3 days at Blockland- A Quick Recap

In my last blog I was super excited for the Blockland Solutions Conference and today I am tired (in a good way). Here’s my recap and takeaways on my time at the 2nd annual Blockland Solutions Conference.

So what’s Blockland?

Photo courtesy of Blockland Solutions and CodyYork Photography

Blockland Solutions is an tech conference that focuses on the emerging technology called Blockchain. There was also a day dedicated to cybersecurity.

The conference was also divided into two tracks one for general attendees and one for developers. I attended the general workshops and my son attended the developers track where he learned to develop and use code to create applications.

The Morning Keynotes:

On Monday the keynote was Jeremy Gutsche from Trendhunter. While I was expecting a normal dry welcome speech, I found myself intregd with his bio and his title a Futurist. First thought, what a cool title, I want to be called a Futurist, followed by what’s a futurist? He studies data to predict trends and future opportunities in the market.

Gutsche’s speech was AMAZING. He spoke about innovation and how there’s more to it than just imagination, he spoke about entrepreneurial spirit and drive and how it can cost you everything or insipre you to do great things. He also talked to us about the future regarding AI and robots. However what we think is “the future” is actually the past as robots and AI can already perform many jobs more efficiently than humans like building houses, anchor the nightly news, factory jobs, and shoot guns (you read that right). They can also create more robots using 3D printing. All of these these have been happening for years and all of these things I found a little concerning as a human.

He also spoke about Deepfakes. While I knew what they were I didn’t realize they had a name. Gutsche showed us 4 clips of President Obama’s speeches and asked us to determine which one was real. The answer was they were all fake. He went on to say that by the year 2020, just in time for the US elections, it’ll be virtually impossible to spoke fake clips from real videos. The topic of deepfakes came up in a few sessions over the course of the conference.

Article: 9 deepfakes examples that terrified and amused the internet

The speech super engaging, relatable, full of emotions and really hyped up the audience. What a perfect start to a Monday morning.

On Tuesday the keynote was Don Tapscott, author of a variety of books including Blockchain Revolution a book that’s been on my reading list since last year when his son Alex spoke at Blockland. I had actually ordered the book from Amazon right before the conference and then I won it at Blockland.

Tapscott spoke about the changes blockchain technology will bring to a variety of industries. Can’t tell you much more about his speech, besides it was great (I was fan-girling over winning the book and trying to find out how to meet him during his talk).

Cityblock

Photo of Bernie Moreno, courtesy of Blockland Solutions and CodyYork Photography

Before Tapscott’s keynote, Bernie Moreno gave us an update on City Block. City Block is the name of the upcoming entrepreneurship center that will replace Tower City’s mall. We saw a video rendering of it, and was told that they are already leasing spaces for people that are interested in having any office there.

Watch the concept video

Other workshops:

Occasionally Blockland can overwhelm you. There is SO much learning and processing that I went home each day mentally exhausted. On Sunday I sat through the developers workshop with my son and understood absolutely nothing. It’s cool though because he apparently understood and could do the things they were having the group do. Needless to say, we parted ways most of the conference and I went back to the general track.

I attended all of the sessions I could squeeze in and learned so much about how blockchain will help me/us own our identity and health care records, personally leverage our social media, and lessen the impact and hardship on food recalls and car titling. A few of the sessions that I attended were Toppling Traditional Business Models, Leveraging Blockchain for Social Good with Amy Neuman and Fixing the Internet’s Original Sin; How a Blockchain Model Can Save Digital Media. See the full schedule here

The audience:

This year I noticed a lot of students attending Blockland. There were students from St. Adelbert, Magnificat High School, University School, and Olmsted Falls High in attendance with teachers. There were college kids from a variety of schools in the region such as Mount Union, Miami University and John Carroll. There were people from all over the world, lots from Canada and there were a variety of industries represented.

Students attending a breakout session, courtesy of Blockland Solutions and CodyYork Photograph

Not sure if the proverbial elephant is in the room but I will answer the question. Were there a lot Black people at Blockland? Hmmm define a lot. As with most spaces, we were in the minority but I will say that there seemed to be more of us in attendance form last year and from conversations there will be even more next year’s conference as people said they plan to tell friends to attend.

While the conference fee might have been pricy for some there was a scholarship application available which allowed people to attend for free. From speaking to the other Black people that attended, they seemed to be excited about what they were learning, saw value in attending the 3 days and had planned to tell other to attend next year.

Thinking about attending next year?

Here are a few things to know

Parking: Last year I took the RTA to the conference, this year I drove my car. It was easy to find a place to park but it was cheaper to purchase a RTA weekly pass and ride down to Tower City. Either was don’t let parking discourage you from attending

Take the days off work or treat it like an out-of town conference: I told a few tech friends about the conference, and connected them to the scholarship (free) link for tickets. What tripped them up was taking 3 days off of work. One friend said they were having a hard time getting the day off as their boss didn’t see the value in them attending. From what I learned, this technology has the potential to effect many industries and jobs, and if we might be let go because of technological innovations you probably should be begin to make your learning a priority and not wait for the boss to tell you what to learn. (I’ll get off of my soapbox now)

Come with an open mind or hungry for an opportunity: One of the things I like most about the conference is that it connect me with people I probably wouldn’t connect with or even cross paths with during my daily routine. At Blockland you get exposed to new ideas, new thought patterns which opens the doors for new opportunities to just click.

As for my list in the last blog. I did get to connect with people from last year, I totally enjoyed spending 3 days with my son, and am already looking forward to next year’s conference.

Did you attend Blockland? Thinking about attending next year? Share your experience or thoughts below. Interested in joining the book club for Blockchain Revolutions next month? Sign up here