John Karp on Building NFC Lisbon Around the Artists | NFTS.WTF Interview

NFTS-WTF Interviews
Written By David Cash

John Karp, founder of NFC (Non Fungible Conference), on why he built an NFT event for people already deep in the space and put artists at the center of it.Interviewed by David Cash. Book David to host, moderate, or speak: https://davidcash.ca

Recorded live in April 2022 on the floor of NFC Lisbon, John tells David Cash how he went from running tech events to collecting NFTs during lockdown, hosting a daily French-language Clubhouse room and podcast, and deciding to build a conference for the NFT generation. They talk about why Lisbon, why he tells everyone to follow the artists, and how the venue mixes art, brands, and the metaverse in one space: a Playground room with a bar and live music, a shopping district for buying NFTs in person, and livestreams people could watch from a virtual gallery.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

  1. 00:00 Intro: John Karp, founder of NFC
  2. 0:44 From tech events to NFTs
  3. 1:28 Discovering NFTs during lockdown
  4. 2:03 A daily NFT Clubhouse room and podcast in French
  5. 3:07 Why build an event for the NFT generation
  6. 4:30 Why Lisbon
  7. 5:12 Follow the artists
  8. 5:42 Curation that mixes art, brands, and the metaverse
  9. 6:15 The Playground: a conference room with a bar and live music
  10. 6:52 An NFT shopping district and a metaverse feel IRL
  11. 7:29 The people make the event
  12. 7:57 Watching NFC Lisbon from the metaverse
  13. 8:33 Thanks and sign-off

Speakers

  • David Cash, interviewer and editor-in-chief, NFTS.WTF
  • John Karp, founder of NFC (Non Fungible Conference)

Key topics

  • Founding NFC (Non Fungible Conference)
  • From tech events to NFT collecting
  • Clubhouse and the early European NFT community
  • An event for the NFT generation, apart from DeFi and Bitcoin crowds
  • Lisbon as a city for artists and crypto
  • Putting artists at the center of a conference
  • Mixing art, brands, gaming, and the metaverse in one venue
  • The Playground: talks, a bar, DJs, and live music
  • Buying NFTs in person at a conference shopping district
  • Community at live events
  • Streaming a physical conference into a virtual gallery

In their words

"Follow the artists." John Karp

"Art is the key for me. And creation is the key." John Karp

How to cite

APA: Cash, D. (2022). John Karp on building NFC Lisbon around the artists [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/BbxJxrrp6YA

Chicago: Cash, David. "John Karp on Building NFC Lisbon Around the Artists." Recorded April 2022, Lisbon. YouTube video, 8:53. https://youtu.be/BbxJxrrp6YA.

About NFTS.WTF

NFTS.WTF was a Web3 culture publication and interview series edited by David Cash. It covered artists, collectors, and builders during the 2021–2022 NFT boom. It ran for two years and closed after a board decision by the NFTS DAO, which left many of its interviews unpublished.

Recording details

Recorded April 2022 at NFC Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. Originally published on NFTS.WTF, April 2022. This edition: archival re-release with chapters and captions, 2026.

Transcript

Machine-transcribed and reviewed. Timestamps link to the moment in the video.

[0:03] Okay, hi everybody welcome back to NFTS.WTF my name is David Cash I'm doing chief and I'm joined here today live at NFC Lisbon with John Karp founder of NFC This is an amazing event I mean we've been here now for the past two days and I've been to a lot of NFT conferences But the level of production in this town is like insane right now And and I think it has to be mentioned for anybody who's not physically here Obviously you just see our lovely background right now But uh, you know this event is in a beautiful historic It looks like a palace and then you come inside and it's just completely decked out I mean, it's really incredible this space and and you chose to do this in Lisbon and you're French I think I would love to hear you know, how this started obviously, you know, you're very involved in the space But of course, yeah, but how did this idea come about? Yeah. Thank you, David So basically, you know, yeah, I have to talk about my

[0:48] personal history I come from the event world actually accuracy the company like ten years ago called the hackers in the hackathon place I get them dot-com basically and So I wasn't to this small hacking event and so I like I like always always loved the event, you know meeting people Tech related so we've been doing a blockchain event, but it was part of the thing, you know, it was more corporate oriented So, you know client tech industry. Yeah tech industry. Oh, yeah, I could blockchain artificial intelligence worldwide worldwide in 50 different countries actually But you know two years ago when the you know, yeah two years ago lockdown Start to be Yeah, I watch around that I discovered NFTs and at this moment I fall in love, you know collecting hardly Every artist I find when I was in love with I think come on, you know, you know the historical part No, I make me feel like I'm leaving something.

[1:43] I'm into You know, you know that you know the rabbit hole every time the moment I want you by 10 you by 100 Exactly. I am into that and so at this moment, you know I just wanted to do everything related to that and when it became a bit more intense last year Everybody asking me questions and so I decided to do a daily I started on clubhouse a daily clubhouse it for everybody asking me question you want to do phone call? Let's do a clubhouse right and you can ask your questions basically and so we did that with my partner Remy is a he asked me question. He wanted to discover and every day we do a podcast, you know Record it and so we yeah one year later. We did like 250 It's in French it's in French I know it's sorry about it Remember because I was living in Italy when all this was happening and I was also very heavy on clubhouse Yeah, and there was tips then there was your club for French and then there was another very small like Marco Viennese There's an Italian

[2:42] club. I remember the three in the three languages. I remember the ones that I actually listen to Space though because at first it was I remember with clubhouse Especially it was only people with iPhones and only people who spoke English at first at first Yeah, December January exactly and then you know when the world was like, you know, somebody had to answer it They were there for exactly The global community. So yeah, actually ends up to be global and and so, you know, I've been going through different events but many event I was in are great, but Or they know rushed or not prepared It's nice. It's really nice and you know, I love but also, you know, I saw a lot of what I could banking event I would say maybe it's a bad word. Not very corporate. I don't know. Yeah The crypto world is great ago, but it's true that my I feel like you know I'm part of a new generation right that is like the NFT generation.

[3:37] That is not exactly the decentralized finance Community and not exactly the Bitcoin community, you know And so I say it's no, you know when I was going to this event I say I'm these into the NFTs this guy from the defy and they say oh, yeah NFT. Yeah, it's booming It's cool, okay, but you know I wanted to create a place where you have only first people who are really into the NFTs who are really deep into the NFTs and Of course, you know, I've been doing a lot of evangelization, but I want you to do something like for people who knows Important, you know, I called myself for a while NFT evangelist because it's what we were doing. Yeah, of course Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to convince people exactly Exactly and so I decided to do this and I say as you know I want to get only people who know that let's try to be innovative and fresh You know, it was my thing.

[4:29] I wanted something fresh. Is that why you chose Lisbon or what was the thought process for Lisbon? No, it's very crypto friendly. Yeah, Lisbon is crypto friendly and in Europe right now It's quite becoming kind of the the place where things happen in terms of event Usually you have the weather even if right now it's not great and also, you know, something is happening in Lisbon right now You know, you have I like the movement the young people generation energy party You're up to it's very modern. I found like there's a lot of history, but also a lot of brand new fresh tech This is you know, yeah, you know, you have moments, you know, like ten years ago you had Berlin It was like, you know them a cool city It was a city to be and you know, everybody to go wanted to go to Berlin and no, you know It's like where all the artists are going now and you know for me, this is what I said to everybody follow

[5:14] the artist It's only you know, like big brands. They're always one, you know Follow the artist this is the point and this is the point of this conference, you know Have the artist in the middle of the of the conference, of course, you know, we have brands of course No, we have like metaverse gaming whatever but art is the key for me and creation is the key This is why we love this space And so this is why we know we want you to innovate and this is why you know We try to create different areas, you know That's one the main thing about you because you've done so much work obviously And I know I know how much work goes into something like this, you know You know the panels the boots the sponsors the the artists exhibitions and I love the fact that it's intertwined It doesn't feel like segmented like some conference, you know, this place is this this place is this and they're completely separate But no, I

[6:03] mean the web three space is not like that, right? I always tell people like people say like what's the metaverse? What's an NFT and how do I buy crypto? No, it's can you can buy NFTs in the metaverse with crypto. It's inclusive So I feel like you really reflected that here and they're actually and you have this most place No that we call the playground I don't know if you saw that you know with a box ring in the middle and you have a bar At the beginning it was supposed to be a conference room One more conference room. That's fine. But let's try to do a conference room. That is different You may have told there but you may have other thing and you have this sponsor also Yeah, there was supposed to have a booth but then we try to say, okay Let's do a bar booth and let's do it and let's create recreate the bar It could be a conference room, but you can have live performance and DJ and music

[6:45] It's the idea more immersive experience for people to come in Especially since you I mean we're coming from the metaverse now, so we want to do something more and also after the pandemic I don't know. It's just this is this almost obligation to do more than we could before This is what we want and this is what I feel at the very beginning But you know, maybe for next year, I really didn't to bring meta to do a metaverse all experience, you know My I feel like we're in the metaverse And so, you know, and this is why you have a small, you know shopping district I know if you so, you know, I wanted people, you know, just buying anything You know, it's like in the metaverse, you know, you have real estate agencies sending land in the the metaverse I'm like people exactly, you know different So this is really what I wanted to do and what is you know, and the key of course is people You know people you bring there.

[7:34] It's not an audience anymore. It's a community. You actually have to interact with them So, you know if you have the good people, you know, even if you have nothing it would be great And so this is this is the key, you know, and we are lucky because yeah We have really really great people into that great artists great collectors From all around the world that decided to come at this moment. I don't know why to be honest I think the one of the most exciting things for people watching right now at home is you can watch along a whole bunch of this Online now. Yeah, so where can people find if they want to look into the conference? So actually, you know, so they need to go to the nemesis.io slash at Non-fungible conference. It's a metaverse So you go to this metaverse you can enjoy the artworks and you have five different rooms when we can watch the live streams But it's amazing.

[8:21] So yeah Even if you couldn't come physically if you're in another country another continent You can still experience via the metaverse. So I love this. I love the already thought about this You're ready. You're ready for the next step. Right? We try it's about rain. Thank you so much John for taking the time Thank you, David. Thank you for having me and thank you for having us It's been a pleasure WTF being here live at NFC and yeah signing off for this one Thank you all so much for watching. My name is David Cash. I'll see you in the next time. Take care

David Cash https://www.davidcash.ca