My next stop this year was to visit NFT NYC and continue to network with like-minded creators, investors, and partners for the Gladiator project. Thankfully the event was relatively close to home, so I was able to stay in the city for a couple of days and focus solely on networking and attending events. The night before, my wife helped prepare packs of Cosmic Muffin stickers and Gladiator cards. And so the adventure began!
The first day at NFT.NYC I attended an array of talks to get acquainted with the environment and event space. It wasn’t long before I met some really amazing people. From there, I traveled to an art gallery where I met some new friends, talked tech and Gladiator, and then found my way to the OpenSea Arcade, that was a blast!
On the second day I found my way to an Open Café event hosted at Café Grumpy. This super casual hang easily became a great way to start the day. Right away I met an array of good passionate folks, and we talked about crypto, NFTs, ordinals, Badgers, Farcaster, all the while drinking damn good coffee.
From there, I trekked to an art gallery hosted by NFT AOTEAROA, where I met some fabulous collectors, artists and photographers. Just after enjoying a tasty bagel, I found my way to an event called “Conversation in The Garden: Presented by SHILLR”. This was a super chill place where deep conversations were had about the state of crypto, technologies, pathways to adoption, and all sorts of cool emergent ideas.
I hung out on the rooftop spot for a little bit to get some sunshine, then it was time to head to the Avalanche Creator House. The Avalanche event was great, there was music, art, and more great conversation that day. From there, I grabbed dinner, attended a groovy Shroom Shindig to cap off the evening. It was a great party where I ran into some new friends from ETH Denver! What a day 🙂
My final day at NFT NYC was super chill. The first two days were a marathon so I wanted to make sure I had time to enjoy some talks, walk through the city and process the past two days, and also make my way to some network events. I was able to swing by the Alchemy Crypto Cafe for some coffee and morning network, catch a great talk about NFTs and Public Goods at the Javits Center.
From there I made my way to the NEAR Horizon Founder meetup where I met more great folks who loved Gladiator and were generous with their guidance and advice. This was my last networking event at NFT NYC – but before I left I had to double back and connect with my good friend Umar from ETH Denver. Together we walked around and talked about business, life, and the future.
All in all, it was a fantastic and productive trip. My first ever NFT NYC trip was successful on many fronts. It was a good balance of socializing, networking, good nutrition, rest, and fun. The world knows more about Gladiator. The future is bright!