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How I would like to see a Bitcoin Conference

We've seen lately a plethora of so called "bitcoin conferences". But most of them are just shitshows and noise, talking all over what was already talked in all those plethora of podcasts and shows, repeating over and over same things, but never provide some damn SOLUTIONS.
We are already in that phase when who doesn't get it (what is Bitcoin)... HFSP. But we have a large portion of people, businesses, small merchants, entrepreneurs, freelancers that would want to see HOW THE HELL COULD USE BITCOIN IN REAL LIFE for their use case.
Yes, we have wonderful movements like https://twentyone.world/ with meetups and local workshops. These are very good. But is not enough.
So I propose for ALL those organizers for Bitcoin conferences to take these aspects in consideration for the future conferences:

0 - General recommendations:

  • NO shitcoins and other crap, Bitcoin ONLY.
  • invite mainly nocoiners / precoiners/newbies, merchants, businesses that want to know more about Bitcoin and how to start accepting it. All these workshops MUST be addressed to those in need of Bitcoin solutions.
  • Bitcoiners already know all these stuff, so don't do echo chamber.
  • If you organize it in a place where English is not the 1st language, consider having it in the local language (especially in El Salvador).

1 - Make the MAIN STAGE the one that present only Bitcoin solutions.

  • Let ALL BTC wallet app devs/representatives to present their app and make some live demos. Each one should have a booth with more presentation material, flyers and even more live demos etc
  • Invite more solutions providers to make workshops, demos, presentations of how they use their Bitcoin solution implemented into real use cases (BTCPay, LNbits, node bundles, payment processors, hardware/tools/ATMs providers, builders etc). All kind of solutions for real use cases using Bitcoin.
  • Give these enough time to do their demos and also give them a Q&A session with the audience. Feedback from audience is very important! Let people ask questions. (don't do useless debates with dancing clowns).

2 - Make a secondary stage for all the rest:

  • Add a new section: real life stories of Bitcoin adoption. Invite people with wonderful stories of their onboarding or how Bitcoin changed their life. Give a positive example!
  • A session of debating, talking shit or announcements. Whatever is not included in the above.
  • More games and contests, so newbies could earn some sats and learning something new. Like a trivia game about Bitcoin / LN, or a quiz with prizes. Make them do a proof of work for those earning sats.

3 - Last day - ONLY relationship

  • Let all participants to contact all presenters and discuss with them more details
  • Organize cubicles where solution providers could do smaller talks with small group of people interested in those solutions, more Q&A sessions, workshops.

4 - Make included in the ticket also a system of payments with LN

  • conference participant could get a specific amount of sats to be spend inside the event (kiosks, drinks, food, services, rentals etc).
  • here is a simple solution using LNbits SaaS. Remember could be even used with internal funds sats and participants will use a wallet app connected to that lndhub account or a NFC card. Is all described in the guide. Make the newbies to see the real use of BTC/LN, directly inside the venue.
I hope this post will inspire you more to organize awesome Bitcoin workshops! MAY THE BITCOIN BE WITH YOU!
I agree with each point of this article. I haven't been to any conference yet if there's a shitshow, I prefer to go to meetups and other regional things. Bitcoin Miami for me no longer has the "air" of a Bitcoin-only conference, which is why I prefer not to go.
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Sounds like a StackerConf 🤘
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Agreed! We need demos, well prepared presentations, real stories, tutorials and walkthroughs (e.g. Craig Raw was amazing in Miami with Sparrow), new technology proposals (like Ark from Burak - presentation well done).
Couple other ideas
  • If there's food or drinks offered at the venue, provide sponsored sats-back (e.g. if the person pays, they get 10% or even 50% back in sats over lightning). That gets the people to install wallet, because people like free stuff and then they can spend the next day.
  • No stupid panels with couch people (one exception that was actually great in Miami was Matt Odell's one - they answered questions from public really well)
  • Create smaller groups and go for lunch outside of the venue to a place that accepts bitcoin (find on btcmap.org)
  • At the entrance everyone should get a small booklet with tutorials (get first LN wallet, using POS in business, self custody with hardware wallet)
  • invite folks in the community to do reporting on the event (like Marce came from Costa Rica and with others did great random interviews and reporting on Nostr)
  • everyone should bring a "gift". A small thing they give or provide to others. E.g. I had a flashed hotel NFC key card with lnurlw and I was giving away sats to people I chatted with with just a tap. It was a great success and conversation starter.
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At the entrance everyone should get a small booklet with tutorials (get first LN wallet, using POS in business, self custody with hardware wallet)
THIS! All kind of flyers, all kind of use cases. Simple ones, basic info and some QR codes to scan for more details.
Like I did here:
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You missed one: "if you ever decide to build a statue, please use some balls."
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Great article as usual. I have personally never been to a bitcoin conference. Are the less commercial ones like that one hosted in El Salvador recently, or, say, Bitcoin Prague, more along the lines of what you envision?
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Yes, I think BTC Prague is closer to that. Also Lightning Hackathlon.
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Yes, BTC Prague is very Bitcoin focused.
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Yeah I’m thinking of going to TABconf in Atlanta for my first conference but eyes on bitcoin magazine 2024
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That's great info.
In Octuber there will be a Conference call "Watch Out Bitcoin" in Madrid, Spain, this will be the second year, it will be great to have you around!
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BitBlockBoom. A bit of an echo chamber but otherwise it checks a lot of those boxes.
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Add a new section: real life stories of Bitcoin adoption. Invite people with wonderful stories of their onboarding or how Bitcoin changed their life. Give a positive example!
Positivity is key. It’s next to impossible to grow the Bitcoin community by yelling at newcomers or complaining about their choices, questions, portfolios, etc…
Showing people the best parts of the Bitcoin community and inviting them to take part themselves is far more effective.
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I’ll add one use BTC pay server to sell your tickets. It blows my mind that Bitcoin magazine still uses Apple Pay and Venmo. Like I know you got to do business but as a Bitcoiner it should be easy for me to go to your site load up tickets and pay in bitcoin! I shouldn’t have to find it deep in the site!!
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Doing our best up here in Boston to put on a freedom festival where people can use satoshis to buy things. https://massadoption.net/freedomfest.html I agree that inviting no-coiners to these events is important because seeing for yourself the power of Bitcoin is always more effective than telling someone to go and learn about Bitcoin.
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I'd like to see a Bitcoin conference where Bitcoin is on trial. In addition to the usual conference events, have a series of moderated Cambridge-style debates each tackling various criticisms. These would be part of each day's "main event". The "prosecution" should be led by both prominent Bitcoin critics/skeptics as well as some relative (yet well educated) unknowns to the BTC community. Even better if these debates are hosted off-site from the conference to ensure a less biased audience. Cambridge debates are scored by surveying the audience before and after. Whoever changes the most minds wins. Telecast the debates into the main conference venue. Record for posterity and transparency. The aftermath will show what arguments resonate the strongest with no-coiners, and which criticisms are the the weakest.
Darth is right. Industry conferences can be echo chambers, and this is doubly true for an industry that keeps being pushed to the fringe by the mainstream.
Second to this, I think it's even more important to bring Bitcoin to no-coiners conferences. Someone posted here yesterday about their experience and insights into how Bitcoin can help the hospitality industry. Which begs the question - are projects like Strike present at hospitalilty conferences with a tailored value proposition for that group? Are the folks behind Oshi and the like present at small businesses fairs and/or rubbing elbows with chambers of commerce? Are any of us looking for pain points in our respective industries and brainstorming ways "Bitcoin can fix that"? The more people we can just low dose orange pill, the more voices and perspectives we'll see at Bitcoin conferences looking for more solutions, which will in turn demand more developers, which will in turn onboard more people to Bitcoin, which will in turn add more utility, which will in turn increase adoption, et cetera, and so on, and so forth.
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Sorry editing this because i completly misread your post. Sorry.
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Also, there is zero presentation of economic theory. Even Austrians regularly have conferences. Just because Bitcoin is it, doesn't mean we have a perfect understanding of economics under Bitcoin.
Better understanding of the fundamental economics will accelerate adoption. Conferences for serious industries have people share academic ideas... my guess is even the porn industry has less of a celebrity bias on speakers!
Or how about learning about seed oils, etc and starting to fix everything?
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