YugaLabs, Doodles, Boneys, Akus, and Deadfellaz are just a few of the buzzed-about NFT collections making waves last week at NFT.NYC, the biggest non-fungible token event. 

The timing was less than auspicious. The crypto market is unraveling, transactions for NFTs are doing a deep dip, and NFT skeptics cry that the emperor has no clothes. Bitcoin and Etherium have both lost more than 70 percent of their value since November.

Doomsayers be damned. The NFT party rocked on in NYC last week. Invite-by-token parties, club scenes, lavish diners, NFT merch, 1,500 speakers, and 15,000 artists and creators made NFT.NYC feel like a NY-style Mardi Gras. Now in its fourth year, the three-day event took place in locations all over the city. The conference panels felt like an EST meeting (remember those?) meets Studio 54 (remember it?) meets ComiCon (yes, there were many festooned folks). The vibe was to encourage creators to double down and keep doing what it takes to build a strong, more inclusive Web 3.0 world. The zeitgeist was to put the sword through the heart of FAMGA (Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon), who were nowhere in sight, and build a new decentralized, creator-based pie where all avatars are created equal. 

Lior Cole, a twenty one year old model and aspiring NFT, maker wrote to tell me that “The NFT winter on the horizon only added fuel to the excitement, giving innovators and investors even more incentive to build and get involved early with anticipated future growth.” One reporter from ArtNet who attended a good number of sessions found them commercial, content-free, haphazardly curated, and poorly attended. The “Art” room, he says, never broke much above 10 percent capacity in a 1,000-seat auditorium. Attendees paid between $599 and $1,999 for tickets.

Of particular importance to our group is the role NFTs will play at events. The entertainment and live event industries are eagerly launching NFT strategies to diversify their revenue streams and monetize their IP in new ways. In doing so, they give fans another way to engage. Live Nation’s Live Stubs provides fans with NFTs as part of their event ticket purchases. Like collecting ticket stubs without the physical clutter. 

Also look at NFT.Kred, a company that’s creating an NFT marketplace for brands. Case studies on the site show how you can hold an NFT in your wallet that will also give you access to an in-person event once that NFT ticket is scanned. Your ticket becomes a commemorative souvenir but also provides an opportunity to extend engagement with attendees and fans, VIP access, discounted merch and other fan club perks. 

Standards: We Know How This Song Goes
First they’ll tell you that they really want standards so that their metaverses can be interoperable. In the same breath the same company will tell you that they’ve got to leapfrog the competition in order to differentiate themselves. Standards are a bear! Is there any hope for a Metaverse Standards Forum whose members include Microsoft, Wayfair, Qualcomm, Meta, Ikea, Adobe and Alibaba. The idea is to agree on common open protocols for things like transporting your stuff from metaverse to metaverse?

This fall the VEG group is introducing working groups for like-minded individuals to meet in intimate communities and dive into areas that need best practices and development. Visit our Community board and drop us a note letting us know what you’re interested in. So far our working groups include Metaverse and Web 3.0, Cool Tools for Better Meetings, Data and Standards, and Platforms/Tech Stacks.

We’ll also have regularly scheduled deep dives for VEG members only. Inquiries for membership should go to Julie@virtualeventsgroup.org.