The inaugural Stacker News in Real Life (SNIRL) event at The Atlanta Bitcoin Conference (TABCONF) is in the history books. The conference ran from October 13th to October 16th.
I only stayed till the morning of October 15th so my account of the events may not be complete.
Below is my review of the event and what I plan to do next year for SNIRL 2.
My Experience
Day #1
Going to TABCONF on the beautiful Georgia Tech campus is always a treat. Having went to TABCONF last year I knew exactly where to go for registration and what to expect at the conference.
As I walked into the exhibit hall and registered (which is really easy to do all they ask for is an email address) I then walked in and ran into a few Stackers who had beat me there. Then we started to set up the table when the organizer of TABCONF (@Tidwell) came by and greeted us. He shared he is a fan of Stacker News and appreciated us setting up a table at the conference. I told him I plan on doing this every year that TABCONF is around or till my death and he echoed that same sentiment. @Tidwell even mentioned if bitcoin went to zero he would still host this conference to discuss other freedom tech like mesh networks which sounded very encouraging. After that nice exchange with the organizer we moved to set up our table.
I brought a bunch of SN items with me to showcase to other conference attendees that we are just more than message board based upon hacker news/reddit model. I had every single zine published by @plebpoet, items I purchased from @agora, and business cards from my two territories ~Stacker_Stocks and ~Construction_and_Engineering and one from @grayruby territory ~Stacker_Sports.
After getting set up we just sat and chilled. I think this was the best part for me. Hanging with stackers and bitcoiners was a lot of fun. Different people came by our table asking questions and sharing what projects they were working on which I enjoyed. Later in the day @k00b showed up with more merch and a bright yellow tablecloth that really drove more attention to our table. Meeting @k00b was cool. The very chill laid back guy that is often on display on the Stacker News Live podcast is every bit true in real life. Very easy to have a conversation with and super inquisitive. Once he starts asking you questions the conversation just starts to flow very welcoming guy.
Later another Stacker came and he came with big surprise. He brought some cowboy hats! I learned right then that one of the hats were for me. Due to having my cowboy hat on SN for over 365 days qualified me to have earn a hat IRL. The hat I earned has the number 8 under it as I am the 8th Stacker to achieve keeping my SN hat for 365 days. A very pleasant surprise.
After the first day was over a bunch of us went out to dinner together. We walked about 30 minutes to this super busy shake shack. We tried to make it to a steak’ n shake but it was too far. Some high school kids were curious about my SN cowboy hat and asked me what SN was. I told them it is site where you can post and earn bitcoin. They seemed a bit confused but did mention that they knew what bitcoin was. I gave them a business card and told them to join us! Dinner concluded and I continued on to my crappy hotel.
Day 2
The next day was more of the same. Stackers hanging out talking to conference attendees as they came by our table.
@Car showed up with all of his merch which includes the SNL DVD (which I purchased), and pleblab stickers and pins. To my surprise he remembered who I was. My first two IRL touch points with Car I was in lurker mode but last year at TABCONF Car figured out who I was and it showed soon as he shook my hand. This day we started to run the SN Trivia but more on that later. @k00b also let me take more free merch as I got a stacker news beanie and a corduroy ball cap.
At the end of the conference a bunch of us stackers went out to dinner again at this seafood restaurant (forgot the name). I ordered the blackened fish with grits and was in shock. The grits were absolutely perfect. The best tasting grits I ever had. @k00b had the same experience! We both ordered another side order of grits just to experience that oral orgasm again. To put the cherry on top @k00b covered our dinner! Thanks @k00b! After dinner I called it an evening and went back to my crappy hotel.
Day 3
This day was a short one for me. But one cool thing that we did that was suggested by another stacker on day two was to tour the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank. It was about a 30-minute walk from TABCONF. The architecture of the Atlanta Fed is beautiful. Big beautiful stone building that looks like it will be standing for at least another 1,000 years! The security at the Fed was very serious. They had police with bomb sniffing dogs patrol the perimeter, and we all had to go through screening and metal detectors. Once we were in we were told no cell phones and only allowed to take pictures of three items
- The Seal
- The Cash Cow
- Negro League Players (not pictured)
Once in we got to see how the Atlanta Fed operates. We saw real humans handling huge bundles of cash, the opportunity to "lift" a 27-pound bar of gold worth about $515k at the time we were there and other cool features about the US monetary system. I highly recommend this trip!
After the Fed trip we went back to the conference chatted more with Stackers and then caught my flight back home.
Highlights
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Spending almost three days with stackers was by far the best experience!
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Having TABCONF on a college campus gives us an opportunity to have touch points with college students and staff. Walking to the conference a student asked me for directions somewhere on campus which I had no clue of. I told him I was in town for a bitcoin conference and he asked "is that real" Goes to show we got a long way to go.
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The conference attendees really liked the zines. Laying out the zines drew people in and started a conversation. Some attendees wanted to take them but they were my zines and thus not for sale.
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The business cards were an easy way to give something to people to keep stacker news in mind. We handed out many a quick and easy way to increase awareness of SN
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Touring the Fed with stackers!
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Grits southern style!
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Playing Mario Kart for sats. I didn't play but stackers really enjoyed this!
Lowlights
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If you go to TABCONF don't stay at the Crown Plaza. The hotel was horrible. The check in line was about 4 to 5 people long and it took them FOREVER to check us all in. The room was bare bones. The shower refused to get hot and bathroom sink faucet had a tiny leak when I turned on the hot water. Never staying here again.
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This TABCONF wasn't that well attended. Last year had more attendance. Unsure why but the conference room wasn't as vibrant as last year.
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The conference folks who did engage with us, about 75% of them already had a Stacker News account but just isn't active. Bummer!
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The SN Trivia and Sat give away was a flop in real life. On SN it went well but in person only one person asked about it. I think the people who attend TABCONF already have enough sats or the amount was too low?? Either way I was able to keep 350k sats to myself!
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The TABCONF topics seem to be a bit dry. One of the stackers went to the bitcoin 101 and it was very elementary bitcoin stuff which is a bit surprising since TABCONF is more for your seasoned bitcoiner. Last year's TABCONF had more content and great speakers. Maybe I was too caught up in SNIRL to really notice but looking at the schedule nothing compelled me to leave my post.
Things to Do for SNIRL 2
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Bring an easel and create an SN sign. The seedsigner team had a really cool sign. We should do that as well. Bring more eyeballs to our table
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Create more business cards. A general SN one and others for specific territories. Working with @design_r was great! I am sure he can create some cool designs for those territories that want more exposure IRL
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Purchase the SN printed table cloth to complement the tablecloth brought by @k00b
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Dump the IRL giveaway with satcards. Just focus on making a post and do everything via the site.
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Start planning a little earlier and try to entice more stackers to show up and make this our defacto place to meet up from around the world.
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Make the tour to the fed a thing?
Open to any and all other suggestions! The overall goal of this event is to meet stackers in person. Growth is cool but that is not the main focus of this event. For those Stackers who wish to have an opporunity to meet one another in safe fun location, consider coming to SNIRL in the future! We would love to meet you!
Thank you to all the stackers who made this a great experience. Looking forward to the next one!