Opinion Web3

The House View – A recap from the last two days at SEG3

June 29, 2023

As I write this we are just reaching the conclusion of this year’s SEG3 London event, it has been a busy couple of days with panels, workshops, interactive experiences and more than a bit of networking. 

Like last year, I have learnt so much over the last couple of days through listening to the panels, speaking to delegates and most importantly interviewing speakers from all across the Web3 landscape. Asking Aardman’s Commercial Director what Wallace and Gromit would have made of Web3 was a particular highlight. 

For those of you who didn’t manage to attend this year’s event, here is a selection of my favourite quotes from the last two days.

Marc Mathieu, from Salesforce, provided a big-picture overview of the intersection of Web3 and Generative AI. While Web3 continues to await the use cases that will drive the technology towards mass adoption. We may see that this push will come from the need to develop a ‘trust layer’ for Generative AI. He said: “Web3 is almost a philosophy of decentralisation. Generative AI is an enabler that can make it easier to turn creative ideas into reality.” 

He added: “Generative AI will enable us to learn more about the things that we don’t already know.” In other words it is not just about predicting future behaviour based on past behaviour. 

Andrea Berry, from Theta Labs, said: “We often hear about the importance of owning your own audience, but it isn’t easy to put that into practice. Rights Owners that try to distance themselves from the big platforms in order to own data often find that they are at the mercy of third party providers as they build “frankenstein’ sites combining Web2 tech solutions with Web3.”

Nizzar Benchekroune, from Berexia, said: “Web3 is the beginning of the internet. You have been surfing the internet for 20 years, now you can be inside it.” 

“One of the biggest changes will be the transformation of the relationship between brands and consumers. People walk around today wearing clothes that advertise brands. In the future they will be paid by brands for promoting them. Brands will need to give more to consumers as expectations rise.”

JP Morgan’s Tyrone Lobban, added: “He pointed out that Brussels is already working on making a trusted ‘digital identity’ accessible to everyone in Europe and that the momentum to create a blockchain-based ecosystem may come from governments and financial institutions rather than entertainment. Though sports, entertainment and, especially, gaming will play important roles.

LaLiga’s Keegan Pierce said: “Monetising needs to be done as a natural outgrowth of fandom, not an imposition”

Martin El-Khouri, from Bertelsmann Investments, said: “The content side and the advertising side are merging. This is what NFTs will embody moving forward.”

Make sure you are following the SEG3 socials and website to keep up to date with all the latest news, views and content.

Opinion Web3