People who bet on themselves. People who created pathways where none existed.

That’s why you’ll see conversations with journalists, actors, entrepreneurs, executives, publicists, filmmakers, and creators all on the same stage. I also wanted people to understand that there isn’t one blueprint for success. Everyone’s journey looks different. Hopefully, someone attending ViewerCon will see themselves reflected in one of those stories and think, “Maybe my big, wild dream is possible too.”

Her Agenda:As a media executive and entrepreneur yourself, what is your advice to ambitious women who feel stuck in one corporate lane and want to pivot into a creative or entrepreneurial space?

Chris Witherspoon: Don’t wait until someone gives you permission to become the version of yourself you already know you can be. Some of the most successful people I’ve met didn’t make one giant leap. They made a series of small, intentional decisions that compounded over time. They put fear in the back seat. They bet on themselves. And they kept making the ask, again and again.

Start building before you’re ready. Launch the newsletter. Start the podcast. Host the networking event. Write the business plan. You don’t have to quit your job tomorrow, but you do have to start investing in yourself today. And remember, your entry-level, mid-level, or corporate experience isn’t something you’re leaving behind. It’s often the very thing that gives you an advantage as an entrepreneur.

Her Agenda:Before ViewerCon, you launched PopViewers. As a Black tech CEO in a space where capital is historically hard to secure, what is the biggest piece of advice you can give to diverse founders trying to build proprietary media platforms?

Chris Witherspoon: Solve a real problem before you worry about raising money. It took me a while to learn this, but capital follows traction far more often than ideas. Find a problem you’re genuinely passionate about solving. Your lived experience often becomes your greatest advantage. It’s what makes you an expert. It’s what makes you a leader.

For us, PopViewers has always been about helping audiences discover content while helping the entertainment industry better understand audience sentiment. That’s a real problem worth solving.

The second piece of advice is to think bigger than content. The media companies that thrive over the next decade won’t just publish articles. They’ll build technology, own data, create experiences, foster communities, and develop intellectual property. That’s why we’ve always viewed PopViewers as more than a tech company. We’re building an ecosystem.

Finally, don’t underestimate the power of relationships. Some of our biggest opportunities didn’t come from a cold email. They came from years of consistently showing up, delivering value, earning trust, and sometimes doing the work for little or no money because we believed it would open bigger doors.

Her Agenda:What does long-term success look like for the ViewerCon brand, and how do you plan to scale this community-driven engagement in the future?

Chris Witherspoon: Success isn’t becoming the biggest convention. Success is becoming the most meaningful one.

I want people to leave ViewerCon saying, “I found my people. I gained real tools. I heard wisdom that changed how I think. And I expanded my network in a way that brought me closer to my dream.”

I want ViewerCon to become the place where the entertainment industry comes to listen just as much as it comes to speak. Where studios discover emerging creators. Where journalists find new voices. Where students make career-changing connections. Where fans leave feeling like they were part of something bigger than a panel discussion.

Long-term, I absolutely see ViewerCon expanding to additional cities and growing into a year-round platform through digital content, community programming, and audience insights powered by PopViewers. But whatever scale looks like, I never want to lose what makes ViewerCon special.

Our tagline is “Built for the Fans. Powered by the Viewers.” That’s not just marketing copy. It’s our philosophy. Entertainment has always belonged to the audience. ViewerCon simply gives those audiences the most important seat at the table.