Two things. Firstly thank you to anyone who has collected last weeks blog, FCancer - Issue 48. All sales are being donated to FCancer via The Polygon Alliance event and I am matching them with my own donation. They are 0.5 $Matic. This Blog however, is about the live conference/event I went to last week. CoinBureauLive by Coin Bureau and Guy.
The first thing was the ticket prices. They were insanely affordable and came with a bunch of perks, not just the incredible speakers and panellists. There was a free drink with every ticket, canapes, unlimited coffee/tea (freshly ground coffee), dedicated networking areas, swag (if you were quick enough) and the event was small enough that you could meet the panellists including Guy.
It was really interesting viewing one of these events as an attendee, or a paying customer, rather than as a speaker or part of the organisational team. And this sounds crazy and a little entitled, but it felt really strange not being involved in the discussions for the first 2 sessions. I'm so used to having a stage, or being offered a stage, anyways after that I had gotten past it!
The venue was in central London, in the De Vere Connaught Rooms, 5 mins from the nearest tube station. It was ridiculously hot, even at 8:30am as we made our way to our local train station. The event started at 10am and finished at 6pm, with a short break in the middle and 2 hours kept aside for networking at the end.
The whole event was a lot, to the extent that it was overwhelming on the day and for a day or two afterwards as well. Even now, I'm still digesting thoughts about the event as I write this. The venue was remarkable, from a friendly greeting from the staff to the moment you walked into the room with stage. Not only were the venue's staff good, everyone that I spoke to in regards to CoinBureauLive was friendly and helpful.
When you walked into the room with the stage, the atmosphere had a buzz. Anticipation and excitement filled the air. The vast majority of people there, were there to see Guy. So much of this was interesting, this atmosphere reminded me of going to a sports game you expect to win. Friendly, chilled, excited, looking forward to a good day with friends and like minded people. Being part of a community is something humans look to do.
The opening from Guy was about 20 mins late. Very deliberately I feel, and not in a bad way. To allow time for any latecomers, public transport in the UK is good for the most part, but it definitely has it's moments. It was short, sweet and to the point and almost instantly we were onto the first panel session, The Past, Present & Future of Exchanges.
Before I talk a bit more about the day, this event happened the Saturday after The SEC had filed their charges against Binance and named several Tokens as Securities. This is important just because it was a hot topic in a room full of Crypto minded folk. The first panel session was nothing new to my ears or mind.
Gracey Chen, the Managing Director of BitGet was emphasising how centralised and decentralised exchanges play completely different roles in Crypto and that there is a definitive need for both. The rest of the conversation was around bad actors/trust, onboarding, user journey simplicity and of course Binance. They were talking about exchanges after all.
The rest of the morning was informative, but only one speaker really stood out to me. I will get to that shortly. I used the afternoon to hang in the networking space and got an opportunity to have a very brief chat with Guy. That was very exciting, I caught one more talk and then my friend wanted to head home (I was staying with him, so it made sense to leave too), his back was hurting and I don't blame him, it was about 5:00pm when we left and that's a long day of information and interaction.
Simon Dixon was the speaker that stood out to me and he spoke incredibly eloquently about his Bitcoin journey. Starting from getting into finance to help his dad. The whole presentation is below, it's just over 35 mins long and I would recommend watching it. He commanded the stage and the room, and you could see that the whole room was fully focused on what he was saying. Even though there was a slight problem with the slides.
He talked about Bitcoin cycles but not in a mater of fact way, he shared relatable stories about him, his journey with Bitcoin and his finance history. In 2006 Simon joined The Monetary Reform Community do try and change the way we work with/create money. Essentially the first part of talk is about fractionalised banking and how he found Bitcoin.
We are in the 4th Bitcoin cycle and Simon talks about what he sees the next 2 Bitcoin cycles being as well. Being involved in Bitcoin right at the beginning allowed Simon to get involved in some ridiculous investments (good and bad), to many to name, you should watch the video. There's not enough room to talk about the cycles today and I want to share Simon's 5 Bitcoin Investing Rules. I am only sharing the headlines, watch the video!
Own More Bitcoin Every Month
Value Your Wealth In Bitcoin
Know Your Money - Spend FIAT not BTC (or have a BTC spending pot)
Invest In Being Wrong (watch the video)
Have a 10 Year Plan
I took away a lot from this event, a huge amount. Not just in terms of education and potential opportunities. I learnt a lot about hosting events. I learnt that they you can host great events, in prime locations, with perks for much less than $50. Why do we support events that cost so much more? If we didn't pay, there's no revenue model.
The main learn, and people need to take this away and run with it is that actually networking is tough for a lot of people for a lot of reasons. The main one being that you need to be outgoing to network. You need to open and welcoming, and look like you want to talk to people. If you are not approachable, people will not approach you and you need to instigate conversations. There were coloured wrist bands. Why not use them, or aura's/halo's in VR events.
Anyone who wants to network has a wrist band of a given colour. You could then offer a second wrist band by category (Orange for BTC, . It's a little more adult than name tags, FYI I would support name tags. I am terrible with names! But it crosses over into virtual reality. I have shared this, and some more with Creative Owls in line with the next events that he will be offering.
It's tough at the moment. Market conditions are making it harder. People double down on themselves and it can make people feel very alone, even though they aren't. Communicate effectively for you, find accountability partners that you can spout off at with no judgement and don't let negative feelings turn into resentment.
Thank you for your time and for reading. One of the things that gives me a lift is seeing how many of you open the email this comes in. It's appreciated a lot and it adds smiles. I will catch you next week.
