Tracy Leparulo on Canada's Blockchain Futurist Conference

0:20you're very welcome let's kick it off by talking about this year's blockchain futurist conference what is the blockchain futures conference and how is it associated with crypto and blockchain so blockchain futures conference is this August it's from August 12 to 14 in Toronto Canada at something called a rebel entertainment complex and Cabana pool bar so it's in a really immersive venue

0:44in downtown Toronto and what it is it's the largest blockchain conference in Canada so I want to large in the world so we bring over 2300 people to Toronto it's a multi level venue and Cabana on the water and it really focuses on the future of blockchain technology the future of cryptocurrency and really emerging technologies overall amazing and some people may have heard of the

1:07blockchain features conference already because it happened last year and it was one of the most popular blockchain events in 2018 and I did attend myself and it was an amazing experience now can you provide some of the details from last year's conference and maybe give a glimpse of is it going to be the same or is it going to be different and how will it be different yeah for sure

1:27so last year we 2300 people were expecting around 2,500 to 3,000 this year and I think that what people really loved about it is it was very conducive to networking it was a great place to watch the stage and be on a different level and also speak to it and it was really fun and very blocked and enabled as well and so we're looking for similar things this year so I'll give you an

1:49example I truly believe if we wanted to tokenize the world we have to tokenize an event and so last year we airdrops over half a million dollars in crypto currencies to people on site so they were used to downloading a wallet downloading an app to get onto an exchange sorry can you give me one sec thank you so I might charge your things so blotching futures conference is the

2:17most blockchain enabled crypto fide events so I'll give you an example one of our sponsors buns who's coming back this year the air dropped every 150 dollars you use these tokens to actually go and get food at the food truck so everything is still free on site is still very inclusive but it kind of encourages people to really get used to how easy and simple block should't

2:35cryptocurrency is some other really cool things with a VIP cabana area that's just right on the water Toronto Waterfront so you can see the beautiful skyline we have over 80 different media on site doing live in your musical yourself you guys so doing live interviews live podcasts but all the major media outlets out there like Forbes and Bloomberg we also had three

2:55stages and so what we're doing is we have a blockchain bootcamp for anybody who's very new to the blockchain space who really just wants to kind of get educated learning how to set up a wallet you know the basics of it we also have a mass of mega 15 million dollar soundstaging system and so what this is it's extremely immersive it's complete lights and visuals around the

3:16entire venue all over the ceiling and that's where we really bring kind of her heavy hitter speakers like for example Larry King we had last year for Charles Hoskinson and then however Bennifer booths and all of our community booths as well so we try to make it very very inclusive in order for us to really bring blocks into the world you need all

3:33these different pieces and parties to it and so we have the VIP area for all the investors with all the community supporters that get access on-site as well as all the all the sponsors and all the attendees that's amazing and yeah it definitely goes beyond your regular conference with this immersive experience and the fact that this rebel venue where it's taking places also

3:54doubles as a nightclub at 19 and it has one of the largest sound systems India so that's it's quite the different experience and really when people are there networking they also want to have a good time so I think that's sort of a great environment that you guys are set up for this year yeah we try really hard we knows you know everyone comes to a conference not just for one thing but

4:14for multiple so some of its the educational some of its really just meet up with old friends or people in the space some of its you know more of a sales tactic for some of the sponsors and so we want to create a space that everyone kind of can enjoy and so although we call it blockchain futures conference I would say it's a mix between a festival and kind of almost like a

4:31crypto World Fair where there's just so many cool things going on everywhere and we're excited on it that's amazing now you mentioned that Larry King spoke last year which is amazing and Charles Hoskinson from Cardno what does the lineup of speakers look like this year and who are the speakers that will take the mainstage yeah so we're still coming out with our speaker

4:50applications you can go online and cement but some of the big headliners be coming up right now we have we have game Abed he's from bid he's very big influential in the Caribbean islands and so he's going to come and speak we also have Jeff Pulver who was the founder of VoIP and now working on something called scramble we have Linda Belzer Christine

5:10who's from Thomson Reuters and we have people from the Canadian government talking about compliance we have lawyer professionals and we have some really big seeker kind of speakers coming up to announce oh we did announce Larry King until a few weeks before we really try and push people to get that loads ticket price to come in and then closer to the

5:29event we announced some bigger ones so another good example of somebody who's presenting his anthem anthem Blanchard so he runs a company called anthem gold and hurt and so what we're doing with the actual anthem gold and her team is we're actually tokenizing all of our catering and so I'm trace ball has a company called cater Bowl that does all the food and so we've been working with

5:48our local farms here in our local distribution so you're gonna be able to eat an apple there and actually track where that apple came from you can also do them with the eggs and ideally with the one as well because we think we want to see blockchain in the real world it's a perfect opportunity to do on-site so anything's gonna come up and speak about

6:06how you can track some of the all the food at the event as well as he's also a main sponsor and a speaker that's amazing and who are the other main sponsors of the event and what kind of organizations do you think they are looking for at the times of kinds of attendees to be attracted to blockchain futurist totally well with every sponsor we do a good job of figuring out what

6:25they want and putting them in the event that makes the most sense and so we have some sponsors coming on board that really want investors and looking for fundraising so we make sure that we offer them the Cabana booth outside so you specifically talk to those VIPs we have buns again coming in air-dropping everybody as well as including some of the more experienced

6:44stuff on site with them we have our shins so we're gonna be able to block channel the art on site we have gaming companies and so we're still actively looking for sponsors or community partners takes a lot of a lot of energy a lot of time a lot of money obviously to put on such a massive production but we really have sponsors all across the board to really figure out kind of what

7:06they want to do so another good one is we have some exchanges coming on board they're looking for user adoption and it's a lot of great things it's amazing and would you say the ideal attendees are more so people that have blockchain startups that are looking for investors or networking or just people interested in technology and you mentioned there's

7:25a boot camp so maybe beginners as well yeah I think I think I'm not sure if you ever go to Toronto Seany or if you ever go to some of these really big mega type of festivals they really have something a bit for everybody a lot of the conferences around the world or definitely ones in Canada end up being capped around 300-400 people so it really is the same

7:44audience this one we're getting around 2500 to 3,000 so we're bringing a very big diverse group and then we have different areas of the event for all them and so if you're one investor it's a great place for it if you want users an adoption it's an amazing place cuz we have so many people if you're here just to kind of learn a bit more it's also a good good option and so we notice what

8:05their boot camp last year that put it on we thought you know be it's maybe more users and individuals in the space maybe some students but it was actually the total office there's a lot of lawyers a lot of professionals a lot of people in suits a lot of people who want to see how they can incorporate their daily life and so the boot cards are great weight for beginners to get involved

8:23without feeling like you're going have to go on YouTube but find places like that definitely and what do you hope as the organizer the attendees will get out of the blockchain futures conference I'm hoping we can make a big positive difference in the world and see the power of technology I think there's so much stuff online that it does get overwhelming and it's nice to actually

8:44come on-site and be able to ask people and actually use a technology on say and so I really believe if you want to tokenize the world we have to tokenize an event for it's a micro economy that we can do this and so when people come on site I want them to leave to feel more empowered to see how this is impacting our food industry out it's impacting security

9:03tokens how it's impacting just digital assets overall and really how can we actually utilize it because I think I've been doing blockchain events since 2013 in the space actually around the first Bitcoin expo in Canada and at the time it was just Bitcoin there just crypto currency and then if you're started coding on the on the scene and if he's turned to more vlogging and now we're

9:22point in time that we really should be start implementing these technologies in the real world this shouldn't just be all theory now and so I think we're at a stage and enough companies actually build the technology have have a use case for it and just looking for people to try and test it out and so I'm really hoping this is a very immersive event that people are getting tokens using

9:43them to access different places tracking different things on site and just making it really really real world because the cryptocurrency there's just so many unknowns you don't know what content is valid online you don't know if they're sometimes scammers or kind of what it is and having a face-to-face interaction with someone speak it to companies showcasing that

11:05all the informations they so futurist 19 calm we also have a Twitter page you know LinkedIn Facebook you could also check out untraceable ink so untraceable events it also leads you to it awesome thank you so much for your time Tracy it's been a pleasure all the best in working towards this year's blockchain futurist conference and we're all looking forward to it thank you so

11:28much have a great day