How SuperAI and TOKEN2049 became the convergence points of the AI sector

“How They See It” is where we delve into the minds of those shaping the future of today’s most dynamic companies. In this instalment, we speak with Peter Noszek, co-founder of SuperAI and TOKEN2049. He shares his philosophy on designing meaningful connections, why the infrastructure behind events is the true engine of innovation, and how the convergence of AI, community, and human intention is setting the stage for what comes next.

“When people ask me what I do, they expect a neat title. Instead, I say I build rooms.

Not real ones. The physical rooms are where founders meet investors, developers meet partners, ideas collide with urgency, and something real begins to take shape. My work involves designing conditions that foster meaningful connections, connecting people with who or what create value for them.

That’s why my Slack handle is “Plumber”. The process of building connections is so much like building digital or operational plumbing. My goal is to connect people via systems that reduce friction. These systems underpin platforms like SuperAI and TOKEN2049, which are both global frontier technology events. There, ideas, capital and people converge to shape what’s next.

In 2018, approximately 1,000 people attended our inaugural event. This year, we expect nearly 50,000 people across SuperAI and TOKEN2049. At a glance, it may look like we just run big tech conferences. But the event itself is just an interface.

The real engine is what we build around it, including the conversations seeded three months earlier. The partnership sparked in a hallway. The prototype that launches weeks later is because someone had the right encounter at the right moment.

We don’t think of SuperAI or TOKEN2049 as discrete, once-a-year events. What we build is continuous. Behind the scenes, we’re constructing infrastructure — systems, workflows, and AI-powered tools — that enable us to scale community, content, partnerships, and experiences globally.

Our events serve as platforms for connectivity, where startups find investors, companies meet top talent, and product launches reach the media. The events act as catalysts, helping each part of the ecosystem accelerate toward its goals, creating the conditions for innovation to advance.

That’s why the proudest moments for me have always been about the team. They’ve always been about what we build, how we make it, and the kind of people we’re building with.

Like when Alan Yuen, the leader of our Ecosystem team, flew to Taipei to attend a partner’s hackathon, immersed himself in the event, and returned 36 hours later with the blueprint for what would become our SuperAI NEXT Hackathon.

Or when our product manager, May Chin, launched our new web platform, built entirely in-house, using tools we developed ourselves. This was when I realised that we weren’t just event organisers anymore. We operated as a tech company, leveraging our technical capabilities to drive our brand and IP.

I’m also proud of the goals we’re achieving with my co-founder, Alex Fiskum. We’ve been intentional about using physical goals and events to sharpen our mental discipline and stay grounded, like racing Hyrox together, attending music events, and creating AFTER 2049, our immersive audio-visual experience platform.

It’s about alignment, building physical and mental resilience so that we can keep up with what we’re putting into the world.

But momentum comes at a cost if you’re not careful. After TOKEN2049 Dubai, I felt the consequences of my relentless work pace in my body. I had been running on adrenaline, sleeping in fragments, fueling myself with caffeine and sugar.

Checkups confirmed what I’d already begun to feel — poor recovery, alarming biomarkers. I realised I’d been borrowing from the future to pay for the present.

That experience compelled me to reframe my approach. Health is a professional responsibility, not a personal indulgence. If I’m not physically resilient, I can’t set a good example or consistently show up for the team. In the same way that we build frameworks to drive our event platforms, I began developing frameworks and protocols to ensure longevity.

Through this, I’ve become fascinated by the intersection of biology and technology, from wearables to biotech and performance optimisation. We’re now integrating this into our work culture, exploring longevity in addition to speed.

Alongside this, my understanding of connection has deepened. Early on, I thought of connecting as meeting as many people as possible: approaching people, asking for introductions, looking for good chemistry.

But over time, I’ve come to see connection as infrastructure, as something you can design and optimise to unlock positive outcomes at scale.

Our work is about forming robust ecosystems, bringing the right people together in the right rooms, and creating something meaningful as a result. A startup meets its first investor. A new product launch gets the proper attention. A company lands the hire that helps them scale. These aren’t accidents; they’re the by-product of building intentional systems that connect people with what creates value for them.

And in an age where technology is reshaping everything, this question of design and intention becomes more pressing.

Most people see human creativity and AI as concepts that are at odds with each other, but I see them as collaborative. When used effectively, AI becomes the canvas — a medium that compresses the distance between idea and execution. 

At SuperAI, we host AI Creator Labs to explore this intersection, where we teach creators how to transform a raw idea into a finished video, track, or graphic in minutes. We explore how AI enables new forms of storytelling, experience design, and artistic experimentation.

To me, the key is intention. When humans lead with vision and utilise AI to expand their creative reach, the possibilities are endless. But if we hand over taste, authorship, or curation entirely, we lose something essential. The challenge ahead isn’t resisting AI, it’s learning how to use it without losing the human fingerprint.

That’s why I believe the AI sector needs a global convergence point. Currently, AI innovation is built in silos, with hotspots of innovation scattered around the world. As the stakes grow, we need a space for real-time, in-person coordination, where key innovators can share context, pressure-test assumptions, and build trust.

That’s what we hope to develop with SuperAI: a gathering point where the future is not just theorised, but collaboratively shaped.

Over the past years, TOKEN2049 has grown to become a convergence point for the global crypto and Web3 ecosystem. That kind of shared infrastructure is still rare in the AI sector. This is why I’m so excited about the upcoming years for SuperAI, and also for Singapore — which, as a neutral, globally connected hub — is the ideal place to anchor this conversation.

The intelligence explosion is coming, and with it, an unprecedented transformation in society. The tools we build today will define how we operate tomorrow. That means we need to design systems that keep the human at the centre, not by resisting AI, but by directing it.

At its core, this is what I care about: building those systems, with people I trust, for futures worth living in.

I suppose that’s what plumbing is, in the end. Quiet, foundational, invisible until it stops working. But when connections begin to flow, you can feel it. And everything moves forward.”