Retail Edition brings Web3 further with its own NFT

Driving the need for retailers and consumer-facing brands to invest in Web3 data rails.

This week, the annual D2: Retail Edition and Retail & Innovation Conference (RICE) started and added Web3 exploration to its programming, which runs from June 13-15.

With over 100 sessions and 150+ speakers scheduled to present, D2: Retail Edition and RICE has brought three days of informative discussions led by today’s boldest and most prominent brands, including General Mills, Coach, NBCUniversal, Liquid Death, Puma, Walmart, and more.

As the industry’s favorite connected commerce event, RICE focuses on what’s top-of-mind for executives along with emerging trends and technologies driving the industry’s next wave of disruption.

D2, or Decentralization Deciphered, is a unique Web3 event and co-located conference at RICE that connects traditional businesses with Web3 innovation through in-person events and a year-round digital education platform/

Passage protocola software company that distributes enterprise-class tools for consumer-facing brands serves as one of D2’s partners for this week’s conference, running the three-day conference with its own NFT that allows consumers/attendees of both D2 and RICE to interact with the most prominent brands and dealers present.

“D2: Retail Edition wants to explore this new technology paradigm with Web3 concepts for brands and retailers. As Passage is a sought-after expert in helping businesses and brands bridge their digital strategies into Web3, it made sense for Passage to also offer Web3 infrastructure support during D2 and across conferences extending beyond 2023says Meral Arik, co-founder of Passage Protocol.

The first NFT for the 2023 conference is free to all registered D2/RICE participants who were broadcast at the start of the conference. Throughout the conference, the dynamic NFT will continue to evolve, offering a clickable interface that provides access to conference raffles and opportunities to join the D2 social community.

Specifically, NFT D2 provides members with a QR code that connects users to a token-gated insider information page and the ability to register for early VIP events, which provide access to additional token-gated content.

“It is more than just a “collectible” but instead gives the attendee a unique touch point and another reason to engage with the conference and its interactive contentsays Zac Choi, co-founder of Passage Protocol.

So what benefits does Web3 bring to retail? According to Passage Protocol co-founder Zac Choi, it’s about establishing “real capabilities” around emerging technology.

“For retailers, this means understanding that Web3 should be seen as a new, digital capability – rather than a single mechanism or use case,says Choi.

He went on to emphasize that the days of simply “slap” a picture of an NFT on something and call it a “membership pass” are over.

“Instead, we encourage the communities we work with to think creatively and innovatively about how they can better engage with end users and consumers,Choi added.

Passage protocol previously operated CoinDesk’s Consensus 2023 conferencewhich brought 15,000 attendees to Austin, Texas and its environs NFT Passin addition to other consumer activations including but not limited to Ape Beverages Water Club NFTs for a new BAYC IP consumer packaged good subscription service, Admit One 9dcc pop-up below Art Blocks x Art Basel 2023, and House of Web3.

Both Arik and Choi believe that if we look back to the earliest stages of the dot-com era, we can find this very moment in history that we are in with Web3 frameworks and the need to invest in Web3 data rails, or at least , consider Web3 value creation strategies.

On Tuesday, Arik spoke at D2: Retail Edition, discussing how leading brands such as NBCU, PepsiCo, Mattel, Coach, Puma, Liquid Death and others are driving a shift in consumer interaction by leveraging Web3 to help create new opportunities for revenue streams, marketing channels and loyalty and reward programs.

Earlier today, Puma revealed its latest exploration of the metaverse and NFT space with launch of Black Station 2an immersive digital world where visitors are invited to participate in several retail offerings, including two digital wearables and a physical sneaker.

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