NFT Paris baby!
My first international web 3 conference. I’ve attended countless events in Finland but never any of the international ones. Time for that to change.
In January I started to work for STRGL which is a design agency that exclusively does design work for web3 companies. I do business development but at the beginning I’ll be mostly focusing on getting sales rolling and further down the road everything else that falls under that category. In the past all the sales have been done by the CEO Kappe, but now I am trying to lift that responsibility off his shoulders. STRGL is really damn good at design and I feel proud to be helping such an upcoming Finnish company to grow and mature!
Kappe initially mentioned NFT Paris and said that it would be a great event to take part in as he had last year. He was gonna come as well and our Head of Design Rasmus said he might come too. So I got a ticket, booked a flight and started planning. I pondered upon the best accommodation and realized I actually have a friend who lives in Paris. Messaged him whether I could sleep on his couch. He agreed gladly. It's always nice to see your friends and if you can at the same time save a few bucks, even better! It goes both ways though. I really like to host my friends at our house whenever possible.
Three weeks before the D-day I looked through the side event list and picked some of the most interesting ones. One of my key focuses was gaming as that is one key area of interest for STRGL. We’ve worked with Flowstate Games and Metraverse and we’d like to partner up with many more gaming companies. I’ve also used Farcaster a lot recently and decided to make a TG group for Farcaster users in Paris. I shared the group invite on the NFTParis channel on Farcaster.
Side events I initially decided to take part in (+ events where I ended up going as well):
Thu 22nd
10.00-14.30 8SianNFT x Sandbox: Croissant & Crypto: Cozy NFT Brunch
14.00-22.00 BGA x Aelf: A UNIQUE WEB3 GAMING MIXER IN PARIS
19.30-23.00 BGA x Aelf Connects Paris - BGA member only networking cocktail
Fri 23rd
1st day of the conference itself
(15.30-17.30 Farcaster meetup at Bright Moments cafe)
(18.00-21.00 Phaver : Creators & Frens Happy Hour)
18.00-22.00 Moca Fête - Mocaverse x Animoca Brands
Sat 24th
2nd day of conference
12.00-13.00 BrunchbyFidel
18.30-23.00 BlockGames <> Pixelmon VIP Lounge
(20.00-01.00 Pudgy Penguins x Memeland: Paris After Dark)
I was gonna arrive 21.00 on Wednesday and leave 06.00 on Sunday.
Wednesday 21st
Woke up. Put the final few things into my weekend bag. Kissed my family goodbye, promised to video call them everyday and took the train to Helsinki. This time I opted for the “extra class” ticket to get unlimited coffee and slightly better conditions to get some work done. Traveling by train is probably my favourite mode of transportation. Would be cool if we had trains like the Japanese Shinkansen in Finland. But that's sadly more like a fever dream. We can’t seem to agree whether to restore the old rails between Turku and Helsinki or wether to build new rails which would be more direct and the travel time would decrease. Oh well. Looked up the weather in Paris. Crap! It's +10-15C compared to Helsinki. My choice of taking my parka and winter boots seem like a poor choice to wear now. Damnit. Well. That's sometimes how things are. Can’t always take everything into account. Soon I came up with an idea to make a memorabilia free mint NFT about NFT Paris. Decided to make the visuals with AI and mint it on Zora. Got some tips from a couple friends on how to effectively use Midjourney. Here is the end result.
Arrived to Helsinki and headed straight for an early lunch with a few friends. Spent the early afternoon working at Maria01 which is like a startup hangaround space/offices. I have a credit card that permits lounge access at airports so I headed to the airport pretty early to get some sandwiches in my stomach. Before heading to the lounge I bought a bottle of Napue gin and some syrup made out of young tips from a spruce tree as gifts to my friend and his girlfriend, who would be hosting me in Paris. Had never before heard of this sort of syrup so I thought it would be a cool gift. My 2yrs old daughter had also made them a card and I had some Fazer blue chocolate. Alrighty then, off to eat those sandwiches at the lounge! Had a few bites (saw a Finnish actor Jasper Pääkkönen there as well) and organised my event calendar with my note taking app so I’d be able to easily examine it from my phone during the event. Many of the events I had applied to were still pending which I thought was a bit weird but I suppose the people arranging them just leave that kind of stuff last minute to have the biggest pool of people to choose from, at least if they think they are getting overbooked. Downloaded Die Hard 4.0 on Disney+ to watch on the flight.
Headed for the gate. The flight seemed to be slightly delayed. I was flying RyanAir today. Saw a sign depicting a weekend bag with a red cross over it. Started to get a bit nervous whether they would tell me I couldn't take my weekend bag with me to the plane? What was I gonna do then? I can't fit all my stuff into my backpack which mostly has my laptop, chargers, headphones, etc. Tried to block my weekend bag out of sight as best as I could as I gave my passport and boarding pass to the stewardess. Pheeew. Got through, no problem. Sat on my seat in the plane and instantly realized I should have opted for the extra leg room seat which would have cost me only 6 euros more. Knees connecting to the seat in front as I am 187cm tall. The flight was pretty much as you’d expect it to be. We arrived in Paris 45 minutes late.
Had bought a ticket for a bus from the airport to the city. Boarded that and arrived at the city center 1h 15 minutes later. Took a 20 minute Uber ride to my friend's apartment. It's pretty conveniently located in the 9th city district called l’Opéra. I arrived so late, around midnight, that my friend's girlfriend was already sleeping. We chatted for a bit and then we both went to get some sleep as well.
Thursday 22nd
Gm! Woke up around 8am more energized than usual. Today was my first day in Paris! Had some breakfast and met my friend's girlfriend for the first time. She cooked us all some waffles. Usually my breakfast consists of rye bread topped with cheese, lettuce, cucumber and eggs but when in Paris do as the Parisians do. Checked where I was headed first and decided to walk there as it was a 45 minute walk. A perfect opportunity to explore the city a bit. Also saw that the event application was pending but figured I’d go there anyway to see what’s what.
Walked down a bigger street and was taking in the sights. A lot of Brasseries, all sorts of small shops, grocery stores, etc. Saw a few homeless people sleeping in sleeping bags curled against the buildings. Damn. Went into a grocery store to buy a bottle of water to put into my backpack. 0,20€. Surprised. That would have probably been at least 0,70€ in Finland. Further along the road, I took an espresso to go from a cafe. Sipped on it as it started to rain a bit. Great. Gotta get to my destination fast before it starts to really rain. Gladly found the correct gateway pretty fast.
8SianNFT x Sandbox: Croissant & Crypto: Cozy NFT Brunch
Saw some people putting up decorations. Knocked on the door and they opened it. Realized I was a few minutes early but I didn't really feel like waiting outside in the rain. I explained that my ticket status was still pending but that I was wondering whether I could still attend. She said I was, of course, welcome. Great! Left my jacket at the cloak rack and headed into the kitchen which was the nearest room off the hallway. There were a lot of people fuzzing around. Got offered coffee and chatted with them a bit. They were from Sandbox which was one of the hosting organizations. Turned out it was their office. Walked to the main office space which was filled with chairs. There were glass paneled rooms to either side on two floors with beautiful wooden lining. The room was rather high and there was beautiful artwork everywhere. Pretty cool! Headed back to the kitchen as that's where most of the people were at his point. Had a chat with an analysis platform founder and with guys from NFTFest. They said I should come to Belgium in a couple months to attend their event. We’ll see, probably not though. I’d like to go to ETH Tallinn and ETH Lisbon though. The first panel started and I decided to sit down and watch it. Started to get school lecture flashbacks. This didn't feel productive after 20 minutes or so. I didn't come here to listen to panels. On the QA part of the panel I was slightly amused when a lady started her question by giving a 2 minute pitch about her own project. Haha. Went outside to get some fresh air and chatted with a messaging platform founder, a consultant and a NFT collection founder. The consultant was from Melbourne Australia where I had spent several months in 2016-2017 on a working holiday visa. Cool. Went in the kitchen again to chat with people there and started to wonder when I should get lunch before heading to the next event. There were only some light snacks available here. Met Chantalle and Phil from Bored Brands Studio and we decided to get lunch together. Briefly talked with some other people before heading to get lunch from a nearby brasserie. Decided to have a Club Sandwich and Coke Zero. Coke came in a nice glass bottle. I haven't seen these bigger glass bottles too often. Also when the bill came, it turns out the Coke was 5,80€. Uuf. Lunch was pretty great as it was interesting to hear about creative work from the guys and we had great discussions about many topics. Got some conference tips and recommendations as well. Well, off to the next event!
14.00-22.00 BGA x Aelf: A UNIQUE WEB3 GAMING MIXER IN PARIS
Shared an Uber with Chantalle and Phil. The drive to the venue took much longer than expected due to traffic. the time was around 15.20 so you’d think there wouldn’t be commuting traffic or anything yet? Probably just how things are in a big city like Paris. We arrived at the venue. Showed our tickets and headed our separate ways. I wanted to go see the game companies that were showing their demos. That corner was pretty crowded. Tried some games and talked with their teams. Also briefly saw our CEO Kappe and our Design Director Rasmus for the first time. Said hi and talked with them a bit. Throat was getting dry. Went to the bar counter nearby. Ordered sparkling water with a slice of lime. The bartender was showing me a lemon from afar and I shrugged my shoulders and nodded. Someone started to laugh beside me. “The French don’t really care about you getting your lime. Lemon will do!” I bursted into laughter with her, shook hands and introduced myself. Turns out she was Nobara working as a BD for a Japanese gaming company called Genso Meta. She invited me to sit at her table where she was sitting with two other guys. One of the other guys worked for a gaming platform and the other for a NFT marketplace. Talked with them all for a long time and then Nobara’s friend from Thailand arrived. She joined our table and the conversation. Later I went to get some snacks (those cold cuts are to die for) and talked with several interesting people. Also at one point headed out to make a video call home. Eventually ended up sitting with some other tired BDs. Had a beer with them and headed to get some shuteye with an uber around 20.45 as the place was emptying. I consciously avoided most night events as I knew I needed some rest to be in my best wits. Also as the sound levels rise and people become more intoxicated the “productivity” starts to go down. I usually don't spit into a glass but I was pretty much mentally tapped out and didnt feel like acquiring a hangover for tomorrow. People in my Farcaster TG Group were asking who’s going to some afterparties and some went of course although most of the parties ended before midnight.
Friday 23rd
First day of the conference itself. Got a solid 8+ hours of sleep. Figured I’d try the metro system to get to the conference venue which was near the Eiffel Tower. Google and Google Maps proved to be useful with that. Bought a metro card and charged it with a couple trips. The customer service lady didn't speak any English so I used the Google translator to tell her that I wanted to charge the card with 6,30€ instead of the 30€ which she defaulted to. I wasn't gonna be able to use that many trips (2,10€/pcs) during my stay.
The Metro was all in all pretty functional and as you’d expect it to be. Left a couple stops early to be able to walk by the Seine and see some sights. Paris has many beautiful buildings. Walked by a fashion photoshoot. Grabbed some breakfast a couple blocks before the conference venue. A tuna baguette and a cup of coffee. Listened to people talking french and was trying to imagine how day to day life is in Paris. Probably alright. Big cities have their pluses and minuses. Off to the venue.
Started to close in on the Grand Palais Éphémère where the conference was located. There was a small group of protesters with signs saying “NFTs are a scam”. Smells fishy. I bet this was a stunt by some company as their signs seemed suspiciously uniform with weird fonts and a protest on NFTs didn't seem likely anyways. This was confirmed to me later by someone. I laughed walking inside when a man with a megaphone yelled “What is the future of NFTs? What is YOUR future?!”
Funnily enough, I heard there was no cloakroom or anything. Only VIPs had one. Geez. Had to carry my bulky parka around but I saw that most were having the same issue with their coats. Made the rounds. I had looked at the presenters and Sponsors in advance and already approached the most interesting ones in through Linkedin. Went around talking with them and every other project that I thought was interesting or could be a potential partner for STRGL. This didn't feel as natural as in side events. It was somewhat more formal and brief. I guess once people put on their t-shirts with the company logo and represent their company on their booth, the sentiment changes compared to a more casual side event. Also there are many participants wanting to talk with them so the conversations have to be kept brief and more strictly business. I went to see only one panel which was about how to engage NFT communities but it got delayed so I yeeted from there before it started. I got invited to an evening event by Phaver. They hosted a small side event for their frens & creators. Phaver is also from Finland and I know the guys well. Also a frequent user of their app so I tick both boxes!
15.30-17.30 Farcaster meetup at Bright Moments cafe
I heard earlier about a Farcaster meetup at the Bright moments cafe around 15.30-17.30 so I decided to go there. Took the opportunity to walk past the Eiffel tower when heading to the Metro. It looks much more impressive in person. I’ve seen a million photos of it but this was something else. A lot of grifters and people selling plastic Eiffel tower toys around the area. Not the best vibes. Asked in the TG group if someone coming to the meetup wanted to get some lunch. Anjali from Collab.land took on my offer and we agreed to meet near the Bright Moments cafe. Had some trouble finding the right metro as I had to take another company’s normal train route before changing to the Metro. Arrived 5 minutes before Anjali and waited for her Uber to arrive. We had lunch at the close brasserie and had a great discussion. Told her I actually had a Collab.land Genesis NFT (got that over two years ago when a DAO I was involved with used their service). We had a great lunch overall and headed to the meetup. Took a brief video call home at this point. Turned out there were so many people and finding the meetup people proved to be pretty hard. The Bright moments was half art gallery half popup cafe. Coffee ran out before we had the opportunity to have a cup but an open bar opened and we were presented with the choice between champagne and espresso martinis. We took the martinis as that's almost like a coffee. Right? Met some interesting people and listened to a beatbox show. My right eye started to get twitchy. Googled it and it's apparently caused by overall fatigue and eye strain among other things. Haha. Seems like my body started to feel the intensity of this trip. Well, off to the Phaver event!
18.00-21.00 Phaver : Creators & Frens Happy Hour
This was only a 14 minute walk away so I just walked there. Again it started to rain slightly. I had to recheck the restaurant name because I didn't see any visible signs indicating an event. Got into the restaurant and walked to the bar. “Hi, I am here for the Phaver event” He looked at me first like he didn't have a clue but then he said “Oh the guys downstairs?” He pointed to stairs heading to the lower level. I thanked and made my way downstairs. Saw some familiar faces including our CEO Kappe. Had a great time talking with the team and everybody attending. After 8pm I figured I should head to the next event. Phaver guys were going to Mocaverse too but apparently a bit later. Ordered an Uber.
18.00-22.00 Moca Fête - Mocaverse x Animoca Brands
Arrived pretty close to 21.00 and instantly saw that the Phaver guys were already there. Seems like they left soon after me and their Uber driver went heavier on the gas. Hah. Left my coat at the cloakroom and started to map out the venue. It was a big older townhouse and there were hundreds of people and the music was blasting loudly. Quickly realized that it would be pretty hard to try and connect with people. Talked for a while with a guy developing a cool Dark Souls type of a game. Also chatted briefly with a guy building a carbon offset platform. Figured it was time to call it a night and grab my coat from the cloakroom before all 700 people tried to do the same thing. Stayed outside the venue for a while and talked to some NFT Paris promoters and with a founder of a NFT collection. Ordered an uber and headed to get some rest.
Saturday 24th
Initially planned to wake up at 8.30 but apparently didn't wake up to the alarm and woke up around 9.30. For some reason I had written on my calendar that the BrunchbyFidel was at 11.00-13.00 but in fact it was 12.00-14.00. Once again I used the Metro and made my way to the brunch spot. It was near the main conference. Realized on the spot that I was an hour early. Went for a cup of coffee to a nearby brasserie as I didn't feel like going to the main venue for 40 minutes or so. Got some work done on my laptop.
12.00-14.00 BrunchbyFidel
Arrived to the brunch spot on time. Greeted Fidel and other organizers. Got seated and started to talk to people at my table. Half of them were different kinds of artists and the other half were more “regular web 3 people”. Happened to sit by Wenzel who was also in my Farcaster TG group. We made the introduction round and I asked a photographer called Wim what brought him to Paris and he answered “Well I actually came to specifically meet you. I’ve been looking around for the past three days and now I finally managed to find you.” Oh boy did we have a good laugh. I know it doesn't translate to being as funny on text. You had to be there, okay. We hit it off with Wenzel and a guy named Fabio. Maybe we related better as everybody else in the table were artists. The general vibe in the whole brunch was more “artistry” than I am used to but it’s okay to change it up a bit from time to time. Also the brunch was set up by an artist so it wasn't really a surprise. Fabio invited me and Wenzel to come to his company’s, called The Miracle, booth to attend a mario kart tournament so after finishing eating and thanking Fidel we headed for the main venue.
Arriving at the venue we played some Mario Kart and I went and browsed the booths a bit more. I had already gone through pretty much all of them yesterday so that didn't take long. Fabio was handing out prosecco at his booth so I gladly accepted a glass. It seemed Wenzel knew the guys there well or at least also spoke German. I had also been to their booth yesterday and had already spoken to their CEO Danilo about their UI/UX needs. Fabio was their co-founder/SMM. Really cool guys all of the crew. Seemed that there were a lot of Germans at the conference in general but that is partially due to the convenient location. I was somewhat amused when people spoke German to me as well on a couple of occasions. I had a glimpse of what non-finnish speaking people feel like in Finnish companies.
Got cozy at a bench and figured I’d whip out my laptop to see what the world was doing. I messaged the Farcaster TG group and asked if anyone was down to have a cup of coffee. No answer there so sent Nobara, whom I met the other day at the BGA x Aelf event, a message. She agreed to come have a cup of coffee but got stuck talking with her associates on the way. I started to get hungry so messaged the TG group again if anyone wanted to get something to eat. I was looking at the food vans inside the venue and decided it would be better to go to some nearby restaurant. Better bang for your buck and more cozy. Picked up a few possible spots from Tripadvisor. Wenzel answered he could be down to eat in 30 minutes so I delayed my plans slightly. I went outside to make a video call home. Met Wenzel soon but it started to rain like hell so we decided against going to a restaurant. Had to take a closer look at the food carts. Decided on some gyros from the Greek cart. We had a great conversation with Wenzel which didn't have too many web 3 elements in it.
As we finished eating it started to look like all the event attendees were told to kindly leave the venue as the conference was closing. My evening event was gonna be at the venue at the “VIP lounge” in the back but access to that would be through the back door of the venue. Otherwise the venue was gonna get torn apart of the booths and everything else on display. We messaged Nobara and asked if she wanted to join us for drinks. She agreed and we met outside the venue. Went to a nearby brasserie. I ordered a glass of sparkling water with a slice of lime. Funnily enough I got lemon again. We had a good laugh. This was becoming a pattern for me as Nobara pointed out. When life gives you lemons, you know. We had some good banter but soon it was time for us to hit the evening events.
18.30-23.00 BlockGames <> Pixelmon VIP Lounge
Nobara was coming to the same event so we walked back to the venue’s back door. Wenzel was headed to the World of Women gala and later Memeland x Pudgy Penguins as was Nobara. I felt sorry for not getting a ticket to that as it started to seem that many people thought the Penguins event was worth going. Nobara was already someone's +1 so I couldn’t tag along. Asked in several TG groups if anyone was willing to take me as their +1. Heard mostly crickets but eventually someone answered it might be possible. Arrived at the Pixelmon. We went and got some wine and started to chat with the people there. Met a guy from Arweave which I thought was cool because I’ve known the project for years. He said he had come just for that specific event from Germany to see how the vibes were at Pixelmon’s side as he had invested in some Pixelmon NFTs. We talked about the upcoming Penguins event and one guy nearby said he was a Pudgy Penguin holder and that he had some spare tickets. He said he could give us a ticket for two if we really were coming. Perfect! Funny how things sort themselves out sometimes. We stayed for a bit longer and then decided to take an Uber to the Penguin event.
20.00-01.00 Pudgy Penguins x Memeland: Paris After Dark
We arrived at the event. It was pretty cool that the Pudgy Penguin’s CEO Luca Netz was at the door shaking hands and welcoming all guests. Love to see that. We took the elevator to the highest floor and were greeted with blasting music and people talking around the corridor. Left our coats at the cloakroom and went further in to explore the venue. We went our separate ways and I talked with some Phaver guys I saw at the venue. Turns out they were a smaller co-sponsor at the event. All the rad white Penguin beanies they were wearing had already run out. Met a lot of cool people there and the venue was impressive. It was pretty high up and there were windows to almost every direction. There was also a terrace overlooking the Eiffel tower which could be seen all lit up in the distance. Also met Wenzel again and we agreed to stay in touch in the future. After the main CEOs of the main sponsors gave a speech I looked at my watch and figured it was probably time for me to head to my friend’s flat. If I was lucky I could still manage around two hours of sleep before taking an Uber to the airport bus which was departing 03.05. The time was around 23.00 as I boarded the elevator going down to catch my Uber.
The road home
Got to my friend’s flat, packed my stuff and got ready for bed. My friend and her girlfriend came back from a late dinner and I thanked them once more for letting me stay at their place. They told me they were coming to Finland this summer and we agreed to meet. I invited them to stay at our place.
Tried to fall asleep but felt still energized by the evening events so I just rolled in bed. 02.00 got up, gathered my things and went out to the street to order an Uber. Got to the bus station and on the bus in time. The return home was pretty uneventful and I managed to sleep a bit over an hour in the plane. I was sitting near an emergency exit so I had plenty of legroom. Sweet! When I landed in Helsinki I chilled at the airport for a bit and headed for the train back to Turku. My wife and daughter came to pick me up from the train station. Felt tired but happy. What a trip that was!
Conclusion
So what were my main takeaways?
- Interacting with people face to face rather than online was quite refreshing
- The trip felt like speedrunning two months of regular sales work from home
- Meeting people in the real world is much more efficient, versatile and fun
- I could feel the general excitement picking up again in the industry
- Side events > main event
- In the future I’ll probably need to double book some concurrent side events
- I need to go to a lot more events in general
- Crypto people are my favorite kind of people
- My photography skills currently suck as can be seen on this blog
Thanks for reading!
