My First Webby Awards: A Night with Adobe, Creators, and a Room Full of Origin Stories

The 2026 Webby Awards ceremony took place on Monday, May 11, at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. By the time I arrived, the evening already had that unmistakable award-show energy: photographers lining the red carpet, creators and executives moving through the room, custom gowns and designer outfits everywhere, and nearly 1,000 guests gathering to celebrate the people shaping the internet.

This was my first Webby Awards.

I walked the red carpet with Adobe executives, creators, and fellow ambassadors, trying to take in the moment without letting it pass too quickly. The room was full of comedians including Josh Johnson, host of show. I was excited to see him on stage who did a stellar job kicking off the show.

There were also doctors, filmmakers, educators, founders, artists, and digital creators whose work reaches millions. I imagined how much of the world population subscribe to all the creators in the room combined.

Interestingly enough, some names I recognized immediately. Others I didn’t know yet, which became one of the most exciting parts of the evening.

JT Casey was one of the invited creators from Adobe. At only 23, he’s grown his YouTube channel to over 16 million subscribers.

One of my favorite moments from the night happened during intermission while I was waiting for the ladies’ room.

I started chatting with Alaire Thomas. I didn’t know who she was at first. She was warm, funny, and easy to talk to, the kind of person who immediately makes a small moment feel relaxed.

Then several women came up to her with visible excitement. They recognized her, loved her content, and wanted to tell her so. Their admiration was immediate and sincere.

That was when I realized I had been speaking with someone whose work had already reached a very large audience.

Alaire told me she had been creating content for only about a year and had grown to more than 1 million fans. How did she do this? Consistency. She committed to creating at least one video everyday for the entire year. Now she is a comedian and currently on tour, and hearing that from her directly felt so different from reading it in a bio or seeing it on a social profile.

The Webbys were the finale to an unforgettable few days in New York with Adobe, including Creator Weekend and the Adobe Firefly Activation in Times Square, which I wrote about recently. But this night deserves its own reflection because it gave me a different kind of feeling.

Times Square was bright, public, and interactive.

The Webby Awards felt like stepping inside the internet’s living room. Not the noisy version we experience through our feeds, but the human version: creators sitting at tables, friends cheering for friends, doctors and comedians taking the same stage, and people from wildly different corners of the internet gathered in one room because something they made found its audience.

The table I was sitting at with some of my favorite creators

That feeling stayed with me.

After the ceremony, the official after-party continued at Marquee New York which I did not attend. For me, the most memorable part of the night was already unfolding inside Cipriani: the red carpet, the conversations, the people at our Adobe tables, the photos, the behind-the-scenes moments, and the overwhelming sense that every creator in that room had an origin story.

I had not been many red carpet event. Webby certainly had its unique, glamorous vibe. People arrived in custom gowns, designer outfits, statement pieces, and looks clearly chosen for a milestone night.

And I was there wearing one of my favorite designs from Xiang Li Artwear.

In a room where fashion was part of the storytelling, my outfit carried my own story. The artwork on my back was created by my mother, Xiang Li, a master artist who spent decades painting inside the Forbidden City and has continued to create work that brings Chinese history, women, and cultural memory into public spaces.

I felt proud. Not in a loud way, but in a grounded way.

Many attendees wore designer pieces, and award recipients had extraordinary gowns made for the evening. Yet I felt completely myself wearing my mother’s art. I wasn’t only attending as Fei Wu from Feisworld. I was also attending as Xiang Li’s daughter, as someone who has spent years helping bring her work from silk scrolls to museums, festivals, public events, artwear, and now a room full of creators celebrating the internet’s best work.

That moment meant more to me than I expected.

Inside the Room

Adobe had more than one table at the event, and I was seated in the VIP section alongside creators and collaborators, including people I had just worked with during the Firefly Activation.

At my table and nearby were creators such as Gizem Akdag, Aaron Ricketts, Thaddeus Coates, and Brandon B, a huge creator whose work many people recognize instantly. There were also Adobe executives and other creators moving between tables, catching up, taking photos, and celebrating the night.

The venue itself was full of beautiful behind-the-scenes details: the tables, the service, the stage, the lighting, the steady movement of people greeting one another, the sense that everyone had arrived from a different corner of the internet but somehow understood the same language of making, sharing, experimenting, and continuing.

I took a lot of photos and videos, partly because it was beautiful, and partly because I wanted to remember the feeling of being there. Not just the celebrity or award-show part, but the texture of the evening: the people leaning in to talk across tables, creators introducing themselves without ego, friends cheering for friends, and a room full of people who know how much invisible work sits behind a very public moment.

It reminded me that momentum can arrive in many forms. Some creators build slowly over many years. Others find their audience quickly because something about their voice, timing, or truth connects at exactly the right moment.

Either way, someone still has to begin.

Someone has to make the first video, post the first joke, share the first imperfect idea, and keep going long enough for people to find them.

Watching Rena Malik, MD Take the Stage

The day before the Webbys, I met Rena Malik, MD, a creator and urologist whose work makes medical education more approachable and accessible.

During the awards, I watched her walk confidently onto the stage and accept her Webby. There was something powerful about seeing a physician celebrated in that room, not just for being an expert, but for using digital media to educate people at scale.

It expanded how I think about the word “creator.”

A creator is not only someone making lifestyle videos or entertainment content. A creator can be a doctor, a teacher, an artist, a comedian, a filmmaker, a writer, a founder, a cultural worker, or a mother-daughter team building a world around Chinese art and history.

The internet can feel crowded, but nights like this remind me how many different kinds of voices are needed.

My Favorite Acceptance Speech

Did you know that Webby Awards is known for their 5-word acceptance speech? It sounds odd at first but then you realized how effective it is as a standard format. Award recipients are bond to spend the least amount of time possible to communicate what’s most important to their audience.

When Tony Goldwyn walked on stage, I was pleasantly surprised. I had watched several seasons of Scandal and genuinely enjoyed it. Tony played the US President and Kerry Washington was the lead to play Olivia Pope. Scandal was created by the very iconic Shonda Rhimes. And Tony was there to introduce Shonda as the next Webby Award recipient.

In just five words, Shona delivered my favorite acceptance speech: I Am Just Getting Started.

The crowd went crazy. We all loved it. And agreed with what she said regardless of where we are on our creative journey. What she delivered was powerful.

There Is Room

By the end of the evening, one thought stayed with me more than anything else:

There is room.

There is room for people who started ten years ago and people who started ten months ago.

There is room for creators with millions of followers and creators still finding their first true fans.

There is room for comedy, medicine, art, education, storytelling, culture, AI, design, and every strange combination in between.

It is easy, especially as a creator, to look at someone else’s success and feel behind. Someone has already built the audience. Someone already has the award. Someone already has the tour, the book deal, the platform, the perfect niche, the polished brand.

But being in that room gave me the opposite feeling.

Just because someone started before you doesn’t mean you are late. Just because another creator has built a massive community doesn’t mean your voice is unnecessary. The people who resonate with your work may not have found you yet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there.

That feeling was surprisingly emotional for me.

Over the years, I have built Feisworld through podcasting, video, writing, consulting, brand work, and now deeper work around AI, creators, and independent media. At the same time, I have helped grow Xiang Li Art with my mother, bringing her paintings and stories into museums, festivals, public art projects, exhibitions, artwear, and community spaces.

Neither path has been linear. Both require patience. Both require showing up when the results are not immediate.

The Webbys reminded me that large communities often begin with small, sincere acts of creation.

Community, Not Just Audience

A few weeks later, I attended the Greater Worcester Community Foundation’s annual meeting on June 2, where Charles Vogl, author of The Art of Community, was one of the speakers.

His talk helped me connect something I had been feeling since New York.

For years, so much of creator strategy has been framed around audience growth: how often to post, which platforms to use, what content performs, how to increase reach, how to convert attention into opportunity.

Those things matter. I teach them. I use them. I believe in being intentional.

But community is different.

Community is not simply a larger audience. It is not just a follower count, a mailing list, or a room full of people who know your name. Community forms when people feel invited into something meaningful. It grows when they return not only for information, but for belonging, reflection, inspiration, and connection.

That is what I want to build more intentionally through Feisworld and Xiang Li Art.

Not in a rushed way. Not by chasing every trend or trying to turn every moment into a campaign. I want to find and nurture the people who truly resonate with the work: creators navigating change, artists learning to share their stories, women who see themselves in Xiang Li’s empresses, families discovering Chinese culture through art, and independent thinkers who believe creativity can become a bridge between worlds.

The Webby Awards gave me a glimpse of what is possible when ideas find their people. Charles Vogl’s talk reminded me that the work of community is slower, more human, and more intentional than simply growing a platform.

I need both reminders.

What I Brought Home

When I think back to my first Webby Awards, I don’t only remember the stage, the red carpet, or the beautiful room.

I remember walking into the event with Adobe and feeling grateful for the creative opportunities that brought me there, sitting with creators I had just collaborated with during the Adobe Firefly Activation and realizing how quickly shared work can turn strangers into friends.

I remember meeting Alaire Thomas in line and witnessing, in real time, the love people felt for her work. Watching Rena Malik, MD accept her award and feeling inspired by the many ways expertise can become service through content. Looking around at nearly 1,000 guests and wondering about all the beginnings that led them there.

And I remember wearing my mother’s artwork on my back, surrounded by designer gowns and custom looks, feeling no less dressed for the occasion because my outfit carried history, family, and love.

That is the part I will hold onto most.

The Webby Awards were epic and overwhelming, but also deeply grounding. The creators I admired most were not untouchable. Many were down to earth, generous, and willing to share what they had learned. Especially those who came up on their own, without being adjacent to someone else’s fame, reminded me how much I respect the courage it takes to build from scratch.

I left New York with more photos than I knew what to do with, new people to follow, new stories to learn, and a renewed belief that creativity is not a competition for limited space.

It is an invitation.

And there is room for us to keep showing up.