It seems President Barack Obama is a fan of YouTube.
The White House has released a video on YouTube from a Feb. 27 meeting with several top YouTube stars where they discussed health care, how to engage audiences online and other topics.
The meeting, organized by Jash co-founders Mickey Meyer and Daniel Kellison, brought together President Obama, members of his administration and YouTube talent including Tyler Oakley, Hannah Hart and The Fine Bros.
“I proposed a roundtable discussion with some key YouTube and they were on board immediately,” says Meyer of the discussion, which was inspired by Kellison’s involvement with the Entertainment Advisory Council that met with the President last year.
In a video posted to YouTube on March 5, YouTube personality and LGBT advocate Oakley said the meeting also touched on the issues that each YouTube representative finds important.
“It was just a real cool, genuine honest discussion,” Oakley said.
They also found out that Sasha and Malia Obama are YouTube fans. Oakley adds, “He told us that his daughters are fans of YouTube and had probably seen all of us in the room.”
After the talk, the President Obama invited the group on a tour of the White House, which included a stop in the Oval Office. Meyer says his favorite part of the tour was seeing the first telegraph machine.
“He said, ‘this was the predecessor to the Internet,’” recounts Meyer. “It was a surreal moment.”
He adds that he hopes the meeting will help create greater awareness about how YouTube can be used to connect with audiences.
“My hope is that really that the White House and everybody will see the power and level of engagement that these talent have with their fans,” he says. “What they say really has a lot of influence.”
Watch a video from the meeting here:
