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Yesterday I crawled out of my writing dungeon and attended NFT SF. I was almost blinded by the sun. My pale skin can only take so much!
So, what happened? Let’s get into it!
Conference logistics are hard
The lack of logistical tightness around NFT conferences is pronounced. There were some parallels that reminded me of NFT SF around sessions, timing, and general confusion.
NFT SF seemed to resolve these issues by the end of the day, but this a large area of improvement.
Here’s an example — NFTs & Film was supposed to start at 9:55am.
When did the talk actually start? 11AM.
How do I know this? It’s when I started taking notes for the session.
The talk ended up being 25-30 minutes vs. the allotted 15. Props to version history for the assist.
I don’t know what happened on the backend so there may be valid reasons for this. However, this is a pretty big delay considering this was the first talk scheduled for the Joe Henderson Lab.
As these events get more reps in, I hope to see these logistical pieces tighten up. I imagine larger industry conferences experienced similar issues early on and as they grew gathered the resources to create a world-class event.
Speaker Curation
I imagine there is a delicate balance here, and I wonder what it looks like to curate a speaker list focused more on impact for the audience vs. the celebrity of the speaker.
IMO, my favorite session was from someone that does not have a large online social presence, while my least favorite session was from someone with an impressive professional title.
Having speakers with big titles are great for promotion and increasing attendance while having impactful speakers help with retention and increasing the likelihood of repeat attendance. How can that be balanced for best of both worlds?
This is not a shill for me to become a speaker at your next event…😉
Old faces and new
As I’ve attended more industry events, I’ve begun to see familiar faces and be introduced to new ones. The IRL connections are priceless and add a new dimension to digital-first conversations.
While in the Uber to NFT SF, I fired off a few messages in various groups asking if anyone else was attending, and was grateful to receive a few responses to meet up!
Diversity
NFT focused conferences seem more diverse from both a speaker and attendee perspective. Topically, this seems to be the angle to bring underrepresented groups to join in on the conversation and learn more about the world of Web3.
Dan (Supafray) - I met Dan 7 months ago at a Web3 event and we’ve kept in touch ever since. We attended EDCON together and it was great bumping into him again at NFT SF! He was the Director of Creative Affairs and did a great job providing more opportunities for digital artists to speak and for their work to be displayed at the event.
Taylor - A premium subscriber that I met IRL! It was great to catch up and have a spontaneous strategy session as you think about the next steps for growth with Perk Shop!
Laura and Tyler - I met Laura last week in an online creator community and that led to meeting you and your husband in person! It’s awesome that both of you are also writers. I have to catch up with you both to learn more about what’s going on in your respective worlds.
Jackie and Justin - I’ve known Jackie since our early days in the mobile app space and Justin has become a SF event buddy as well (not to mention the founder of Safary). We grabbed lunch together and discussed best practices around BD and partnerships, community building, and my hypotheses around content creation. I’m sure I’ll see you two again soon!
Abbas - Thanks for spontaneously walking up to me to share what you’re working on. Though competition will be fierce (eg: Amazon accepts crypto), I like the ground up approach of building The Marketplace that is for crypto natives. More importantly, I respect your hustle 💪
Datz - Datz is the founder of DeStore, a retail store in SF that incorporates a DAO to make business decisions. The store will launch soon and this is a cool concept I want to learn more about and possibly cover!
Todd - I met Todd at the NFT SF afterparty at DeStore and we connected over his company, LiveSpace. I’m looking forward to seeing how new livestreaming upstarts incorporate Web3 tech to be more efficient while providing more value back to creators.
Thank you for giving me a ride to the next Happy Hour event after just chatting for 15 minutes. And of course, Fight On ✌️
Paul - I met Paul at the second Happy Hour event. He came to the event to learn more about NFTs (and possibly the free food and drinks heh) and I had the pleasure of answering some of his questions. I hope you check out SUPERF3ST and get involved, I think it’s up your alley!
Also, thanks for the Sunset Squares token. It’s been a great venue for Web3 events and I’ll be back soon.
Missed out on NFT SF? I gotchu. Feel free to share these notes and look smart!
NFTs & Film with James Andrew Felts, CEO of Moviebill
It’s not NFTs that confuse you, it’s Art, by Tyler Odean
NFTs & Security Panel with FYEO, Certik, and Unciphered
Have you taken notes before? If so, share or subscribe!
In my last piece I held a little contest with you guys to guess the number of Discord servers I’m in thanks to DiscordTools. How many Discords am I in?
drumroll please…🥁
TADA!
Who was the closest?
Oooo Jonathan you’re already a premium sub, so this gets fun! I’ll DM you to discuss an equivalent value prize for winning this mini-game.
See you tomorrow folks!
