EthCC: The Biggest Blockchain Event in 2020
It was 6 months ago and I have to admit it feels like it’s been quite a while. The third edition of EthCC (Ethereum Community Conference) happened on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of March in Paris. This conference arose from our belief that a blockchain conference should focus on technology, education, and showcasing the changes that doers are driving. The conference tickets’ price shouldn’t deter anyone from attending and above all, transparency on the budget should be a strong argument for the respectability of the event.
As a non-profit, Ethereum France organizes the conference at cost every year and publishes its budget recap (see below) and event highlights (see 2018 and 2019). Once again, the international ecosystem rallied around the EthCC banner. So much content was produced and so much happened this year that it is almost impossible to wrap it up. Today’s big question mark is: What about 2021?
Our ambition for 2020 was to keep growing both our audience and the number of speakers as well as reach a new order of magnitude when it comes to the event’s production and the side-events. Here was our baseline scenario :
- EthCC: 3 days of talks and workshops (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)
- EthVC: a Venture Capital track to help projects fundraise.
- 1 blockchain job fair (Monday)
- 1 Hackathon: EthParis 2 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
- 1500 attendees (+30%)
- 250+ speakers
- The 3rd anniversary of the EthMagicians
- 40 side-events (+30%)
To reach our targets we rapidly got in touch with communities in Asia — that were arguably under represented in previous editions — and we got the help from a talented blockchain PR firm, Yap Global. We managed to secure an amazing conference center in the heart of Paris with a heavy historic background and a name that fitted right in the shared values of the ecosystem: La Maison de la Mutualité. The positive feedback received from the previous editions helped gather interest from sponsors early on. The stars looked like they were pretty much aligned when…
The coronavirus pandemic kicked in with little notices:
- 1st February: Schengen Area (25 countries excl. France) ended visas from China
- 8th February: Italian border stood open
- 21st February: Italy imposes lockdown
- 22nd February: Salon de l’Agriculture in Paris opened (483 000 visitors)
- 26th February: OL — Juventus soccer game in Lyon happened with supporters from both countries
- 29th February: Events in France were limited to less than 5 000 attendees
- 1st March: last day of Salon de l’Agriculture was canceled
- 3rd March: EthCC started with a little less than 1000 attendees that were reminded the recommendation from the WHO in the opening talk
- 9th March: Events in France were limited to less than 1 000 attendees
Looking back, what happened and what followed feel surreal. We even made it to CoinDesk and Cointelegraph…
What happened at EthCC 2020?
- EthCC: 3 days of talks and workshops ✅
- EthVC: a Venture Capital track to help projects fundraise.✅
- 1̶ ̶b̶l̶o̶c̶k̶c̶h̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶j̶o̶b̶ ̶f̶a̶i̶r̶ ̶(̶M̶o̶n̶d̶a̶y̶)̶
- 1̶ ̶H̶a̶c̶k̶a̶t̶h̶o̶n̶:̶EthParis 2 (F̶r̶i̶d̶a̶y̶, Saturday, Sunday)✅
- <1000 attendees✅
- 240 speakers✅
- The 3rd anniversary of the EthMagicians✅
- 4̶0̶ 10 side-events ✅
- The Epicenter podcast held tons of interviews in its booth✅
New tracks: French Track — Enterprise — Other Blockchains — Ethereum 2.0 — Blockchain For Good
Overall we managed to host 241 talks, live streamed and broken down in several tracks:
We were delighted to include new subjects in our aim to be ever more inclusive. The event being in Paris, we wanted to help french speakers overcome the language barrier by providing them with an introductory track in French. Blockchain’s B2B development is still in its early stage, and different use cases of the technology deserve some spotlight, such as Unicef France that came and showcased their cryptofund. In total, a little under one thousand people showed up (980 exactly) to attend these talks and workshops.
New program this year: EthVC
Two years of crypto winter were pretty tough on blockchain startups especially when they were looking for funding. We were well aware of that and EthVC was set up to enable better access & communication between tech VCs and blockchain startups. This track was organized by Kaiko with the support of Blockchain Valley Ventures and 30 startup founders got to meet, pitch and interact with more than 35+ investors.
ETHParis 2 : The Un-hackathon
EthCC was followed by the “non”hackathon ETHParis hosted in the engineering school : l’ESGI during the weekend. People gather informally in different classrooms to work on projects and attend workshops on ENS, lightclients, ETH2.0, and so forth. etc.
What did the budget look like this year?
Our approach on the pricing of the tickets:
Based on our previous edition, we did our best to forecast the budget and price the tickets appropriately. Basically we took the sum of expected expenses (Venue + Catering + Security + various hidden or unexpected expenses) and took a somewhat safe hypothesis of the number of attendees.
We had to move to a bigger event space as we expected more attendees thus our expenses went slightly up. Nevertheless, we’re proud that we managed to keep the price in the lowest range of blockchain conferences whilst inviting around a hundred students and volunteers.
As COVID19 spread, we faced many cancellations from speakers and attendees. We weren’t that confident we were going to make ends meet but with enough time, pressure and tremendous support from our sponsors and partners we managed to make it. Shout out to our sponsors and especially the ones that support us every year. It’s great to see them coming back again and again as well as seeing new companies joining in.
Gold sponsors:
Silver sponsors:
Bronze sponsors:
Community sponsors:
What’s with the extra money ?
You might rightfully ask yourself what we’ll do with the small profit made from EthCC[3]: 400€. Well, we stashed it in food coins and are actively farming in the hope to be able to fund the next conference and invite all of you to Paris. We’ll let you know how it goes in the meantime you can support us and send pickles / sushi /pizza /pineapples our way.
Conclusion: See you next year?
Thanks a million for coming, streaming, and building. Prepare yourself to travel to Paris the first week of March 2021 and special kudos to our outstanding helpers ❤ and Trust Community for the agenda app!
