Gateway Miami Live Blog: Day One
Deep within Miami’s vibrant art hub, the Faena Forum has become the epicenter of creativity as Gateway Miami unfolds.
Situated in the heart of South Beach’s Faena District, the Faena Forum is an elegant venue designed by Rem Koolhaas and the OMA team, led by Shohei Shigematsu. It features two grand halls, a rose marble amphitheater, and ease of access from the week’s major art fairs on the beach.
After two years of hosting Gateway in downtown Miami, our move to Faena Forum represents a significant evolution for the event series, showcasing the intersection of the digital and physical art worlds and the rapidly growing digital fashion and luxury category. Produced in partnership with FACTBLOCK, the theme “Blossoming”— celebrates the “creativity and resilience” of artists in full bloom.
Attendees, speakers, art enthusiasts, critics, and visionaries for live programming, digital art, and fireside chats. If you cannot attend in person or just want a summary of events, watch this live blog for timely summaries, recaps of panels, and exclusive behind-the-scenes insights. Check out our Day Two recap.
Here’s our speaker programming schedule for the day:
1:00 p.m.: House of Yatreda starts its Coffee Ceremony with music and a preparation of the coffee. Its a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony about slowing down and being together.
1:10 p.m.: Guests can come up to get a cup of coffee and drink it. Creative Director of Yatreda, Kiya Tadele, talks about how her mom used to make her coffee everyday, and how the ceremony is significant to her ancestors.
2:00 p.m.: Next up is the Fireside Chat with Matt Medved, Deepak Chopra, and Poonacha Machiaiah!
2:06 p.m.: Poonacha Machiaiah talks about AI will be instrumental in changing mental health, and allowing mental health resources to be accessible.
2:13 p.m.: “AI can be a health coach, a confidant, and even a spiritual guide. Not that AI can be conscious.” — Deepak Chopra
2:26 p.m.: Machiaiah shares thoughts on The Chopra Foundation entering Web3. “It gives us the ability to curate a global community. Stay tuned for the Chopraverse in the metaverse.” They announced that they have partnered with The Sandbox. He adds that the future of medicine is in the metaverse.
2:50 p.m.: Sam Spratt and Snowfro exchange appreciation for each others’ art and discuss their latest projects.
3:04 p.m.: “You sit in your own muck and you realize you have to get yourself out of it.” — Sam Spratt
3:09 p.m.: Spratt tells Snowfro that he noticed and admires that Snowfro enjoys and loves helping other people unlock their potential.
“There’s something about the technology that facilitates [authenticity]. Art Blocks is a true and unique use case for this technology, and it enables people to be more human. it’s uncovering a side of us that the world desperately needs.”
Snowfro
3:17 p.m.: Sam Spratt discusses Monument Game and the types of interactions he’s gotten: deep dark secrets, jokes, stories, and how meaningful it was to him.
3:26 p.m.: Snowfro says we need to continue to see the best in others in order to grow the [Web3 art] space. He says everyone belongs in the “jungle” that is Web3. We all have to contribute to make things better to make this jungle a sustainable place to play in.
3:27 p.m.: Spratt pushes back and says that the jungle is indifferent to our desires. He says we have to make sure our output, the only thing we have agency over, is pretty and can benefit the jungle.
3:32 pm.: The speakers answer questions from the audience and sing happy birthday to a fellow artist and friend.
3:45 p.m.: Matt Medved interviews David Maisel, Founder of Marvel and his new company, Ekos Universe.
Maisel says experts thought Iron Man would only make $30-40 million. He shares old photos with Stan Lee and Robert Downey Jr. They ended up making $100 million on opening weekend.
3:55 p.m.: “My dream wasn’t just to have a movie that a few people saw. I wanted the world. The story had to be universal. The way was through a major motion picture.” – David Maisel
4:04 p.m.: David Maisel says this is one of the rare interviews he’s done, with the other being the Tim Ferriss Show. Maisel says he hasn’t spoken in over 10 years.
“Believe in something, that it can change the world, and it’ll happen.” — Maisel
4:08 p.m.: Maisel says the reason Marvel is more successful than DC is because of his team running it. They truly care about the characters and that they really care. His next journey was the Angry Birds IP. He created the Angry Birds movie and he said what helped make it popular was finding the right comic book artist.
4:17 p.m.: Maisel shares more about his web3 company Ekos Genesis and the art behind it.
4:21 p.m.: Ekos Genesis, Maisel’s Web3 company, was launched in May. Medved asks him to share more about what has happened since then. He says to follow their Twitter (X) account and join their channel to see what they’ve been working on. He announces that Ekos will be a trilogy that will be released as comics in three volumes. He says he has never talked about anything at this level since Marvel, so he truly believes in it to put his name on it.
4:33 p.m.: Maisel and Medved discuss storytelling part of Web3. He talks about existing IP that still has something new to discover— that’s the best for storytelling.
4:40 p.m.: Second to last panel of the day. Mercedes-Benz NFT team discuss digital art, collectibility, and more.
5:05 p.m.: Mercedes Benz announced that there will be a credit card checkout soon. In mainstream adoption, the team says the goal is to reduce friction. Ihler says when there are too many steps in the checkout process, it makes it easy to lose users.
5:30 p.m.: Wilder World shares more on their metaverse, the city of Wiami at Gateway Korea. For more information
Read our article on Wilder World’s company’s vision, its progress, and technology.
5:40 p.m.: Dennis Crow, Head Gamr Producer of Wilder World, talks about building a game that’s based on gameplay.
5:55 p.m.: “Every single child being born in the world will be into games. That means we will have 100% of the market.”
6:00 p.m.: Panel wraps. See you tomorrow.