The Good, The Bad, and The Lessons Learned: Welook’s Debrief on ETHDenver 2023

TL;DR Ticketing — 9/10 🤩, WeCards Activation — 5/10 😕

Hello Welook community!

We’re back from Denver and we’re excited to share with you some learnings and insights from our participation at ETHDenver conference: The year of the Spork. You might not know but Welook launched one year ago at ETHDenver 2022, and as a team, we were thrilled to participate in this year’s event with our WeCard.

As you might know by now, at Welook we believe NFTs are the building blocks of social profiles in Web3. They offer benefits using NFTs as keys while contributing to the construction of digital identities as well. One of the most practical use cases for this is ticketing. At ETHDenver 2023, Welook’s tech solution was implemented for ticketing, as well as for the WeCards activation for perks and as a networking tool.

1. Welook’s Contribution to ETHDenver 2023 Ticketing System
2. WeCard Activation: Potential and Setbacks
3. Token Distribution: Top Ranked Booths by POAP Distribution
4. Impact of Web3 Tools in Community Building
5. Final Thoughts and Gratitude: Welook’s Future Plans

Overall, the ticketing process was a success, and we’re proud to say that it was a 9/10 from our perspective. The scanner app to validate tickets, as well as POAP minting after validation, both worked like a charm. However, there were some minor communication issues in the ticket claiming process that led to confusion in some cases. According to one of the Welook team members, “the response from attendees to the token-gated experiences has been positive, with immediate value seen on their faces.”

The WeCard was the primary access control tool for special zones, and attendees could tap their cards for token-gated perks and to network.

Now, let’s talk about WeCards. The potential for our WeCard tool is gigantic, and we decided to give one to every ETHDenver attendee for free. The WeCard was the primary access control tool for special lounges/zones in the venue, and attendees could tap their cards for token-gated perks and to networking with one another.

However, the WeCards’ activation process did not have a great turnout. Only 25% of deployed cards were activated, and the complexity of the activation process was a significant contributor. At some point, on day one of the conference, there was zero internet connection, which negatively affected the complexity of the activation process. Our communication efforts were well-intentioned, but attendees had a lot of stimuli that reduced attention and motivation.

The WeCard activation process may have experienced some setbacks, but it has a bright future. The use of NFC technology embedded in the WeCard as a secure POAP distribution tool and offline wallet proxy for token-gated experiences has enormous potential.

This is inspiring for Brands and community leaders who are interested in getting involved in the Ethereum event ecosystem. We’ve seen tremendous impact when focusing on implementing the true usability of NFTs. A POAP drop could just be the first step for many, adding value and creating an endless roadmap is what comes next. “NFTs are the bridge between hardcore crypto and the retail or consumers brands, enabling community building on a whole new level.” mentioned a Welook team member during an interview.

Gloria Kimbwala, the Schelling Point organizer, said, “with web3 tools such as WeCard and Welook Labs, web3 values are baked in and top of mind” and “it allows for the cost of events to be less but the impact to still be high.”

We learned a lot from the WeCards activation experience and we were delighted to see that taps by date increased even though the number of deployed cards trended downwards after March 2nd. On the first conference day, more than 4k cards were deployed, and we reached an all-time high of 2446 WeCard taps on that day alone.

In terms of token distribution, there were 13085 Booth POAPs minted throughout the conference. Some of the top-ranked booths by POAP distribution were the WalletConnect booth, Infura’s booth, Collab.Land booth, Arbitrum booth, and Brave booth.

Let’s analyze the data in ETHDenver’s dashboard.

“We’re grateful to the whole Welook team for their efforts, and we want to express our thanks to the Ethereum Denver team for taking a chance on us. Last but not least, we appreciate the continuous support and feedback from our community.” said Angelo (T0t0.eth) Welook’s founder.

This is just the beginning for us, and we’re looking forward to continuing our growth and development. NFTs are the building blocks of social profiles in Web3, and we firmly believe that organizations can start offering benefits using NFTs (Hint: Look into bnfts Protocol 👀). Our ticketing experience was a fantastic example of how practical the use of NFTs can be in various contexts.

We encourage you to follow us on social media or subscribe to our blog to stay updated on our latest developments. If you’re interested in bringing Welook to your next community or brand event, please don’t hesitate to sign up to Welook Labs or contact us directly.

Thanks for reading, Welookers and see you in the next ETH conference!

Big thanks to the whole Welook team for the effort to complete this extraordinary milestone.