Blockchain and Business, Lagos 2023, Post-Event Review

--- tags: ETHos Chili Pod --- # Blockchain and Business, Lagos 2023, Post-Event Review [Forum Proposal](https://forum.metacartel.org/t/blockchain-business-conference/2751) [Advisory Sync transcription](https://otter.ai/u/MSIfQmfucb1jJ6upk8FKoDvhBzQ?utm_source=copy_url) Interviewee: - name: Adetunji Michael - title: Co-founder and team lead - role: - community name: Blockchain O.A.U, Blockchain club, Nigeria University - [event details](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FBvnT01JPNd8cwWWH4jWX2dR-21AT3T7qfaumVEWsGE/edit) - social(s): https://ng.linkedin.com/company/blockchain-oau/ - [transcription](https://otter.ai/u/4b4arWbe-vctSDaLaWF3T4KcsRc?utm_source=copy_url) ## Funded Event and Details ### What was the goal for your community in participating or attending the event? A little background about me to bring clarity, you know, to the point of view to explain my point of view. I started in the blockchain space in 2017. And ever since then having power of a couple of projects, which has helped me learn more about building startups, even blockchain startups, blockchain companies. I've contributed to a number of startups in the past and then I look at our community. We started as basically enthusiasts, a community of enthusiasts and the first premier blockchain club in Nigeria and then many universities have set up their own chapters.. When we reached a stage whereby we tend to be more mature in our conversation and talked about building building solutions in the blockchain space, i realized that there is still more to learn from thought leaders about building a business on the blockchain. Initially, I wanted to host my friends, about 10-20 people from the community, in my own space, just talking about business, you know, there are a couple of them that are building startups. When I put it on a forum, to my surprise, the interest was overwhelming and I realized that it seems I'm not the only one who is interested in this conversation. So that was the initial drive, we are going to build blockchain products. Let's do it. Right. That was what that was what we wanted to ensure we do. And then that was the drive for us. ### Did you reach, or exceed, that goal? We cannot judge based on our own understanding, we cannot just think whether we achieved this or not. After the whole conference, the point has to come from people and then even at the event, seeing people interact with one another. At the end of every speaker session, we allowed people to ask questions and there was engagement and questions people were asking. At the end of the event, we had a networking session whereby we allow people to go talk to one another, facilitate partnership and get connected with each other. They could go directly to the speaker. It's to teach you about the right thing and then looking at the results and what they're building right now. I also saw a couple of them collaborating. Although the collaboration is with a centralized platform, to me, it's great, the conversations and questions were intentional, not just random. ### What were the most impactful experiences your attendees shared about the event? One thing that is not going to leave my head for a couple of months was when Israel Oshika, the founder of Waterbridge, was talking about persistence of building, ideation validation and things like that and people were asking questions, like how do we manage relationships. Some people are challenged with developers and then there are the events to be able to connect with them and learn about how to manage relationships and your product. Another thing it seems that people wanted to engage in conversations around processes for testing and processes for building businesses. A speaker mentioned that what is most essential is you build a product that people want to use. Whether web 2 or 3, the products must solve a problem and people need to find it useful. I think another part that stood out for me was when one of our speakers was talking about regulations, which is one thing that is really affecting us in Nigeria. About a couple of months ago, we had big startups and suddenly, many of them, due to the central bank's policy, were kicked out of operations. So we go into conversation about what policies you should be aware of when you start building. There could be if the core call is with another person, there could be you know, more things. ### What were the key components that made those impactful experiences occur? One thing that really helped us was filtering people who would attend the event. We stated, we are strictly talking about the business side of the crypto, like building a solution and things like that. We were strict on that either you're blockchain developer, you're an engineer, your product manager, or designer, so that when the conversation is ongoing, even though if you can't relate to everything we're talking about, you are able to participate. We had about 200 registrations, when initially we just wanted 100 people to attend. We ended up having about 130-140 people attending the event. Another thing that really helped us was the location. We partnered with an incubation hub, so we got access to use their whole home and it was more of a business setting. We tried to arrange the topics in such a way that there is a link to the next question. Once your question is answered, then you move on to the next stage, and then your next question is answered, and then begin to get more clarity all along. We also had volunteers that helped with the event's arrangements, which made things easier. We also had some sponsors and partners who were attracted to the caliber of people we were expecting that weren’t just consumers. ### What inspired you to approach MetaCartel for a grant? When you talk about building products, you can never leave Ethereum out of the conversation, even if you’re talking about blockchain in general, and even though we wanted to include multiple blockchains and layer two projects. If our conversation is going to include Ethereum, MetaCartel DAO is very Ethereum focused and decentralized, which would align with our purpose. ### What was the impact of the MetaCartel grant given? The funds we received helped us achieve a lot of things. We didn’t have to fit into a centralized system. People were able to meet and learn. We also had shirts and merchandise for our volunteers and we were able to pay for the venue, a photographer, banners and backdrops, and some refreshments. It really helped with logistics and planning on execution of the whole thing, which gave us peace of mind. ### What was the top outcome in your experience of bringing this event together IRL? I don't know if it's for everyone, but to me people tend to connect more deeply and have more time to talk at physical events. Sometimes it’s hard to trust what you're saying when we're interacting with anonymity. When you see people you know, we hear people's perspective and see people connect. We have time to ask questions. I think physical events would always be necessary. When we’re in virtual space we can get distracted. We have a divided mind. But at physical events, you can concentrate and connect with people on the spot. ## Photos https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1L2Sx6PIvfNps9icRVDpAlDghHZ02nk ![](https://i.imgur.com/7YG8uEF.png)