Muted Enthusiasm at NFT.NYC 2023

Builders founded NFT.NYC in 2018 as a space for the growing non-fungible tokens (NFT) community. Their first event launched in February of the following year.

By 2022, NFT.NYC drew over 16,000 attendees, representing more than 70 countries.

Attendee numbers weren't as robust this year, but still impressive --

• 100+ Partners
• 200+ Reporters
• 500+ Brands
• 1,500+ Speakers
• 2,000+ Artists
• 6,000+ Attendees

As Yahoo Finance reported, NFT.NYC is back to deliver the Woodstock of NFTs

Spanning 12-14 April, C-suite executives, VIPs, artists, and enthusiasts gathered for meet-ups, panels, gamified contests, invite-only dinners, and afterparties.

Sponsors included OpenSea, PwC, and Amazon Web Services.

Event partners hosted metaverse exhibitions, art galleries, and networking lounges for degens to meet one another in the physical world.

Speakers covered topics such as intellectual property (IP), NFT regulation, fashion, gaming, art, health and the metaverse.

While Yuga Labs and CyberKongz and Yuga Labs have had a presence at prior major NFT events, both were absent for this annual Web3 event in New York City.

Tezos, however, offered a two day summit at Spring Studios on Varick Street, away from the main event held at the Javits Convention Center.

Tezos aimed for "a dynamic gathering of creatives, innovators, and enthusiasts at the intersection of artistic inspiration, community networking and developer innovation... fun and interactive talks, workshops, portfolio reviews as well as various activations by Tezos NFT projects and much more."?

BK Crypto Co-Founder Kimberly Maultsby has personally collected limited release NFT versions of songs by The Weekend and Justin Blau, a DJ professionally known as 3LAU. Her NFT art collection includes pieces by Mike Parisella pka @Slimesunday on Instagram, and she is a Moon God level collector of former Major League Baseball player Micah Johnson's Aku Dreams Chapters and Akutars. She holds Token Metrics' Astrobot NFTs which come with lifetime access to the Token Metrics crypto ratings platform, Meta Angels, which fosters and encourages networking and collaborations among women.

"The use of NFT's is poised to impact and streamline various industries including direct to consumer music sales by artists, event ticketing, digital art, gaming, validating both physical and virtual real estate ownership, and more. Land ownership will also be more easily transferable without the use of such things as a title company," says Maultsby.

"Gaming will be a fast road to crypto adoption for the masses. Holding Aku Dreams provides gated access to aspects of the forthcoming Aku Dreams metaverse, among other things. Likewise, Aku, and many top projects occasionally expand their ecosystem?by airdropping free NFTs...

Since only about 21% of the US adults have owned or invested in crypto currencies, entering the crypto world can be lonely; thus, it's important to connect with a community.?While we welcome all, BK Crypto was initially created to be a hub for black and brown people because there are few of us investing in crypto. BK Crypto strives to create a network where new crypto investors feel safe and are?welcome."

Late last year, BK-Crypto launched a crypto-themed apparel line, as shown on the center hoodie, in the photo above.

Yorkseed Founder Jessica Sophíā Wong, pictured above, spoke with an artist who wants to move to Germany.

Less glamourous events were held in apartment buildings, co-working spaces, and dive bars.

The NY Post reported:

Since its inaugural run in 2019, purveyors of so-called NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have spent millions on splashy events. They have hired celebrity DJs like Diplo and rented out pricey venues like the trendy downtown club Tao, the Dream Hotel’s rooftop PHD and the members-only club Spring Place.?

This week, NFT.NYC – held Wednesday through Friday – has been more of a low-budget affair. Most events had multiple sponsors to share the cost and some events were held in free or inexpensive venues – like common space in apartment buildings or dive bars.

While there is an?official conference?hosted at the Javits Center, NFT insiders said the outside events are much more important. Still, insiders say all the money companies had spent in years past didn’t necessarily help Web 3.0’s cause.?

Lume Studios, Eden Loft celebrated the final night of NFT NYC with live auctions, giveaways and four NFT exhibits.

While he found a lot of the?works interesting and?beautiful, PhD Candidate Hamadi Henderson, pictured above, would?not be interested in purchasing the?NFT alone. He would only consider buying a piece if the NFT was an accessory to a physical painting or object. "Additionally, among the works there were items that were statement?pieces and some that were merely ornaments... Some of the works seemed more thoughtful and intended to inspire deep thought while other works seemed to follow current decorative trends. [Though] visually stimulating, they did not have much depth beyond being nice to look at... Thinking about how technology/AI is influencing art, many art consumers are being forced to reconsider their values when it comes to artworks and their worth.

@vvwvvw_eth was less kind about the conference, tweeting, "NFT NYC this year is extremely boring, tbh. Everyone is just repeating the same things, very superficial, endless blah blah blah…

If you shout out boring things, it doesn't make them any more interesting or valuable, your audience here is not a grandma's bingo party."

We must also remember that diversity will be key to Web3's success, as I wrote in Forbes.

The Author, Lisa Chau