Mimi Nguyen is the R&D lead at Mana Search, and Co-Founder of Nguyen Wahed. She is also a lecturer at Imperial College London and Innovation Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London( UAL).
She has a rich background, in Tech Consulting, with experience in Fintech Startups, Game Development, and high-profile organizations such as Accenture and the Boston Consulting Group. Before that, she studied Media Arts at the University of Arts, Berlin, earned an MA in Innovation Management at Central Saint Martins, and a Bachelor Degree in Quantitative Methods and Information Systems at the Warsaw School of Economics.

Her work at Mana Search brought the realization that the Fintech space was becoming dominated by Blockchain and Web3 Companies which sparked her interest in how The Future of Work will look once technology switches from Financial Services to Fintech and then to Blockchain. Through Mimi’s work at Central Saint Martins ( UAL), she is observing what’s happening not only in the Art World but the Fashion Industry in particular.

“There’s this massive growth of NFTs, so we’re merging the two worlds of Creativity: Arts and Fashion with Fintech. It’s actually three words, Finance, Technology, and Arts and that’s exciting- something I always dreamt of as I was studying in an Economic School before and Art School and I was struggling to find a job: like how can I merge these things together? Around 2018 I realized that this is my life now, and I am very excited to see what will happen in the space.” — Mimi

Mimi is a lecturer interested in Web3 possibilities. She is transparent and challenges Web3 communities and actors within the space to ensure we don’t end up repeating the same problems we hope to solve.
Mimi has a crucial role to play as an educator embracing Web3 and new technologies emerging- we had to ask how her students feel about Web3 tools disrupting the Creator Economy as we know it.

“I do think there is some resistance, you would think they are curious about the space, but I do think it’s quite shocking from my point of view- I do have some students at Central Saints Martins who are into NFTs and in Blockchain, but I would say that’s still kind of maybe five percent and still struggling to really introduce this space to art students…” — Mimi

Mimi tells us that she visited the Fine Arts Department of the colleges she lectures and inquired if any of the painting students were minting NFTs, but there were none.

Watch her full interview to hear all about the resistance she experiences with art students and how she handles it as an educator.

Mimi says NFTs can play a crucial role in ending sustainability and consumption issues we face in the Fashion Industry. She found the collaboration between Dapper Labs X The Fabricant X Johanna Jaskowska SSS19 Iridescence piece fascinating. Seeing the model in the digital garment looked realistic to her. She further explained that it made so much sense because these digital garments will reduce the amount of physical clothing purchased on our quest to bridge the sustainability issues in the Fashion Industry.

“It would just make me buy less physical things, and NFTs would enable that because it’s basically a solution for us to purchase a digital asset.” — Mimi

Mimi further explains that we use to have pride in showcasing our art collections in real life, on our walls: inviting friends over and bragging about them. However, with the current mental shift, showing off is happening online: because the exposure goes further, and you can reach a wider audience.

“If you buy an NFT, this is basically you having your own gallery, and you’re showcasing your taste as a collector so every single person can be a collector right now…” — Mimi

Mimi’s concern now is who’s deciding the value and how good an art piece is?

Watch this episode and hear the stimulating conversation with Mimi as she tries to answer this question and the pros and cons of the impact of new technologies on The Future of Work, The Future of Education, The Creator Economy, Sustainability, and Digital Fashion!

“You’re going to have tech people right now in Balenciaga and Gucci: because you have Metaverse Engineers, VR engineers, there are all these people going to clash, because it’s going to be hilarious to see people coming from Finance, Art, Tech, Gaming and they’ll all work together…” — Mimi

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Instagram: @miminguyenmimi Twitter: @miminguyenmimi | @manasearch
LinkedIn: nguyenquynhtrang Website: nguyenwahed.com

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