GM from NYC! So while we’re going to be releasing a ton of articles covering all of the exciting drops and projects that have been released and announced this week, I thought it wise to initiate the impending rush of information with a bit of a recap of the past few days, from my perspective. I’ve worked ComicCon, VidCon, New York Fashion Week, and a ton of other large-scale events, and I have to say that the energy present here in New York this week has been unparalleled. Growing pains aside, the NFT.NYC team tackled a beast of an endeavor this week and should be commended for facilitating the largest crypto-related meeting of the minds in history. I chatted with Jodee Rich, the founder of the event, who told me that last year there was one venue with 500 attendees. Then “this year there were 5,000 tickets sold, an additional 3,000 people on the waitlist, and over 10,000 people in New York for various additional satellite events that have been taking place throughout the week.”
Talk about a tangible example of how this space has blown up!
So, without further ado or being too wordy, I want to quickly recap some of the craziest things that I witnessed over the past four days:
- The first thing that must be mentioned is getting to finally meet so many people I’ve interacted with, spoken with, and worked with IRL! It has been amazing putting faces to so many PFPs / usernames, and this was the true highlight of the week. I love you all!
- On day 1, when I was about to go to sleep, I got a text from Krista Kim to “come meet Steve Aoki.” Confused yet excited I hopped in an Uber and rolled up to the Oneof party where, sure enough, Steve Aoki, Don Diablo, and 3Lau were all behind the DJ booth accompanied by a bouncing Farokh, a slightly less bouncy Logan Paul, and a crowd of some of the most influential community members in the space for what Aoki described as “an underground NFT rave.” It was pretty awesome. Read more here.
- To start Day 2, I got to speak on an official panel at the event about community building with a great group of NFTers, including Lou Kerner, Hunter Orrell, and the founder of Wyre Yanni Giannaros. I was overwhelmed by positive feedback after the talk and will be posting the entire video on my socials at some point.
Watching @ItsAdamtastic @davidcash888 @hunterorrell and more talk about community ❤️ pic.twitter.com/pobzsUhhBr
— Bryan Brinkman (@bryanbrinkman) November 2, 2021
- After my panel, I headed over to Times Square only to see my face up on a billboard amongst all of the other incredible speakers. As someone who was a child actor on broadway, this was absolutely surreal.
- By day 2, the events already started to blend together… BUT I met BEEPLE (I did not ask for a selfie as much as I wanted to).
- I claimed a ton of IRL POAPs from a variety of events and people, including Farokh and DAO member + NFT Artist extraordinaire Bryan Brinkman!
- On Day 3 I joined Chloe Jay and the Deadmau5 team at the launch of Bright Moments Gallery and their Crypto New Yorkers minting party. Deadmau5, Steve Aoki and members of the Faze Clan were amongst the genesis minters at this awesome launch.
- Quentin Tarantino, of all people, surprisingly showed up to a speaker panel and announced that he’ll be dropping an NFT- more information in an article by Clyde F Smith dropping later today.
- I had the pleasure of sitting down with Kenny Schacter, one of my favorite Artists and Critics and had a lengthy conversation on all things NFTism. We’ll be meeting up again before I leave for a WTF interview coming to you all next week!
- I also had the pleasure of having dinner with Krista Kim, Don Diablo, Hrish Lotlikarand, a fantastic group of movers and shakers courtesy of the lovely people at Rarible
- I finished off the week of events strong with a slightly less underground NFT rave at Dreamverse. Headlined by Alesso and featuring dozens of Artists, including Beeple, Hackatao, Josie Bellini, David Bianchi, DAO member Angie Taylor, and more heavy-hitters. Imagine being shoulder-to-shoulder in a packed venue with Fewocious, 3Lau, Coldie, and nearly every other NFT artist you’ve heard of. This event was very much the place to be and we have some excellent coverage to share with you all over the next week!
- Last but not least, I spent the last official day of the conference running around conducting interviews. Thanks to the incredible team at Urban Sky Studios, we’ll be releasing a number of high-quality live interviews with myself, chatting with some of my favorite artists in the space, including Olive Allen, Nicole Ruggerio, and many others!
And finally:
Tonight we’ll be wrapping up the week with WTF’s first-ever IRL event, which will happen at the Highline 9 gallery in Chelsea produced by Mynt Labs. We’ll be joined by 150 community members including several members of our DAO, a panel I’ll be conducting with Krista Kim and David Bianchi (amongst others), and a series of virtual fashion awards presented by DressX and Miss J Alexander from America’s Next Top Model.
I want to give a massive thank you to our sponsors:
Outlier Ventures, Skvll Punks, Bad Kids Alley, Sidus Heroes, NFTs.tips, and GLASSHAUS, for making this event possible!
If you’re in NYC and would like to join us, RSVP here
Hope to see some of you there!
Look out for a ton more coverage coming out over the next week, and in the meantime, head over to our Twitter for more bite-sized coverage of even more highlights stemming from the beautiful chaos that went down over the past week.
