Crypto conference season begins
At ETH Denver right now, which is pretty much the beginning of lots of travel for me until December. I’ll be back home in Puerto Rico as much as possible, but more than 2 trips scheduled every month for the rest of the year.
I really like conferences, but handle them in a specific way. I stay in a nice enough hotel to be comfortable (and book way in advance so I’m paying less for a 4-5 star hotel than last-minute 3 star), order food from Amazon or go grocery shopping locally (mainly so it’s healthier, but also for cost savings), and focus on taking meetings during the event, meeting new people, connecting with people I know already, etc., vs trying to attend every possible event merely for “oh, it’s a cool venue” or “free food” or “all the cool people are here”. I try to speak if possible at events (both because it’s nice to share info, and because it’s a great way to meet more people (and free registration…)). I’m not usually too focused on attending talks live (especially if recorded), although I go to some, and make an effort to go to friends talks.
I usually end up spending at least 4h/day back at my hotel getting work done, as I can’t really get as much done at the conference venue itself, unless there’s a speaker’s lounge or something semi-private. Depending on time zones, early morning is a great time for this, especially as crypto and tech events tend to start pretty late.
There’s lots of serendipity in meetings at events; I try not to schedule everything ahead of time, and leave plenty of flexibility. It’s also a great place to reconnect with people and move something from “would be nice to eventually get to this” to some kind of forced urgency and completion (or at least advancement).
I’d usually like to do one ~10-16 person group dinner at events, but it’s a pain to schedule; fortunately I have friends who are much better at scheduling such things. The Signal/WhatsApp/Telegram etc. groups around events are even more valuable than the “spend $20-50k to sponsor a party or event with RSVP just to capture leads” strategy, too.
My ideal conference would have a bunch of events in a walkable area, and ideally one or more main venues with hotels attached (and, ideally, Marriott, Hilton, or IHG/IC, in that order), as being able to return to hotel room during the day easily would be really nice. Great wifi (and cellular data) throughout the area is important, and cheap/accessible flights. Big fan of stuff in timezones which aren’t too challenging for me (I’ll go anywhere, but UTC+2 to UTC-8 is easiest), and being able to link 2-3 events into a single trip (so, stuff in Berlin and Paris and Madrid with a day or two in between, over 10 days, is far preferable to Berlin/Seoul/Istanbul/Miami…)
Lots of stuff for organizers around when CFPs go out, pricing and sponsorships, how to present information to attendees (web, mobile), etc., but that’s a separate topic from attending events.