Embracing the Metaverse for Maximum Potential

Hello there, welcome to the weekly edition of Friends of the Metaverse, your source for the latest and greatest of web3 (and a dash of AI). Ready to see what's new? Let's dive in!

This week, the World Economic Forum unveiled their Global Collaboration Village – a virtual village designed to function—and look—like the real Swiss town, except that here the people convene as avatars.

Built with Microsoft Mesh, this village is designed to provide a meeting ground for stakeholders year-round, not just during their annual conference.

It'll offer more than just a place to meet, too – it'll be a place to immerse yourself in projects like ocean environmentalism, with co-working spaces, conferences, and museums all available.

The WEF hopes that the village will be especially useful for projects that benefit from immersiveness, and will start to hold many of its own meetings in the village after the conference.

And on a totally unrelated note, it’s Happy Camcorder Day!

January 20th, 1981 marks the day the camcorder was invented—forever transforming the way we document our lives and share memories.

So, cheers to the camcorder, for allowing us to see some of the most iconic moments in history, witness the evolution of technology, and interact with the world in ways we never could have imagined.

Now, let's head back to the metaverse, where the fun never stops!

This issue is brought to you by:

Beyond Desks is a metaverse education platform that offers an individualized and decolonized learning experience open to everyone. The platform focuses on inclusion and gamification, and provides a way for students, teachers, counselors, and parents to interact with each other while having fun. Learn more about Beyond Desks.

📰 Weekly Top Reads on Web3 and The Metaverse

• City of Seoul starts metaverse platform for residents, tourists

• National Geographic launches inaugural NFT collection "GM: Daybreak Around the World"

• Venom Foundation & Iceberg Capital Launch $1B VC Fund to invest in web3

• BMW Showcases DEE Concept Car — Mixed Reality Slider and Color-Changing Features

• IBM Executive on Enterprise Use Cases of NFTs and Metaverse

• How the World Economic Forum Plans to Bring Leaders Together in the Metaverse

• Interoperability in the Metaverse - A report by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Accenture

• Metahood Raises $3M to Build the Zillow of the Metaverse

• Cha Cha Matcha Launches First-Of-Its-Kind Web3 Loyalty Program

• Scenario lands $6M for its AI platform that generates game art assets

• House of Blueberry raises $6M for digital fashion in the metavese

• Yves Saint Laurent File its Metaverse and NFT Trademark Applications

• Porsche Opens Up About Its Web3 Plans

• Runway plans to host an AI film festival and submissions close 1/23/2023

• Introducing ‘Fireside Chatbots’ with Reid Hoffman and ChatGPT

• Coho AI, which uses AI to help B2B SaaS companies boost revenue, raises $8.5M

• The Global AI Talent Tracker

• Inbenta, a provider of AI-powered chatbots and more, lands $40M

• What OpenAI’s ‘Bonkers’ Deal Structure Means For Silicon Valley

• The state of AI in 2022—and a half decade in review (McKinsey Global Survey)

• Google Cloud Introduces Shelf Inventory AI Tool for Retailers

• Crypto Payments Startup MoonPay Buys Web3 Agency to Build One-Stop Shop for Brands

🌎 Upcoming Web3 Events

Any events I missed? Let me know at [email protected] 💬

• 25-27 JANUARY : Quantum Miami 2023 : Miami, Florida, USA (new)

• 8-10 FEBRUARY : TMRW Dubai 2023 : Dubai, UAE (new)

• 24 FEBRUARY-5 MARCH : ETH Denver : Denver, Colorado, USA

• 24-25 FEBRUARY : NFT Paris : Paris, France

• 27-28 FEBRUARY : Blockchain Economy London Summit : London, UK (new)

• 27 FEBRUARY-5 MARCH : Miami Web3 Week : Miami, Florida, USA

• 8-9 MARCH : 2ND Annual Global Tech Innovation Summit & Awards : Singapore (new)

• 10-19 MARCH : SXSW Austin : Austin, Texas, USA

• 20-24 MARCH : GDC : San Francisco, CA, USA

• 20-24 MARCH : PARIS BLOCKCHAIN WEEK : Paris, France

• 29-30 MARCH : WOW Summit Hong Kong : Hong Kong, China

• 29-30 MARCH: Prague Gaming & TECH Summit : Prague, Czechia (new)

• 30-31 MARCH : ASEAN Web3 Summit : Singapore (new)

• 12-14 APRIL : NFT.NYC : New York, New York, USA

• 26-28 APRIL : Consensus : Austin, Texas, USA

• 20-23 MARCH : NFT LA : Los Angeles, CA, USA

• 11-13 MAY : PROOF of Conference : Los Angeles, CA, USA

• 18-20 MAY : VEECON : Indianapolis, IN, USA

• 12-13 JUNE : Metaverse Summit : Paris, France

• 28-30 JUNE : BlockChance 2023 : Hamburg, Germany (new)

• 11-12 OCTOBER : Dubai Metaverse Assembly : Dubai, UAE

• 13-16 NOVEMBER : Web Summit : Lisbon, Portugal

🚀 AI Tools (Our Top Picks)

The future of AI is here! In a single week, we've added over 100 AI tools to our database and it has now has reached over 450+ AI tools that can assist with writing, photography, images, sales, audio, music, and more! Here are some of these amazing AI tools that are revolutionizing work and saving countless hours. Explore the amazing power of AI and discover the potential of these incredible tools.

• AI Depot : Discover the best new AI tools.

• BrXndScape : A landscape of AI tools for brands and creatives.

• GPT for Sheets : Like ChatGPT but from Google Sheets.

• promptoMANIA : Get inspired from 300+ free prompts from this site.

• MJ Prompt Tool : Free tool generates MidJourney prompts for you.

• PromptBase : Find top prompts, produce better results, save on API costs, sell your own prompts.

• WellSaid Labs : Convert text to voice in real time using AI.

• D-ID : AI generated video creation platform.

• getaiway : Plan your dream trip in one minute.

• TableTalk : A better way to interact with your database.

• Scribble AI : Effortlessly generate text with OpenAI's GPT for iPad only.

• Magic Thumbnails : Just put in a video title and description, and let AI generate Youtube thumbnails.

• OpenAI ChatGPT API Waitlist : Waitlist Form

• Microsoft's Azure Open AI Service : This gives enterprises access to OpenAI's APIs (GPT-3, Whisper and ChatGPT API) built into Microsoft's enterprise-grade cloud services.

• Sprinkle AI : Create a custom storybook using AI.

• InstaNovel : Generate your own mini-novel with 1 prompt.

• twitterBio.com : Generate your next Twitter bio in seconds.

• CharacterGPT by Alethea AI - Generate interactive AI characters from a description in natural language.

• Vowel AI : Automated meeting summaries.

• Perplexity AI : World's first conversational search engine.

🖼 AI Image of the Week

Prompt: a cute fluffy bunny grumpily working on her trip itinerary::2.5 the itinerary is written on ornate medieval paper::2 quill pens, scattered papers on the desk, magical atmosphere::2 unreal engine

🌱 Whenever you're ready, there are three ways I can help you:

#1: If you are a brand or a business looking to capitalize on the potential of Web3 and the Metaverse, sign up to get early access to The Web3 Engine. This digital course offers a strategic management framework to help you learn how to create, design, and develop a Web3 business environment tailored to your brand.

#2:  Sponsor this newsletter and get your brand, product, or business seen by our growing audience!

#3: Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn for daily web3 insights.