A Glorious Recap of AwesomWasm & HackWasm Berlin: The First CosmWasm Dev Fest
The first CosmWasm-focused conference, AwesomWasm, and its accompanying hackathon, HackWasm Berlin, achieved tremendous success. As a first-timer organizer of both the conference and hackathon, we, the Confio team, are incredibly proud of our achievements.
If you ask me what I did in 2022? Easy to answer, “CosmWasm Academy”
Same question for my 2023? “AwesomWasm and HackWasm”
AwesomWasm
Setting the Stage: 9 months journey
At Cosmoverse 2022, we eyewitnessed the growth of the CosmWasm community, and the decision to make CosmWasm-events was made right there in Medellin. I started to prepare it in October 2022, and the goal was straightforward: unite the CosmWasm community and foster optimal collaboration between developers as well as business professionals, inside and outside of the Cosmos ecosystem.
When I was just starting the sponsor-hunting, the FTX collapsed, and the crypto market faced a significant downturn. These unforeseen circumstances posed serious funding challenges for Confio, thrusting me into the daunting task of securing financial support for both Confio and AwesomWasm.
I had this ambition to gather not just the current CosmWasm community but also blockchain enthusiasts in general, students, other web3 protocols, projects, and developers as well as traditional ‘web2’ developers. I researched what makes web2 devs come to web3 and contacted the Berlin-based university researchers. Initially, I had zero connection with people outside of Cosmos, but I worked hard on it to make a better AwesomWasm, attending this year’s EthDenver and Avalanche Summit.
Long story short, the sponsorship was raised almost as much as the expected cost, and I succeded in getting Near, Solana, and Stellar on board!
Regarding marketing and promotion, we had a very limited budget to invite media and also had to consider journalistic integrity; plus, this was our first time, and nothing guaranteed success and impact. So I tried the best organic way. I asked around people who know or are based in Berlin, contacted the Berlin-based blockchain communities and academies to enhance local participation-which was pretty challenging as I was in Madrid, reached out to websites offering crypto conference information, overviewed our social media and email campaigns, content marketing, sponsors and partners collaboration, and set up the AwesomWasm website with our excellent marketing team.
Making promotional videos with Coneydaddy, and creating copies of stickers and neon was actually what I enjoyed the most ;)
Highlights
We started AwesomWasm with my opening speech; CosmWasm is Awesome; the reason why we are all here. I shared the history of CosmWasm, how its adoption grew in and out of Cosmos, and why AwesomWasm was born. I got good feedback about it from the feedback survey. How happy I was!
I really wanted to make AwesomWasm the best dev-fest in Cosmos, like EthDenver for Ethereum, and I am pretty sure I did; 19 tech talks and 11 workshops (Out of +20 main stage talks, some talks also could have been categorized as tech talks — Simon’s and Gabe’s for example) and 8-panel discussions for devs, of devs, and by (not only limited to) devs! Big shoutout to all the CosmWasm builders for sharing your knowledge at AwesomWasm.
I leveraged my privilege to orchestrate this event, aiming for the impactful and meaningful discussions that Confio seeks. Among them was Public Goods Funding, so on day 1, I set a round table discussion, and on day 2, a panel discussion.
It was a true honor to have these remarkable thought leaders grace our stage, sharing their unique perspectives on how CosmWasm is extraordinary.
The CosmWasm community experienced organic growth. I aimed to introduce fresh faces to this thriving ecosystem. It’s time for you to shine! And guess what? The audience’s genuine interest and curiosity validated our objective! Another mission accomplished ✅
Ethan, the Father of CosmWasm, trusted and inspired me and encouraged me to grow all the way. He helped and supported me in preparing AwesomWasm as well. And, of course, without him, CosmWasm would not be here, all our community wouldn’t be here. Although his announcement of temporarily leaving for a sabbatical shocked some attendees, people generally understood that we all needed rest and refresh.
You can watch the whole AwesomWasm Day 1 and Day 2 replay on our YouTube channel.
Feedback
I’m incredibly grateful for the kind words of everyone who thanked me and praised how well the first AwesomWasm turned out. Some people told me they were so impressed that it is basically a ‘one-man’ show, but this would not have happened without the great Confio teamwork and everyone who helped. 💗
I gathered people I had met and worked with from 2018 on. I feel like I had planted seeds, which grew into sprouts via AwesomWasm. I feel truly fulfilled and satisfied. Additionally, I was honored by some BD and marketers seeking my advice and know-how.
The conference succeeds if you can meet and network with relevant people there. I was so happy to see those builders meet others and discuss potential collaboration; investors found interesting projects and business opportunities were discussed. That is exactly the synergy I wanted to leverage through, I am very much looking forward to seeing how it will grow.
Special thanks to
Big shout out to all our sponsors and partners; without you, we could not do this awesome job. Our producing agency Wagmi was an A-team, muito obrigada!
Looking Ahead
The event served as a testament to CosmWasm’s significance, showcasing how it serves as the backbone of the entire Cosmos ecosystem — playing a pivotal role in IBC and facilitating a seamless transition to a multichain future. At the same time, we also experienced genuine love and respect from the community, how good reputation we have built over the last 4 years.
Despite facing a deficit in organizing AwesomWasm, we are confident that our efforts are creating substantial added value, with the potential to translate into recurring income streams.
And I gotta say, Confio team is the best of the best! We are a small team, but during the whole 5 days of AwesomWasm and HackWasm, everyone contributed while enjoying, proving our teamwork is great!
Now, people are already asking me about the next one, a pleasant worry for now? (Sara will kill me if I suggest the next one now 😜) I have heard some pitches for India, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, and Vietnam. Let’s see!
HackWasm Berlin
Preparation
Participant/dev acquisition was my main concern throughout the preparation process. We employed a multi-pronged outreach strategy to foster broader community engagement and attract developers from both Web2 and other Web3 ecosystems. We leveraged online platforms such as Meet up and Eventbrite, extending invitations to talented developers in Berlin and beyond.
In securing the platinum sponsorship, I set an exclusive hackathon challenge and track, exclusively curated by the platinum sponsors. As a part of the sponsorship strategy, we entrusted the dev retention work to 4 of each sponsor. They could offer milestone-based incentives to the developers to build product-level solutions, which is totally up to them, which is not HackWasm's scope. Each sponsor pushed from their side on top of our social media marketing activities.
Then I started an investigation, gathering feedback from devs who have participated in hackathons previously. Then I gathered below valuable suggestions and did my best to make it happen;
- Nap time before the presentation would be great
- Dark and chilling music lounge for hacking on top of a quiet and bright hacking space
- Separate place between workshops/tech talks and main hacking spaces
- Clear challenge/goals and judging criteria
- Code of Conduct recommended
Highlights
You can watch the opening ceremony recording here.
After 48 hours of hacking, there was a total of 24 submissions, 17 teams did fantastic presentations on-site, and there was a total of 10 winners from 4 different tracks. Find all the submissions here.
A full presentation replay is coming soon, and will be shared.
Feedback
Participants were most happy with the food! Lots of people said it was amazing in both quality and quantity. Croissants, pizzas, and beverages were constantly available as well.
Spielfeld, the HackWasm Berlin venue was spacious, we used 6 different rooms for different use, and all of them were used properly, and hackers were satisfied.
As per the feedback survey, people generally liked everything went smoothly, and on schedule. Given that, there were many on-spot spontaneous decisions and uncertainties (i.e. We did not know how many teams will build on which challenge track ahead of time), we did a pretty good job. 🙌
Special thanks to
Nacion Crypto organized the first ‘HackWasm’ in Medellin, and I am giving a big shoutout to them as I got helpful advice and tips when I started working on HackWasm Berlin. Appreciate it a lot! Also big shoutout to DoraHacks, who offered their platform for submission and helped us on-site. Also, thank you so much Stargaze team, for the nice POAP!
Looking Ahead
The first HackWasm was in Medellin, but then we were not an organizer. But we took the reins for the Berlin edition, ensuring a strong connection with AwesomWasm as an organizer of both events. But we are open to collaboration with others for the future HackWasm. (I learned my lesson; organizing events that last 5 consecutive days was just physically too much)
Hope there will be a series of HackWasm in different places on the planet, CosmWasm devs everywhere!
Some More
Afterparty, side events, and gatherings!
DogWasm! 🐶
