Gary Vee Launches VeeCon ‘Summer Camp’, Showcasing NFTs ‘Not Just Collectibles’

The Gary Vee NFT show is in Minneapolis this weekend.

VeeCon is the first appearance NFT A session from entrepreneur, investor, author and social media personality Gary Vaynerchuk, aka Gary Vee. Vaynerchuk himself will host some of the main panel discussions and interviews over the weekend, an event focused on the brands and partners that his firm, including consultancy VaynerNFT, works with.

All tickets are Ethereum NFT provided to the owner VeeFriendshis hand-painted NFT collection Launched a year ago Commitment to annual general meeting and other benefits for three years. Total sales for the project to date have exceeded $300 million, including the most recent Series 2 expansion.

But it’s not just Vaynerchuk talking to his ardent fans on stage. The list of speakers is a who’s who of notable NFT artists, celebrities and influencers who will be on multiple stages from today through Sunday at the Minnesota Vikings’ sprawling home of Bank of America Stadium.

The list of about 150 people includes entertainers like this Snoop DoggFarrell, Mira Kunis, Steve AokiEva Longoria and Spike Lee, and NFT creators including beetle, likableand FEWOCiOUS, and the people behind the project, like women’s world, art blocksand cool cat. R&B group TLC and other musicians will also perform live at the event.

and decrypt On Thursday, Vaynerchuk said he’d always wanted to “hold a mega-conference,” but for some reason the timing wasn’t right in the past. As he dives deeper into the NFT space in early 2021 as the market expands rapidly, he sees an opportunity to nurture community, leverage technology, and host dream conferences.

“From VeeFriends,” he said, “I knew I wanted to show the world that NFTs are more than just a collectible.”

NFTs serve as proof of ownership of items, including digital goods like art and collectibles, but it can also represent real-world things like real estate and stock certificates. NFTs can also act as a pass to a community or a ticket to a gated experience. The NFT market inflates in 2021, finally generating valued at $25 billion transaction volume.

Given his massive online following and highly engaged fan base, Vaynerchuk said it makes sense to visit him as a key part of the VeeFriends NFT equation — a form of utility, in fact. “I know people want to be close to me, and I’ve gotten to where I can’t in my life,” he explained.

Some NFTs unlock one-on-one experiences with Vaynerchuk, such as meals or video calls, but all of these enable holders to participate in the three-year VeeCon event through 2024. VeeCon is kicking off in Minneapolis, and Vaynerchuk says some of his close associates are from, and he’s an investor in the Call of Duty League esports team ROKKR, Minnesota.

Whether it stays in Minneapolis, however, remains to be seen. He said he initially planned to have VeeCon relocate the city every year, which remains his preference. However, he also noted that he’s been “going south by southwest” at this year’s event so far, referring to the annual tech, film and music festival (aka SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

Expanding NFT ambitions

With more than 10,000 people expected to attend this weekend’s event, Vaynerchuk said he was most excited to see people from the VeeFriends Discord community — which has 373,000 members — finally meet in person for the first time.

“It’s the culmination of digital — it’s almost like summer camp,” he said. “The issue is compounded by COVID, and the community that has formed during this time. Some people meet without knowing what their real life name is, or what they actually look like. They just know they are them ‘s Discord controller.”

VeeCon arrives shortly after launch VeeFriends Series 2, a larger collection of Ethereum NFTs collectibles – 55,555 vs. 10,255 of the first batch. Series 2 collectibles don’t provide access to VeeCon, but they do bring users into the community, they’re much cheaper to buy, and they feature beautiful artwork from professional illustrators.

“When I did VeeFriends, I thought it would be my life’s work,” he explained. “So it was important that I painted it.”

He said that while “some people like to get me excited about the art of his original graffiti” — some of which are Auctioned at Christie’s last year arrive $1.2 million tune– He felt that it was very important to the birth of the project. “The real provenance comes from my brain and soul,” he said. “I have to do it, right?”

In Series 2, however, he wanted stronger and more authoritative versions of the original characters—like the giant tiger and the persuasive dove—that he could use to create entertainment, merchandise, clothing, food, and more.

“I need to maintain intellectual property right now,” he explained. “In order for me to move on to the next chapter, all the things I’m going to do, I need this series to do that.”

In addition to VeeFriends and his VaynerNFT consulting business, Vaynerchuk has recently been involved in other NFT-related initiatives – such as investment team In rapper Ice Cube’s BIG3 professional basketball league through his new NFT-driven ownership schemes. Other buyers include Rapper Snoop Dogg, Solana NFT ProjectDeGodsand DAO Community Claus House.

“have [New York] One day the Jets,” he said, recalling his often-cited dream of owning an NFL team. “I really, really want to have as many emerging sports teams in my life as possible because I love to practice. . I like to get my hands dirty. [And it’s] Launch execution via NFT – you know, really cool. “

He also co-founded Flying Fish Club, an exclusive restaurant in New York City that requires an NFT membership pass to enter. To date, the restaurant has sold more than 1,500 NFTs, some of which were sold for up to $13,000 worth of ETH each in a public sale in January.Currently, the cheapest pass is Listed with ~$6,900 worth of ETH.

Vaynerchuk said CEO David Radolitz is finalizing the New York City location ahead of its opening in 2023, while Flyfish Club will open pop-up stores at the same time (including at VeeCon).

A “healthy” fix

VeeCon comes amid the recent turmoil in the NFT and crypto industry, NFT trading volume Significant decline over the past few weeks Cryptocurrency prices plummet. Crypto’s latest struggles are partly to blame Terra’s LUNA and UST coins crashbut there are also external factors, as the non-crypto market is also struggling.

Vaynerchuk has long predicted a pullback in the NFT market.in a decrypt with events Yahoo Finance In Brooklyn last November, Vaynerchuk said That “NFT winter” is here— and he believes that the vast majority of valuable projects lose enormous value.

In fact, many top projects have lost value in recent weeks, from VeeFriends itself to projects like Boring Ape Yacht Club and Cypherpunk. The base price of VeeFriends Series 1 NFT or the cheapest listed NFT has down 19% Last 30 days (measured in ETH) – but close to 48% in USD.

On Thursday, Vaynerchuk described the current NFT market correction as “so healthy,” and said he was pleased to see “less greed” and “less gold rushes,” and the resulting pool of more educated collectors. Still, some people who bought NFTs and expected quick returns were burned in the cryptocurrency crash.

“I hate to say I’m happy [about it] Because I admit people are hurting,” he said. “I hate it, that’s why I post 100 damn videos saying 98% of them will go to zero. “

It’s a painful time for many creators and collectors, but Vaynerchuk likens it to the dot-com bust that punished tech startups at the turn of the century. The upside, he argues, is that such a shuffle will spur major innovation in the NFT space, leading to a better user experience and a “more thoughtful” market in the future.

“I think the profound work that was done between 2001 and 2005 to build the Internet as we know it today is exactly what was to come,” he explained. “2023-2027 Work on Consumer Blockchain Behavior and Friction Removal […] Will be something we look back on in 2040. “