Introducing Global Blockchain Week – The Digital Economy Weekly #11
It’s official – after many months of delays and hurdles, we’ve decided that our global conference Blockchain Revolution Global needed to be bigger and better than ever before. Rather than the two-day event we had originally planned back in April, I am excited to announce that Blockchain Revolution Global will be the flagship event for Global Blockchain Week.
The pandemic caused a multitude of disruptions, across all areas of our lives. It revealed with searing clarity weaknesses in our leaders, governments, social safety nets and economies, but it also revealed problems with our systems of health, data, and even how we manage money and distribute value in times of crisis.
At the Blockchain Research Institute, we had to sit back, reassess, and adapt. We realized that times like these demand that we come together and refocus, recalibrate, and look for opportunities to experiment and innovate.
We made the decision to move towards a fully virtual model of business, starting with the postponement of our premier live event, the Blockchain Revolution Global conference originally planned for April of this year.
In July of this year we opted to host the Enterprise Blockchain Awards as a fully virtual event with state of the art technology, which included holograms. Hosts, nominees, and even musical guests were beamed onto a virtual stage for a live event that had formerly been in-person, surrounded by our colleagues, at the Steamwhistle brewery in Toronto.
We prepared for the event with gritted teeth and were ecstatic at the result as attendance went up by a factor of 10. More important, it provided us with the insights to make the world’s most important on blockchain in the enterprise conference even better, despite the limitations of the virtual world.
The Blockchain Research Institute’s mission is to help “realize the new promise of the digital economy.” It’s a new promise because we’re in a new second era of the digital age, where technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), biotech, and above all, blockchain are providing leaders with an unprecedented set of opportunities. These technologies have not stormed the world; rather, they’ve developed slowly in an uneven and combined or complementary manner. But, as our research shows, these technologies are now relevant as never before, not just to business and the economy but to the future of public health and the safety of global populations. Traditional systems have failed and it’s time for a new paradigm. To build on Victor Hugo, “Nothing is more powerful than an idea that has become a necessity.”
One of the weird, serendipitous advantages of a virtual event is that it is infinitely easier to go global with it. Sure, last year it was fun to all come together in one place and hang out. But needless to say it was a big cost and logistical hassle for many. That is why we decided to expand globally by establishing Global Blockchain Week as an anchoring initiative to drive this transformation, with Blockchain Revolution Global as the flagship event. From this moment onwards, Global Blockchain Week will be an annual event with a full week of blockchain focused initiatives.
Co-hosted by the Blockchain Research Institute and MCI Group Canada, Global Blockchain Week will run from October 26th-30th. My hope is that it will be the start of an annual gathering bringing together the best and brightest from the enterprise blockchain ecosystem to celebrate innovation, explore new avenues of value, and push for industry-wide adoption of blockchain technologies.
If you would like to get involved with Global Blockchain Week, send an inquiry today! And remember to register for Blockchain Revolution Global, our premier virtual conference.
Let’s change the world together!
Don