The memes spread far and fast. \u201cNo way NFT.London charged \uffe1600 entry for this to be the art gallery,\u201d the November 5 tweet<\/a> read over a photograph showing what appeared to be a drab office corridor doing its best impersonation of an art gallery. A smattering of small monitors displaying NFT artwork by XCOPY, Alyssa Stevens, and others populated the transitory space in seemingly random arrangement.<\/p>\n Overall, the scenario screamed laziness, incompetence, or some combination of the two. Surely, a massive Web3 IRL activation would put more care into how it displayed community artwork, people mused. In the following minutes and hours, the NFT community fired off some excellently pointed memes<\/a> based on the image, a collective visual manifestation of the adage \u201cIf we didn\u2019t laugh, we\u2019d cry.\u201d<\/p>\n But this is a symptom of something deeper: NFT events are facing an identity crisis. While they\u2019re often lauded as excellent IRL opportunities for Web3 enthusiasts to network, view art installations, and listen to panel talks by leading community figures, many have come to question the efficacy of the events and the intentions of those who organize them. Community members now wonder if they truly bring the value to the community that their organizers claim they do. Some have even gone so far as to say that large-scale NFT events are merely a predatory echo of Web2 in Web3 clothing, little more than a way to fleece the community that built the space as we now know it. But just how valid are such critiques?<\/p>\n No event in the space is more well-known than NFT.NYC<\/a>. The annual conference features everything that an NFT lover might hope for, including panel talks, performances, art displays, and satellite events. It also attracts some of the biggest celebrities, CEOs, and NFT collectors out there. But, as the event has grown in size, stature, and pricing over the last three years, many in the NFT community now feel it has become a bloated cash grab.<\/p>\n Cameron Bale and Jodee Rich co-founded NFT.NYC \u2014 the company that organized this year\u2019s inaugural NFT.London \u2014 in 2018, after the two recognized a need to host an event for an initially nascent but rapidly growing NFT community. Rich and Bale also serve as CEO and Director of Marketing and Product Development, respectively, for NFT.Kred, a Web3 firm that helps brands create NFT experiences and engagements for their audiences.<\/p>\n \u201cSpeaking about NFTs in early 2018 fell on mostly deaf ears, as most people at blockchain and crypto events were focused on ICOs,\u201d said Bale of the event\u2019s history while speaking to nft now. \u201cNFT.NYC was born out of that need to give the community a place to connect.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt NFT.London, more than 1,000 tickets, almost half, were given away for free to speakers, artists, and the community members who simply couldn\u2019t afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n Cameron Bale<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The event has been an undeniable success in bringing people together. In 2019, the pair organized the first ever NFT.NYC. 460 people attended. Fast forward to 2022, and NFT.NYC hosted more than 15,000 attendees, according to figures supplied by the company.<\/p>\n Those are impressive numbers, especially given the fact that tickets for the three-day festival ranged from $500 to $2,000. That price range has been the source of much contention in the Web3 space, with one scheduled speaker for this year\u2019s NFT.NYC even calling for the boycotting of the event<\/a>, citing poor organization and exploitative practices toward both its panel guests and its attendees.<\/p>\n Responding to criticisms that NFT.NYC and NFT.London\u2019s ticket pricing is beyond the range of the average NFT enthusiast, especially in a bear market, Bale emphasized that they try to make the event as accessible as possible while maintaining some ticket revenue to help fund the festival alongside the support of their sponsors.<\/p>\n \u201cAt NFT.London, more than 1,000 tickets, almost half, were given away for free to speakers, artists, and the community members who simply couldn\u2019t afford it,\u201d Bale said. \u201cWe will continue to provide different ways that people can participate in NFT.NYC events, no matter their budget.\u201d<\/p>\n Bale also added that much of the criticism that NFT.London received originated from people who did not attend the event, further saying that they received \u201coverwhelmingly positive feedback\u201d from those who did attend. The critiques, he said, including the viral tweets showing haphazardly thrown-together art displays and empty theater spaces during panel talks, are taken out of context and don\u2019t represent the reality on the ground.<\/p>\n While there is credence to that idea, it\u2019s also somewhat debatable. A portion of NFT.London attendees maintain that some, if not many, of the event\u2019s talks were indeed sparsely populated<\/a> and underwhelming. That claim has been challenged<\/a> by some of the event\u2019s speakers and attendees<\/a> who say that panels may have been underpopulated due to scheduling conflicts or crowds being amassed elsewhere at the venue. Overall, they say, turnout was respectable<\/a>. It\u2019s a difficult metric to calibrate. With the event featuring dozens upon dozens of talks hosted by several hundred speakers<\/a> over the festival\u2019s two-day run, it was inevitable that some talks would be more well-attended than others.<\/p>\n Pricing is not the only issue that critics of large-scale NFT events cite, however. Singer-songwriter and Web3 advocate Rae Isla has experience on both sides of the NFT event fence, having organized the music programming for 2022\u2019s NFT Seattle<\/a> in addition to an unaffiliated music satellite event at NFT.NYC this year, called the Web3 Singer\/Songwriter Showcase. She believes that NFT events are less plagued by pricing issues and more by logistical ones.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with the pricing,\u201d Isla said while speaking to nft now. \u201cI think the issue is that the people who throw these events are trying to do too many things, not acknowledging the fact that there are specialists right in front of them who can curate various passion verticals, and may even do so on a volunteer basis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think what\u2019s missing [in these events] is involving the community as experts to come in and actually work on the events.\u201d<\/p>\n Rae Isla<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Professionals in the music industry, not people who only have experience creating corporate events, Isla offered as an example, should be the ones responsible for organizing and executing music-related events and performances at NFT events. Nor should non-artists be curating galleries at these festivals, she emphasized. One of the reasons behind NFT Seattle\u2019s success, she said, is that the event organizers trusted her to execute its programming in an organic and community-driven way.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what\u2019s missing [in these events] is involving the community as experts to come in and actually work on the events,\u201d Isla offered as a potential area of improvement. \u201cThe response to that might be [the organizers] saying they need more money to pay people. Well, then find more money. Maybe the real push needs to be to tell companies that have funding that if they don\u2019t invest real dollars into the culture of the Web3 space, then it won\u2019t happen. So, they need to contribute more fiscally if they want these events to be impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n Isla advocates making NFT events modular so attendees can pick and choose which days, talks, and performances they actually want to attend. Diversifying access avenues to these festivals, she said, could be a way to lower the barrier of entry for the community while ensuring scheduled talks and performances don\u2019t suffer from over- or under-attendance.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to see Billy Eilish or Kendrick Lamar or the Foo Fighters [at a music festival], you end up buying a weekend pass because you don\u2019t want to miss that one performance,\u201d Isla explained. \u201cThat\u2019s a strategic way to get people to buy those passes. But people shouldn\u2019t be forced to sit through a bunch of things they\u2019re not interested in. I think that the way to make [NFT] events worth the ticket price and more meaningful for those involved is to trust curators, tastemakers, and people who have earned their stripes in various passion verticals to take ownership over certain aspects of the conference.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about the type of collaboration that Isla advocates for in event-building, Bale underlined that NFT.NYC is more than happy to collaborate with community members. \u201cWe\u2019re technologists, not a trade show,\u201d Bale said. \u201c[We] are deeply committed to working with the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to the ambient success that events like NFT.NYC create, Bale noted that the annual festival has grown to have its own kind of gravity. That gravity attracts the NFT community to the city, fostering community, creating opportunities for brands and project creators, and boosting the local economy in the process.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to deny those effects. Any community that exists primarily in the digital sphere needs these kinds of events if it wants to grow and enrich itself. Regardless of these events\u2019 failings, they are almost always going to be a net positive for the community due to this fact alone. Bale clearly recognizes this.<\/p>\n \u201cThe greatest memory for me personally was the feeling of togetherness we were able to create in 2021 after so many people had been isolated for so long,\u201d he said of the post-pandemic nature of that year\u2019s event. \u201cIt was a kind of family reunion for the community, many of which were meeting friends IRL for the first time!\u201d<\/p>\n We should celebrate moments of togetherness and community, no matter the circumstances. But that does not mean there\u2019s no room for improvement. NFT events can and should do better by their communities, which means learning to read the dynamic room of morale and morality throughout the entire Web3 space.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not easy, because ethos is tricky. The founding principles of Web3, like the founding principles of any great community, are not immutable \u2014 they require defending. In recent months, NFT enthusiasts have had to come together to push back against practices<\/a> (both proposed and implemented) that disenfranchise the very people who built the space. Web3\u2019s biggest proponents only have a right to deal in the rhetoric of decentralization and level-playing fields if they\u2019re going to tangibly back that up with action and inhabit those principles.<\/p>\n Inclusion must be one of them. Community members who look at an NFT space<\/a> that at times feels like it\u2019s quickly outpacing the range of their wallets, never to return, are right to call out events meant to foster community yet by their nature prevent the majority of that community from taking part in them. It\u2019s for this reason that we at nft now are proud to have made The Gateway<\/a>, our five-day event in Miami during Art Basel in December 2022, which was free and open to all.<\/p>\n Future large-scale events like 2023\u2019s NFT. NYC and NFT.London will serve as a barometer on how the community decides it wants to interact with IRL activations and how much it\u2019s willing to pay for them. So far, NFT.NYC 2023 is on track to be another large-scale showcase. With tickets going from $500 to $1,500 and featuring a 25,000-square-foot rooftop pavilion, gaming arena, and plenty more, Bale and company are showing no signs of slowing down. Time will tell if such continued grandiosity will serve it well.<\/p>\n After the 2021 bull run came to an end and the latest crypto winter began in earnest, Web3\u2019s proponents realized just how much unnecessary heft it had accumulated. The NFT and crypto space is now much thinner than it was last year, but it has gained the mobility and dexterity it needs to help it ride out and far surpass the shadows of the bear market<\/a>. NFT event organizers should take note. The better part of wisdom may be to streamline IRL events before they shake themselves apart with expense and spectacle.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Beyond NFT event pricing<\/h2>\n
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/nftnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/NFT-NYC-Spike-Lee-1200x675.jpg\")
IRL events do good, even when they don\u2019t<\/h2>\n
Event organizers can do better<\/h2>\n