Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends Announces VeeCon 2023 In Indianapolis

By: Christos Makridis

Today, Gary Vaynerchuk announced that VeeCon 2023 — a convening that brings together iconic leaders from business, web3, and pop culture — will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana from May 18th to May 20th 2023.

Access to the event is restricted to VeeFriends Series 1 token holders, currently on sale through the secondary market on OpenSea. Built around the traits that Gary admires and believes will lead to happiness and success, the original VeeFriends collection featured 10,255 NFTs and the second iteration featured 55,555 lower priced NFTs as of April 2022. VeeFriends was born in 2021 and developed around characters that were imagined, drawn, and created by Gary Vaynerchuk.

“We are thrilled to be hosting the second annual VeeCon in Indianapolis, an opportunity to create connections and lifelong memories for the entire web3 community,” said Andy Krainak, president of VeeFriends. “VeeFriends continues to focus on its long-term mission of value creation – with VeeCon… we want to continue reinforcing our commitment to creating unique value through curated VeeFriends experiences and token-gated events.”

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets, which have been pioneered often with art and music. But NFTs are about authenticating ownership of assets, so they can be made to represent any asset, including tickets and access to community events. Last year, Vaynerchuk kicked off the inaugural VeeCon 2022 as the world’s first NFT-ticketed conference, highlighting the technological advantages of NFTs.

“Right now, we’re using plastic QR codes and email confirmation codes for many things that the blockchain will eat up because it’s better technology, and that will just take some time,” said Vaynerchuk. Despite the learning curve associated with new technology, “it’s just a matter of time and we should just focus on communicating.” That is what VeeFriends wants to do again.

Veecon 2023 Indianapolis will present a mix of keynote speeches, innovative and educational talks, panels, and interviews, along with A-list entertainment that will be spread across several stages, bringing the Web3 community together.

VeeCon will be a three day event, kicking off at 1:00pm on May 18th and ending on May 20th. VeeCon 2023 Schedule:

• May 18th | Doors 1 PM | TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park
• VeeCon Field Day!
• Opening Night Concert
• May 19th | Doors 9 AM | Lucas Oil Stadium
• Speakers & Activations
• Evening Entertainment
• May 20th | Doors 9 AM | Lucas Oil Stadium
• Speakers & Activations
• Evening Entertainment

VeeFriends is also curating non-official afterparties and satellite events to share with the community, submitted through the Satellite Events Form.

While many critics have emerged over the ongoing “crypto winter,” NFT enthusiasts like Gary Vaynerchuk have a track record for identifying technological trends and capitalizing upon them. Vaynerchuk catapulted into media when he took over his father’s wine company, renaming it Wine Library, and rapidly expanded sales of wine bottles and cases through online marketing videos. It grew from $3 million in 1996 to $60 million in 2001 in gross revenue.

“I use history a lot,” said Vaynerchuk when commenting about the ability to reflect on and learn from the past. “When there is significant technology change, most human beings go on defense – they don’t like it; but a small group takes the complete opposite take,” he said, and these are the people who reap the greatest rewards.

VeeCon 2023 is poised to be another exciting event that brings together the NFT and blockchain community under the banner of education, media, and technology.