Virtual conferences: The show must go on
The blockchain conference industry is rampant, with seemingly a major event in a major city around the world every couple of weeks, from Seoul, to Istanbul, to New York you name it you’ve got it. As an entrepreneur and digital nomad It’s a fantastic way to travel the world whilst also growing my network and building relationships which are hugely helpful to my business.
The Co-Vid19 pandemic that has stricken the world has put an abrupt end to the canapes and wine and has left us with a conference sized hole in our schedules. I haven’t been grounded since i was 15 years old, but here I am once again grounded and having moved back in with the family missing the excitement and social aspect of going to a blockchain conference. With most of the conferences optimistically pushed back to Q4 this year, what is there for those in need of the conference experience? Virtual conferences.
Anyone can throw up a Zoom and claim to have a ‘virtual conference’ but for me, the key thing about going to a conference is the networking/interactive aspect. Having had to personally delay my own conference, Istanbul Blockchain Week, which had been carefully planned for many months, I faced the problem directly and decided to tackle it head on.
What if it was possible to create a virtual conference that allowed for the same,if not superior, networking experience than you can get at an offline event? Is that even possible? I wondered to myself laid in bed reminiscing about the fantastic time we had in Singapore Blockchain Week only a few months before in November.
After spending days on conference calls with virtual event software which quite frankly wasn’t ready for this explosion of interest both technically or from a resource standpoint, I still wasn’t satisfied with what I saw. So, I did what many of us may have done, Let’s do it ourselves!
Six weeks after officially postponing Istanbul Blockchain Week, we are now presenting BlockDown 2020 to the world. BlockDown 2020 is a unique 3D Virtual Immersive experience that is completely inclusive to all. We run for 12 hours a day, encompassing timezones for every continent, no VR headset required! We hired 3D artists to create a world in which for a total of 24 hours across two days, we can just maybe tune out of the horror that is going on around us and get back to enjoying what we love to do. Socialise and speak about one of our favourite things, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency.
As you are reading this, right now attendees are able to login and create their own bespoke virtual character that they will become associated with over the two days including smart business attire alongside some playful crypto meme t shirts we all know and love. Whilst we have worked hard to ensure that the content will be engaging and rich, we also wanted to add that element of fun and escapism that is ever so necessary in today’s world.
Attendees will be able to visit exhibition booths, hang out in the networking areas, go and watch some of the biggest names in blockchain deliver keynote speeches and fireside chats, take selfies with their friends, relax in the chill out zone, all from the safety of their home.
As we all become more aware of the climate change impact of flying around the world and going to conferences, this could just become the new norm. At the very least, I am expecting offline events to have an online element to them going forward, as every event organizer has spent hours researching virtual event tools. This will allow people from all around the world to ‘attend’ either offline or online conferences that they otherwise would never have been able to attend and allows our industry to be more inclusive.
Exhibitors and speakers can receive data on exactly who visited their booth, downloaded their whitepaper, clicked through to their website, or watched their speech straight after the event. As marketing managers across industries stare nervously at their post Co-Vid 19 dwindling marketing budgets, virtual conferences are able to provide a much clearer picture of the return on investment than that of an offline event. With users just one click away from your website.
Istanbul Blockchain Week was supposed to take place at the end of last week, at no point did I envisage myself taking on the build of a 3D Virtual Environment, but it is hugely important we pivot our business models as soon as possible in order to navigate this uncertain economic climate. CoVid-19 is going to change the world and accelerate the use of virtual experiences like nothing we could have ever imagined. So let’s embrace it and see what opportunities it can provide us.
Erhan Korhaliller, Founder of Blockchain PR Agency EAK Digital & Organizer of BlockDown Conference & Istanbul Blockchain Week
Use code: CryptoAM20 for 20% off tickets to BlockDown 2020 at www.blockdownconf.com/tickets