The roller coaster ride continues as we resume in-person meetings with a high-tech touch and resume digital meetings with a high-touch tech. Hear from Adam Charles and Dan Carter of Freeman along with Tara Back from Google about how companies large and small should be thinking about their blend of events.

A study by CoinGecko, the world’s largest independent cryptocurrency site, analyzed thousands of NFT-related search terms to see which were Googled the most. The numbers represent Google searches per month. How many of these have you Googled?

• What is an NFT? 948,000 
• How do you create an NFT? 287,000 
• Where to buy and sell NFTs? 116,400 
• What’s the most expensive NFT? 102,000 
• Why are NFTs valuable? 64,000 
• Are NFTs bad for the environment? 32,000 
• What does minting mean? 29,000 

Zhong Yang Chan, Head of Research at CoinGecko, provides the definitive answer to each of these key NFT questions.

Event Tech Live takes place in London in mid-November. But if the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that we’re going to be more deliberate and intentional in our travel. It also taught us to think about creative options. 

In a unique approach to hybrid, Dahlia + Agency is offering to attend the event on your behalf. They’ve teamed up with Event Tech Live to set up a virtual presence for companies that can’t attend. You still get to demo and interact with attendees, and then they’ll do the lead generation for you. More information. 

Jim Goes Oculus Shopping
Jim Louderback, king of the creator economy and a member of our advisory board, went to the Meta store to try out the Oculus Pro. He found it pricey, but a heck of an improvement over the original.

Meet Molly White
What a breath of fresh air! Molly’s blog Web3isgoinggreat takes the skeptic’s view toward all things crypto, blockchain and metaverse. A software engineer by training, she now has over 140,000 followers as she regularly calls out the scams, hypes and disasters that have become the hallmark of the new web. She was interviewed by Protocol this week.

A Short History of Licensing
What happens to your intellectual property? From Mickey Mouse to Metaverse, Steven Ekstract gives us an informative history.

Whither Goest the BA Degree? 
This month reported a 6.5% drop in enrollment in college. That’s 250,000 fewer students. Small colleges continue to close or merge at an alarming pace.Many students cited the enormous cost of an education versus the perceived limited return on investment. Partnerships with industry, work study programs, online universities, adult education, and just-in-time skilling need to be watched as alternative paths to employment. The events industry is not alone in worrying about how its young workforce will be trained, but it’s a worrying statistic in general. 

The Next Cold War Has a Chip On Its Shoulder
Read my column about the new cold war in Techonomy this week. When I was a kid, we hid under our desks (duck and cover) in case of nuclear attacks. Today’s cold war is all about who’ll win the chip race and as with any global economic issue, it’s damn complicated.