Emma Todd on blockchain conferences and MMH Blockchain Group's event strategy

0:23get into the blockchain industry oh wow okay so I got into the industry back in 2016 Michael Kirkland and amber Scott they were having an event in Toronto and they were worried that there wasn't gonna be enough people going to it so the answer is I could be the marketing and I did the marketing for that event it sold out within three days and I thought let me

0:46go and find out what all this blockchains about because I write up enough to do the marketing but I really wanted to kind of go and see what the people were like and I went to the conference and I fell in love with the industry and I thought there's no way I can go back to banking after this so I was really fortunate that after like add that conference they had all these

1:05really really amazing speakers people who I didn't know but they really stuck to me and so you had Andres Antonopoulos you had Taylor Goering did Pamela Morgan who I absolutely loved and just some really great speakers and I just fell in love with it at a time when not many people knew what bitcoin or blockchain was and then I was fortunate enough that

1:30people really liked what I was doing but I was able to parlay that into doing events around North America and then I had a marketing background and quickly realized that these people who I was talking to and I was really interested in finding out more about what they were doing they really just wanted to code and so they really had a need for my marketing skills and so it sort of

1:54parlayed it flow from there that's awesome yeah that's a great introduction into blockchain you know everybody in the community loves Andreas Antonopoulos and he's one of the reasons that the community has grown so quickly as it has so that's great and the conference scene has only grown since 2016 you know in 2017 I'm sure both of us went you know dozens and dozens of

2:15conferences and seem like there's one every day almost there is there is and that well it's good because they're spreading the word it's also a little it's a little a little tricky to navigate because you're not sure which ones to go to you especially you know when there's so many going on so I really do spend my time looking at who the speakers are who's hosting it what

2:39their background is and seeing whether or not if you know are they going to be talking about anything that I find relevant and so it's always an interesting time to sort of navigate which events do you go to know that there are a few next week and there's some good ones in Toronto there some good ones in there's a good one that I'm hosting in Vancouver and there's some

3:00really great ones also in North America and you know like which ones do you go to I know tell me about it you know even just in the beginning of November you know you were at the Malta blockchain summit and I was at the world crypto con in Vegas and they happened at the same time and they both had thousands of people right I know it was absolutely crazy so I want to go to that one a lot

3:23of my friends were speaking there the Malta blockchain summit was something that I really wanted to go to they had asked me to speak back in January they were very organized about that because they held the conference in the beginning of November and I thought this is my chance to really go and see what's happening in Europe and you know sort of get my finger on the pulse of what's

3:46going on and it was fantastic they had 8,500 people there I couldn't believe it yeah so it was really great they had John McAfee there they had Sofia the robot people swarm the stage by the way Oh Sofia after she finished I was on after her and it was people were just taking pictures it was quite funny to see but it was really good I got a good idea of what's going on in Europe and

4:11the organizers were fantastic and I'm really excited to go back next year maybe them and world cryptic all will be a different time yeah it could be both totally it would be nice to do both so I'd love to hear a little bit more you know let's dive into MMH walking group I know your company is very multifaceted and if you tell us you know which types of services you guys

4:32are offering and what is your primary focus with most of your customers okay so my company we offer a business strategy marketing PR and events for blocking companies primarily my focus is just to be there for my clients and you know help them look good if they are a emerging company and being helped with their strategy to determine who to go out to how to approach their marketing

5:01that's what we do also if I cut if a client also have something that they need marketed or they need to for example if a client has a book that they're going out with we'll do the PR for that we'll set up the interviews and things like that so that's what my company does that's awesome and I know you're in Toronto right now do you guys have a lot of Canadian

5:25clients American or is it a full international effort it's a full international effort I have some Canadian I have some North American and I have some European and actually I have an Asian client too so they're everywhere that's awesome but I'm very fortunate to have a really great team that work with me so that we can get everything done and give every our

5:45clients just the best possible service that we can that's great yeah nothing can be done without a strong team behind you right right there so I love my team I don't know what I would do without them that's awesome so what are you and your team planning on the events I'd you know coming up in 2019 oh I'm so excited for 2019 so we're going to be having an

6:09event at UTC Miami just a networking event so people can get to know other players that are in the industry and you know something Ashley I decided this yesterday I decided I'm gonna have a birthday conference party so my birthday's in February and I was like thinking what did I want to do for my birthday I really just kind of want to sit down and have all my friends speak

6:35about blockchain I that's when I realized I am now officially converted my birthday that sounds like that's not but I'm gonna have a conference I'm going to try and make it free if possible I'm just going to invite people to come and speak about blockchain and just you know make it more of a non conference and see what I can do and you know just people who want to know about

7:00Lachlan they can come to this event and just find out more about blockchain and how it can work for them Wow that sounds like the ideal birthday party for any blockchain evangelist so yes and they're also having and I'm also so that's what I'm gonna do for my birthday and then I'm having an event at the UN later on a blockchain conference of the UN that's awesome cool yeah so

7:23you know there's been a lot of changes in the market in crypto currency throughout 2017 and 2018 and you know things have changed a lot since companies start you know ICO started in the beginning of 2017 it really got popular and the whole business model sort of shifting into private sales security tokens and other you know offerings looking forward to 2019

7:45do you see your guys's business model shifting because of this and are you gonna be refocusing in 2019 or are you sticking to marketing the same way that you have been with your clients so one of the things that I have come to realize is that the blockchain industry it changes it changes rapidly the way it is now is not the way it was in 2016 when I first started in 2016 no one was

8:11talking about I SEOs at all and then in 2017 people really shifted their focus more towards talking about mining I think that any good business person will tell you have to be able to shift with the times or pillars will remain we're still gonna be doing marketing because those tenants don't really change and providing strategy to our clients as well as parent events however

8:37you know we're gonna be looking at new ways to do things looking at where the focus is I do have a client who is now interested in blockchain gaming so that's you know what we're definitely doing back to so I would say that definitely we're going to be evolving as is the industry and we're gonna be staying on top of things that's awesome and of course you

8:59know with all of these goals that were trying to achieve sometimes we come upon obstacles and limitations do you foresee any limitations for your company that you're gonna need to overcome to achieve your guyses goals in 2019 you know there are obviously always limitations but I find that there is very few things that you can't overcome with hard work and so

9:19definitely gonna be pushing back that's my secret sauce I always work hard also just sort of you know bringing a lot of people have heard blockchain and some people are kind of sick of it but one thing I consistently heard is I still don't quite understand it so you know breaking it down making sure people can more understand what blockchain is what

9:39bitcoin is and you know going beyond behind definitely education is key and I there is that disparity where a lot of people are focused on the code as you mentioned at the beginning you know and there's not enough marketing hype and marketing to be able to market efficiently you need to be able to explain something in simple terms so I think that you guys have really you know

10:01put the nail in the head on that one so you know props to you guys for that are you guys looking to acquire more clients right now are you guys pretty full you know if there are other projects that are looking to get involved and I'm sure there are many blockchain projects that are looking for extra marketing and more PR are you guys taking more clients right now we're

10:21always looking at new clients like to see how we can help them and help them achieve their objectives so definitely awesome and if there are people looking to you know either get involved as a project with mmh or if they're looking to hear about you know the upcoming events and you know when they can first become available to get tickets for them what is the best way to follow along

10:46with your company well that's quite a few ways you can go on twitter and follow me and blockchain emiti you'll find me there you can also go to my website and I make group to see what are the latest conferences that are happening that are happening not just mine but worldwide so you can really you know pick and choose which work best for you and yeah we're

11:11constantly updating I absolutely love social media i'm also on instagram quite a bit so you can also get the links to that from going to mmh group and you can subscribe we've set up a weekly newsletter that's awesome thank you so much Emma look I'm really looking forward to seeing you at the BTC Miami and at the event that you guys are hosting there I know there's going to be

11:34many events not just the one major event so I'm really looking forward to that and I'm also looking forward to seeing how mmh grows throughout 2019 and I think we should follow up you know just after the Miami conference with another interview and see you know what's what's on the chopping blocks next for you guys hey I'm here for you when you need me

11:53thank you so much for your time Emma was a pleasure speaking to you and we'll talk soon thank you have a great day Thanks