Resiliency Of In-person Events
In-person events such as the Web Summit in Lisbon packed in crowds like never before; so many that it finally got its own survival guide. NAB had an energizing show with nearly 10,000 attendees agreeing that broadcast production qualities are trickling down to corporate and consumer productions. At Gitex, flying cars, robot police people, new
metaverses, and driverless taxis showed a packed audience that innovation is booming. Masks were still prominently featured at Japan’s XR fair, but 34,000 visitors showed up to take a swing and VR and AR. And CES is on track for a great year. All of these portend a banner year for in-person events.
Digital Matters
On the high tech side, there’s got to be more resiliency and a look at the long term strategy as well. Virtual events are not going away, nor are metaverses or NFTs. But all need to double down on their precise place in the maturing events ecosystem.
In a perfect world, in-person events wouldl solidify the relationships made during virtual events. Reddit proved that you can have a thriving NFT economy if you keep the process simple, the language familiar, and appeal to a base who are sort of over the traditional NFT craze. It launched more than 3 million crypto wallets as part of its “anything but an NFT” collectibles (avoiding the word NFTs). The company avoided third party wallet creation by offering Reddit Vaults and it sold NFTs using
fiat currency (dollars) not ETH. All the dirty work of chains and wallets was hidden behind the scenes.
Zoomtopia starts this week (Nov. 8th) and we’ll have all the updates in next week’s letter. The 6th annual Zoomtopia (a hybrid event this year) comes at a time when our collective Zoom-dependency is dwindling and Zoom-fatigue is almost part of the medical lexicon. The company itself
suffers from a bit of Pinochio syndrome — still hoping it can become a real platform, not simply a one-hit wonder. Pundits are already exploring what a more expansive Zoom will look like. |
