On the Road Again: SXSW
Flying into the wonderful city of Austin, Texas was an absolute delight. Not realizing the extent that South by Southwest was, it didn’t take long for me to understand that this was the real deal. Not even a question going through customs — the customs agent looked at my ticket and mumbled “another one to South by…”.
After a short flight, from minus 10 to plus 20 degrees, I was there. The airport was bustling with excitement for the festival and chiming with chatter between colleagues to make sure their presentations were in fine form. A quick stop at the hotel, and then straight to the convention centre to pick up my badge.
Right away the theme was obvious — Blockchain. Posters and banners hung everywhere. A constant talk about “tokens” and “decentralization” and the question “WHAT IS BITCOIN?!”
With the talk of the town being cryptocurrencies, it was fitting for the intent of my trip — Spread the ABL message. I met up with our wonderful COO, Karen, and helped to prepare for the Crypto Friends Event!
The two day event was filled to the rim with different crypto related talks, young entrepreneurs and new, innovative ICOs. It truly was an amazing experience to be surrounded by some of the smartest people in blockchain.
Day one was all about women in blockchain. Loaded with information, it was really nice to see that there are a lot of women in the blockchain industry! It is a nice change from the typical “all boys club” technology firms seem to have. The big topic of the day was the SEC. It seems to be a major topic of contention. Dynamic and rapidly changing, it was obvious that the pace of the legal structure around ICOs is incredibly ambiguous and terribly confusing.
Near the end of the talks, Karen had a Fireside Chat with Emmie Cheng, founder of Superbloom. They conversed about some of the problems ABL was trying to tackle in the HR recruitment space. Another big topic was the general scope of ICOs, and how the investment going towards these futuristic projects has been on an exponential launch to the moon. After a successful discussion on stage for Karen, the day started to wind down and ended with a dinner for all the Crypto Friends contributors.
Day two was the BIG day. The second day of the event was all about the ICO pitches. There was excitement circulating the Van Zandt hotel. Everyone scattering and hurrying to polish their presentations, making sure that every aspect of their pitch was flawless and easily understood.
Prior to the presentations, several speakers talked about the current market trends occuring in crypto, along with their personal sentiment on the blockchain space. One of the more interesting speeches was given by Jeremy Gardner, Cofounder of the Augur Project. He stated, that one of the most important things in crypto right now is Human Capital. There is scarcity of talented, and entrepreneurial individuals in all career paths. This notion is why I believe the ABL ecosystem is so important to the blockchain revolution. The ability to match individual skills with the correct line of work, business or culture fit is an incredibly difficult job in the current recruitment landscape — something that in fact is in need of a fresh start. This segway was fitting for Karens first ABL pitch. Like everyone else, she had only 5 minutes to present a whole lifetime’s worth of information. After she pitched, she was asked a couple of questions…and then…DONE. All the hard work that had gone into the ABL presentation was worth it. The Crypto Friends event was a success!
As the trip came to an end, it was time to reflect. It truly is amazing to see how many people are involved in the blockchain space. With the constant negative portrayal in the mainstream media about cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin, SXSW symbolizes that all lasting movements start by fighting every aspect of the current system. It’s most interesting to see that with a lot of these new ICOs forming, and new blockchain companies emerging, how the culture around this movement is focused on collaboration. Competitors are coming together and helping each other build there projects to fulfil their full potential. It’s part of the blockchain culture and engrained into movements of great change. We want to build a better future — a future where everyone can participate in shaping it.
Its funny, for the first time in about 6 months, I didn’t look at CoinMarketCap once to see what was going on with regards to market trends. While I was in Austin, the market was PLUMMETING. Usually I would at least be somewhat concerned (I think a rather rational emotion to have when invested into something). This time, thanks to SXSW, I realized that there is so much more going on that is important to the success of blockchain technology other then the price of Bitcoin. The community is strong, talented and eager to innovate. With so many people investing their time and money into blockchain, this is a movement that is here to stay.
Reassurance, to say the least.
Join the discussion in our telegram group https://t.me/ABL_Ecosystem
