Surreal is the best word to describe Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeCon, held at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, from May 19-22, 2022. Part business seminar, part motivational, part rave, this conference was like none other.
Flanked by a ferris wheel, massive stage, and hundreds of animated characters moving on jumbotrons overhead, the visuals alone were worth the price of admission, which by the way was paid in the cryptocurrency Ethereum.
The major theme of the conference was celebrating all things NFT (non fungible tokens), the crypto digital collectible that has been on the rise over the past 12 months. Gary Vaynerchuk’s eponymously-titled NFT collection VeeFriends were taking center stage, however many other projects were in attendance, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, CyberKongz, World of Women, and Creature World, just to name a handful.
Additionally, Gary Vee didn’t shy away from opening his rolodex of celebrities to speak at VeeCon. Following is a short list of some of the big-name performers, including Mila kunis, Seth Green, Pharell Willams, Snoop Dogg, Logan Paul, Eva Longoria, Deepak Chopra, and Baron Davis.
Photo credit: Hobby Exchange
Musical Acts included Wyclef Jean and Miguel.
While the conference was predominantly NFT focused, there was a strong physical collectible presence from such brands as SlabStox, Sasha T., Rally, LukaTigers + Brons, The Coffee Breakers, Brigandi, Goldin, Candy and more.
It was an interesting dichotomy to see the physical and digital collectible worlds collide, but will we see it again? Vaynerchuk reiterates in a My First Million podcast that VeeCon is expected to run annually until at least 2024:
It’s a three-year contract. VeeFriends Series One says you get a conference ticket to VeeCon 2022, 2023, and 2024.
NFT connoisseurs view the VeeFriends library to purchase their own conference access for next year.
Hobby Exchange is the leading trading card search engine. The website aggregates card prices from leading marketplaces onto one platform.
