This is a multi-part post that will walk you through the implications of Blockchains and NFTs for the events industry. In part one we’ll discuss what they are, how they work, and some basic applications happening today. In our following posts, we’ll dive deeper into execution, the creative process, and business examples.
I hope this is a helpful unpacking of a lot of technical buzzwords. Here goes….
First, A Little Background
To frame this conversation, one of the reasons I love the events industry so much is that it’s constantly changing. At the end of the day, we are in the human behavior business and so as event pros, our job requires us to keep up with the new societal trends, interests, and concerns in the world. If we are current, relevant, and authentic we can attract an engaged audience and we’ll drive our intended business outcomes.
Without question, event safety and the virtual/hybrid event evolution have dominated most of our attention in the last few years. But in the background, a massive new event industry trend has also emerged. With the continued maturation of Blockchain technology and its increased applicability for use cases beyond cryptocurrency, it’s become more and more “mainstream” which means if we want to stay culturally current as Event Pros we need to lean in.
To cut to the chase, the two new most important concepts that the blockchain is introducing for the events industry are:
- New approaches to ticketing
- NFT’s as a new revenue stream and an audience engagement tactic
Yes, you read that right…..NFTs can make your event more money, drive engagement and build your community.
So… What is a Blockchain?
A blockchain is simply a database of records. I like to think of it as a transaction ledger. “Ryan purchased asset X for price Y on this date”. But in regular databases, there is one computer that holds a master copy of the data. In a blockchain, the database is shared across multiple computers in a network (i.e the internet). With many computers storing identical copies of the data, the blockchain is inherently “decentralized” and not controlled by a single entity (i.e. individual, company or government). And when everyone can easily validate against the system of record it opens up much more business opportunity.
So far so good? Good!
Now let’s bring the blockchain concept to events. On the ticketing side of things, blockchain is being viewed as a way to help with security, identity, fraud, scalping, etc. It can more openly validate who originally purchased a ticket and the subsequent transactions that may occur after. “Does the person I’m buying this ticket from actually own it?” is a rudimentary example.
It can also make purchasing tickets with cryptocurrencies easier since they are already on a blockchain as well. If you can accommodate these transactions you will naturally increase business opportunities as more and more people own those currencies.
While these are certainly technically innovative topics, they are primarily only relevant in larger format, ticketed event environments: concerts, sports, festivals, etc. and they are transactional in nature in my opinion. I’m personally more interested in the creative and significant business opportunities NFTs can bring to the corporate and non-profit events industry. But before we leave ticketing entirely, I do want to acknowledge that digital tickets are also becoming NFTs themselves as well. You can think of that like a digital representation of your ticket stub. Essentially, digital memorabilia.
Understanding the NFT Universe
NFT stands for “non-fungible token,” but in layman’s terms, it’s any sort of digital asset, like a gif, a jpg, a video, a song, or a piece of digital art. The difference between an NFT and any other digital asset though, is that it is registered on a blockchain.
When that happens, and that digital asset or “token” is listed on the blockchain register, it essentially becomes certified or “non-fungible”. The register says what it is and who owns it. Think of this exactly like a deed to a house.
So, for example, a graphic artist can create some sort of digital image—something completely unique—and make only 100 copies available. Now, you and I both know that in this internet-centric age anything digital can be easily passed along, duplicated or screen grabbed, but in the world of NFTs, you can verify the authenticity of those 100 copies on the blockchain. So “fakes” are easy to catch.
NFTs are also inherently transferable. There are many online marketplaces for these digital assets, OpenSea is probably the most popular example today. So just like you might sell a piece of physical art, or a signed football jersey, on eBay, Craigslist, Etsy, etc you can also sell an NFT. And similar to that art, or jersey, the rarity of what is being offered makes it more and more valuable. NFTs have value because they have confirmed authenticity, built in scarcity, and are transferable by certified transactions. Economics 101: supply and demand.
So What Now? Part 2
Now that we understand the basics of what Blockchains and NFTs are and how they work, your next questions should be:
- Can I really make more money from this?
- How can I make an NFT?
- What can my NFT be?
- What are some creative ideas or examples of NFTs?
- How do I issue them?
- How do I offer them to my attendees?
- How do I use them to drive engagement?
These are all the topics we’ll cover in our following posts. Stay tuned!
To learn more about how Event Farm’s event engagement tools can help you turn events into experiences, request a demo.