Social media tycoon Gary Vaynerchuk is kicking off VeeCon 2022 today, May 19, with the Massive Minnesota Meetup Party at The Commons in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. This will preclude a jam-packed three days taking place in the U.S. Bank Stadium. The conference is slated to feature a diverse spread of guest speakers from a wide range of industries, musical guests, and a slew of experiential activations hosted by brands like Johnnie Walker and Coach.
Just like any party worth going to, the event will have a very exclusive guest list. How exclusive? At the time of writing, just about 5,200 people. To get into the event, you’ll have to hold at least one piece from the VeeFriends collection. With floor prices for the collection currently listed at 7.88 ETH (~ $15,875 USD) on OpenSea, you’d have to be pretty flush with crypto to be able to attend the event on a whim.
Perhaps that’s by design. Billed as a ‘superconference’ for Vaynerchuk’s most ardent supporters and fans, the event makes good on the promise of utility for holders of pieces from Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends collection. Here’s what attendees can expect.
Must-see speakers
On the event’s official site, Vaynerchuk states that VeeCon 2022 will draw inspiration from various events that have impacted the mogul in some way, ranging from “business conferences, music festivals, closed-door offsite events, and […] summer camp activities.” As such, the event’s scheduled guest speakers and performances are intended to reflect Vaynerchuk’s – and the VeeFriends community’s – broad range of interests.
As disparate as these speakers may be in terms of background and industry, the event’s throughline is fairly straightforward: NFTs. Headlining the activities of the next few days will be talks from several marquee speakers, such as legendary filmmaker Kevin Smith, comedian Seth Green, the infamous Logan Paul, retired WNBA legend Lisa Leslie, and Snoop Dogg.
Not all of VeeCon 2022’s speakers are going to be people who got their starts outside of Web3, though. Away from the main stage, guests will also be able to attend segments featuring renowned NFT artists such as FEWOCiOUS, Beeple, and pplpleasr. Prominent members of the NFT community, such as Andrew Wang, NFT Nick, and nft now co-founder Sam Hysell will also be making appearances at the conference, speaking on the new possibilities NFTs will afford people well into the future.
Events and activations
Since VeeCon marks the first mass in-person gathering of the VeeFriends community, guests will be encouraged to network and interact. These mini-events throughout the conference will be facilitated by a series of experiential activations located throughout the event grounds and will be hosted by official partner organizations working together with the VeeCon team.
This is slated to include the Boardroom Bleachers networking event hosted by boardroom.tv, and a happy hour hosted by Johnnie Walker, where ‘Gift Goat’ VeeFriends holders will have the opportunity to participate in a luxury gifting experience. Aside from that, each day of VeeCon 2022 will also feature musical performances from artists such as TLC, Miguel, and Adrian Be to formally close each day’s activities.
