Random Observation/Comment #738: I don’t miss conferences, but I miss my conference-goer acquaintances. It’s been way too long.
Why this List?
If I were single, without responsibility, and given my current capital, I’d probably do a year long challenge of attending fun conferences and events. Unfortunately (and fortunately), I do have an amazing home life and would rather spend the time locally than traveling again. These are the 30 I’d hit.
Crypto – Honestly, there are so many of these and usually the main events are “meh” while the side conversations really drive collaboration and a closer knit trust with the network.
- Devcon ( https://devcon.org/en/#road-to-devcon ) – Since Devcon 6 was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to covid, so this is probably the top event I’d want to attend for 2022.
- ETH Global events ( https://ethglobal.com/ ) – ETH<Enter city here> probably has enough events for me to cover 30, so I’ll just make this one line item. Noteable: ETHdenver ( https://www.ethdenver.com/ ) – Feb 11-20, 2022 in Denver – Get your spork DAO on! The OG ETH local city event pushing the creativity and engagement with attendees.
- DAO-based conventions (e.g. MCON pt 2? – https://www.mcon.fun/ ) – Sept 15-17, 2021 in Denver – MCON was pretty awesome. I learned so much about DAOs and saw so many ex-ConsenSys folks
- Cordacon ( https://www.cordacon.com/ ) – Sept 25-27, 2021 in London + Hybrid – I’m a huge fan of Corda even though I’m an Ethereum degen. I can intellectually be both without being full maxi. What I do know for sure is R3 knows how to throw a party.
- Bitcoin 2022 ( https://b.tc/conference/ ) – April 6-9, 2022 in Miami – Bitcoin conferences are attended by large institutional players nowadays, but the parties are pretty ridiculous. It’s sometimes cringe-y to listen to these speakers. Maybe we’ll see some taproot use case releases.
- Blockchain expo global ( https://blockchain-expo.com/global/ ) – Dec 1-2, 2022 in London – I mention this one instead of “Consensus @ the NY Marriot” because the Consensus (by Coindesk) event seems to have gotten too mainstream. Their virtual conference looked like a Bloomberg news channel.
- Global DeFi Summit ( https://globaldefisummit.com/ ) – not scheduled – I may replace this with some NFT event in the future. We have a whole list of events we get invited to speak. Hopefully some workshops with Enterprise Ethereum Alliance or Hyperledger Foundation.
Fintech / Finance – The intersection of Banking and Tech is exactly my sweet spot of professional conversation topics.
- Money20/20 ( https://www.money2020.com/ ) – not scheduled, but 2022 in Amsterdam – Who doesn’t like Vegas? I believe 2022 will be in Amsterdam. This is where the suits get more and more informal as the week goes on.
- SIBOs ( https://www.sibos.com/about-sibos/future-sibos ) – Oct 10-13, 2022 in Amsterdam – This SWIFT-hosted conference always has a huge crowd and a dedicated section for tech innovation and hackathons. 2022 will be in Amsterdam as well.
- Hong Kong fintech festival ( https://www.fintechweek.hk/ ) – Nov 3-5, 2021 in Hong Kong – Hong Kong is the place I’d travel to first when things get better/safer. This festival is filled with great people and food.
- Singapore fintech festival ( https://www.fintechfestival.sg/ ) – Nov 8-12, 2021 in Singapore – Singapore is one of my favorite places to party. I think the location for the Singapore event is usually much larger than HK, but both are pretty great.
Consumer Tech / Cloud / Devs – I lean into my nerdom and will always love looking at new gadgets.
- CES ( https://www.ces.tech/ ) – Jan 5-8, 2022 in Vegas – Gadgets galore! I can just make a YouTube review/unboxing channel and record this stuff all day.
- SXSW ( https://www.sxsw.com/ ) – March 2022 in Austin Texas – There’s always some good brisket at these events
- Google IO ( https://io.google/2021/ ) – not scheduled – I’ve chosen Google here instead of Apple or Samsung for dev and device launches because of scale.
- AWS re:Invent ( https://reinvent.awsevents.com/ ) – Nov 29 – Dec 3, 2021 in Vegas – Amazon does a great job with talks and topics showcasing all the great projects on AWS (which is everyone…). I’m picking AWS over Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in terms of event attendance.
- Vox media code conference ( https://voxmediaevents.com/code2021 ) – Sept 27-29, 2021 in Beverly Hills – The clout of attendees for this was pretty incredible.
- Big data and AI work ( https://www.bigdataworld.com/welcome ) – March 2-3, 2022 in London – While I haven’t really been in the big data space in the past 5 years, I do think there’s a lot of cool cross discipline interest with cryptocurrency.
- Embedded IOT World ( https://tmt.knect365.com/embedded-iot-world/ ) – TBC – Seems like an interesting series of presentations.
- TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 ( https://techcrunch.com/events/tc-disrupt-2022/ ) – Oct 18-20 in SF – TechCrunch Disrupt has been around for a bit and gathers some great entrepreneurs
Auto – While I don’t know too much about cars, I love looking at new designs and always attended the Jacob Javitz Center shows when it visited NY.
- IAA Motor Show ( https://www.iaa.de/de/transportation ) – Sept 20-25, 2022 in Hannover – This seems like a fun trip connected to some other food tours.
Food & travel – There’s no better event than a purely eating one.
- WhiskyX ( https://www.thewhiskyx.com/ ) – Tours a few cities, but I loved the one here in Denver on Oct 1st. VIP tickets were worth it to taste a few high class whiskeys. Likely just going to take a road trip around Scotland.
- World travel expo ( https://travelshows.com/ ) – Show dates are spread out for first half of 2022 around major cities. I Would love to just hit a few of these. At least the Denver on April 30 – May 1, 2022.
- Great American Beer Festival ( https://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/ ) – Oct 6-8, 2022 in Denver – Going to get tickets for this now. Can’t await to taste some winners and bring the neighborhood bad dad beer club.
Podcast – Since I have my own podcast ( Lists of 30 – www.listsof30.com ), I can probably just attend a bunch of podcast conferences
- Maximum Fun’s MaxFunCon ( http://www.maxfuncon.com/ ) – not scheduled – I’ve started to listen to a lot of Maximum Fun podcasts like Judge John Hodgman (see: 30 Judge John Hodgman inside jokes).
- Jonathan Coltan Cruise ( https://jococruise.com/ ) – March 5-12, 2022 in a cruise – Most of this is sold out already, but I would totally spent $5k for a stateroom. It would be super weird meeting all of these voices in my ear actually in-person.
Video games – I love video games. I love my Mom. (inside joke)
- E3 Expo ( https://e3expo.com/ ) – June 12-15, 2021, 2022 not scheduled – I love video games, even though I don’t have enough time to play them anymore. Maybe I’ll be a geek and just watch the mobile version.
- VR Global Summit ( https://www.vrarglobalsummit.com/ ) – Spring 2022 – It would make sense for this summit to be actually in VR within the Metaverse, but a physical in-person event for this would be pretty cool.
Anime – Let’s go cos-play!
- Anime expos ( https://animecons.com/events/schedule.php?year=2022 ) – There are so many crazy anime conferences out there. I really want to just bring my camera and take photos of cool cos-play.
Watches – Let’s buy some cool time pieces as investments
- Watches and Wonders ( https://www.watchesandwonders.com/en ) – Mar 30 – April 5, 2022 in Geneva – I’m pretty sure being Chinese will be a detriment to my lurking for this event. So many European countries hate the copy cats created out of China.
Must Attend!
- TED 2022 ( https://ted2022.ted.com/ ) – April 10-14, 2022 in Vancouver – TED or TEDActive community conferences are always a week of incredible mind melding and melting material.
~See Lemons Attend Conferences
