The New York event dedicated to the Web does not unleash passions in its own enclosure. However, its brand allows the sector to shine throughout the week throughout the city.
If NFT Paris took place at the same time as the Paris Agricultural Show, NFT NYC shares the Javits Center with an automobile show. A proximity without much consequence in view of the excess of the conference center, which testifies to the stated ambition of the New York Web3 event.
Mainly on two floors, each approximately 9,000 square meters, including one with a terrace overlooking the marina, NFT.NYC 2023 is spacious. Probably a little too much in view of the very disparate crowd on the first day. Although the atmosphere is in no way reminiscent of the gloom of NFT.London organized by the same structure, the public is not in a hurry at the entrance as we observed during NFT.Paris, whose organization is independent of the American entity.
And if there are more people on the upper floor, it is also because there is the room reserved for VIPs and speakers, obviously more numerous than the public in the early morning. A regular at the event logically confides to us “his disappointment”, while a little later in the day, a communicator from a public relations agency confirms our impressions: “The Javits Center is too big, it’s empty. They should rather reduce the airfoil. Everyone goes to the side events”.
NFT.NYC’s problem lies precisely there: in the free market. There marque attracts all components of the sector, which organize their own events in parallel, day and night. They are all over the city, or almost: Manhattan of course, Brooklyn and even Queens. In total, more than 150 were listed over the three days of the main event: technology, gaming, art, gastronomy, social, all the themes that can be touched by Web3 are covered by conferences and parties.
Side events more popular than the main conference
Round table of the Future+ side event. © JDN
This Wednesday morning, the influencer and creator gmoney, for example, launched a treasure hunt in front of an audience of entrepreneurs and investors to present its new collection of phygital (physical and digital clothing). Near New York’s famous High Line promenade and the Chelsea Market halls, a Samsung 837 concept store hosted Future+ in the afternoon, a series of round tables around the advantages of blockchain for the retail sector and customer relations. , with speakers like Marc Mathieu from Salesforce, Lisa Jowett from Bitgo, or the French Sébastien Borget for The Sandbox, Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel for Arianee and Olivier Mongeon from Exclusible. Asked about the usefulness of this New York high mass, Sébastien Borget insists with us on “the importance for a platform like The Sandbox to be confronted with its ecosystem, such as creative studios, gaming communities”. The metaverse Web3 platform also organizes its own satellite events with its parent company Animoca, including one with producer Steve Aoki, partner of The Sandbox. For the co-founder of the game, it’s also a real business opportunity: “It’s also an opportunity to talk to other entrepreneurs in the ecosystem. Here in New York, we have all the co-founders of the Open Metaverse Alliance (a consortium and business lobby working on interoperable metaverses, editor’s note). Since the beginning of Web3 in 2018, NFT.NYC was already there and we were only 500. It remains a showcase for us and the demonstration of a metaverse that is still very active and alive. Afterwards, we remain aligned with the current market trend: our presence is more modest, without a big booth or big event, but we are there in an efficient and agile way.”
Strong investors
A little further on, the CEO of a metaverse company confides for his part that if his company has never dug up customers in such an event, it remains essential to maintain relations. A relational prism also put forward by the boss of a Investment Funds, present at NFT.NYC to meet North American partners. “A conference represents an opportunity to meet in the same place for people with common interests”, he characterizes. “It was Jacques Attali who once explained that the center of a conference is not the stage but the coffee machine. This event is either geared towards people from the Web3 community, or corporates who come to discover the sector “It helps to evangelize. There is always some return on investment, even if the quantification is complicated. Either way, the physical place allows for friction and serendipity.” Moreover, the large presence of investment funds suggests that if the era of “whatever the cost” is also over for Web3, interest in the technology is still there. “It’s much less bling bling than before. Interesting things are happening but still under the radar,” assures us, cryptically, the boss of an analytical firm.
And if the conference as such no longer attracts crowds, NFT.NYC does contribute to spreading the technology throughout the city: as every year, Times Square indeed devotes its screens to NFT collections and companies, such as the gallery Brussels ArtCrush or that of the famous pseudonymous collector Cozomo di Medici. During the day, Dounia Hadbi, project director of Cross The Ages, had no words when showing us the teaser of the game broadcast on the most visited place in the Big Apple. Like what, New York is always a dream.
2023-04-13 07:00:00
#NFT.NYC #York #event #audience #shine
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