Blockchain-based solutions are changing the face of the event industry comprising ticketing, venue sourcing, incentivizing audience, building event communities, and selling sponsorship. We’re not considering the opportunity to ride the hype, but rather using the technology to deliver high-quality service and a high-quality user experience. Are you wondering how blockchain adoption will benefit the event industry and what kind of magic NFTs and DAOs can work? Learn about it from the CEO of Oaziz starting with his powerful background rooted in one of the world’s biggest crypto conferences.
Who Is Addy Crezee
Our insider Addy Crezee has been building in the crypto space for 8 years, starting his career as one of the first employees of Cointelegraph in 2014 as a Product Manager and Intrapreneur. Later on, he was promoted to CMO, responsible for facilitating growth. In early 2016, Addy opened his own early-stage Blockchain Investment agency called Investors’ Angel, which helped to raise $800k in 6 months. In August 2016, he co-founded a blockchain conference BlockShow together with Cointelegraph, which has become one of the most significant and most impactful crypto conferences in the world.
The background rooted in the crypto conference organization provides Addy with a thorough understanding of the event industry and the opportunity to leverage its challenges and trends. To kickstart the interview, we asked Addy some strategically important questions.
Interview
Bitcoinist: Hey Addy! Thanks for squeezing us in! Let’s start with the hottest topic. What problems is the event industry facing?
Addy: Thanks for having me guys! If I had to name the top three I would say Iow community engagement before and after the event, lack of fundamental sales tools maximizing revenue and profits. The third is a weak investment, co-ownership, and collaboration opportunities. Oaziz was built to fight this problem, along with many others.
Bitcoinist: As problems go, some might mention sponsorship slot sales. Can you comment on that?
Addy: No problem whatsoever! As any sponsor is a DAO member, he or she can be the first to buy sponsorship directly from the organizer. Some types of sponsorship can be exclusively available for DAO members / at a special price / to the first few applicants, only the organizer decides. You can also offer sponsorship slots at an auction which may be held publicly or privately among DAO members. The NFT sponsor slots can even be divided between the DAO members and the open market. Part of the revenue share that the organizer will receive from the sale will go to the community members. The only thing that makes difference here is the structure of the particular event, not the type of sale.
Bitcoinist: Are there any famous event DAOs in the market?
Addy: Off the top of my head, I can remember SporkDAO by the Ethereum community. They have a $SPORK token and a member-owned festival called ETHDenver. I can’t come up with many other names now, so there’s no risk in assuming that event DAOs aren’t super popular at the moment. NFT ticketing platforms, nevertheless, are peaking. We also have the ticketing feature, along with many others, but mostly our platform is meant for creating event DAOs, minting NFT tickets for them, getting royalties, tokenizing and engaging event communities.
Bitcoinist: How can the event industry benefit from NFT?
Addy: NFT affords ground for the industry, users, and event organizers. Primarily NFT assets function as proof of authenticity, a digital document that is commonly used for authentication and to help secure information on a network. Secondly, non-fungible tokens serve as ownership guarantees, i.e.a blockchain event ticket that belongs to one person. Thirdly, some NFT communities benefit from token gating, which means restricting access and providing exclusive content, right or membership to holders. Finally, we have royalties, a perfect engagement and monetizing tool. That’s what can be done with NFT in the secondary market. In the next 3-5 years big festivals welcoming hundreds of thousands of attendees, such as Tomorrowland and Coachella, can start making huge money on royalties powered by NFT tickets.
Bitcoinist: You’ve mentioned royalties. Can you explain how royalties work?
Addy: That’s actually quite easy. What makes NFT tickets popular is the scale of the event. The bigger the event is the larger its community is and the more expensive the tickets get. Unlike ordinary tickets, NFT tickets can be resold an unlimited number of times, and every sale will bring the organizer royalties. The standard ERC1155 enables developers to set any specified royalties.
Bitcoinist: Wow, that’s great! Any other reasons why an NFT ticket is better than a regular one?
Addy: Yes, NFT tickets have other perks, too. For instance, if the event has a community, then the event participants are interested in collecting artifacts called digital memories. NFT memories from Coachella or, say, the last Michael Jackson show, will go up in price. As a result, collectors can profit from rare and collectible NFTs even after the event is long over. Besides, NFTs can get you special discounts, merch, etc.
Bitcoinist: That’s cool! What’s in it for users and developers?
Addy: Well, you can actually be both. DAO users can contribute to the community, both in the DAO framework and in the subDAO structure. Along with the developers on the payroll, literally, any user can submit ideas on a competitive basis to participate in their favorite events.
Bitcoinist: So what are the core functions of your platform?
Addy: Inside Oaziz, you will be able to tokenize your event communities, engage and monetize them with NFT tickets and memberships, reward contributors with tokens, launch events together, and bring them to the market thus benefiting the community. The NFTs vary from tickets to sponsorships to community bonuses. A multi-level membership is yet another advantageous option for DAO creators. For instance, DAO membership can comprise three levels sharing the revenue of the whole event: 10 founding members, 100 investors who are ready to contribute, and 1000 community members who can buy NFTs to get the privilege.
Bitcoinist: Are there any special features and rewards for users and event organizers?
Addy: Sure thing! Along with taking part in events, users will create events independently and also search for events they want to help organize and invest in. Users, organizers and the platform will benefit from each event. A particular share of income will be sent to the DAO treasury. For instance, if the trade value is 9k, 1k goes to DAO treasury and is proportionally shared by all participants.
Bitcoinist: Sounds solid! You’ve pointed out low community engagement as the biggest problem of the industry. Why is community so important?
Addy: Thanks to the active community, the life of the event will not finish once the event is over. We use membership to keep the users coming for more. There are a number of tools like a voting system, talent search, reputation, and many more engaging activities. We realize that a healthy year-round event cycle is key.
Bitcoinist: Ok, we got it! At the end of the day, what is the future of the event industry?
Addy: Blockchain *chuckles* and futile Web 3 instruments. It’s time to unlock the benefits of NFT ticketing. Turning tickets into blockchain collectibles and presenting royalties, we also provide users with digital memories. This feature helps users to merge into life-changing, one-of-a-kind event experiences. In addition to that, NFT owners get a profitable commodity. At the end of the day, who wouldn’t want digital memories you can cash out on?
Bitcoinist: Our last question. Addy, can you comment on the Oaziz roadmap?
Addy: The solutions that we can already offer are building tools that the market needs now. The closest target would be NFT Memories, a free proof-of-attendance digital engagement tool. We are launching NFT ticketing and token gating immediately after that. By the end of the year, we will implement other DAO tools to make it super easy to scale and monetize events like never before.
Final Words
The takeaway from Addy’s words would be that blockchain enables far more than just decentralized event organization. The latest trends in the event industry indicate that we will soon effortlessly create token-gated events and sell tickets as NFTs thus enhancing their value. Increasing revenues and profits that all participants share within event DAOs, that’s what is on the mind of Oaziz DAO CEO. We are contemplating his ideas and how the launch of the announced features will benefit the event industry at large.