#276: ETH Denver 2024 Recap

🏗️ What does a conference look like when the market picks back up?

Mar 06, 2024

Greetings! I’m back from ETH Denver and my introvert battery is mostly recharged from all the great conversations, events, and talks.

True to TPan tradition, today’s piece recaps the themes I observed, interesting products and companies I came across, and notes from sessions I attended. As always, these observations and notes aren’t representative of the whole conference.

I wish I had one more day to explore areas that I had less familiarity with like the emerging Bitcoin L2 + DeFi ecosystems, and chat with the different projects/protocols/networks that had booths set up. I guess I’ll have to save that for the next conference 😪

Themes

2024 sentiment vs. previous years

One of the themes I was keen on observing was what the prevailing sentiment would be like this year vs. previous years. Although I had only attended ETH Denver last year, the backdrop and context of ETH Denver 2023 vs. 2024 were worlds apart.

In early 2023, the industry was in the depths of the bear market. FTX blew up just a few months ago, VC funding was scarce, and only the builders and believers would be in attendance. Despite that, there were over 15k conference attendees and 6k developers who participated in the #BUIDLthon (ETH Denver’s hackathon).

What does ETH Denver 2024 look like with a more hopeful backdrop? Bitcoin ETFs were recently approved, prices are up, and the speaker lineup included a range of notable guests that included the Governor of Colorado, a SEC Commissioner, and even a Presidential candidate.

Regardless of political leanings, pretty cool to sit in the third row listening to a Presidential candidate 🤯

Crypto took a breather (and a lot of 💩), and is now back on the mainstage with more credibility than ever.

Reflecting on ETH Denver on the flight back (jk, I was asleep on the plane with my mouth gaping wide open and drooling. Embarrassing but hey, I was tired and it was a 7am flight!), it’s clear that ETH Denver was an event for builders, and is now an event for builders and _________.

What does that mean? It means ETH Denver is for everyone:

Are you a Bitcoin or Ordinals maxi? There were several talks, side events, and parties for the Bitcoin community, and plenty of Bitcoin builders were in attendance
Part of the Solana community? There were events and booths for them too
Interested in a particular chain or Crypto x ________? There was an event or booth for everyone
Not a builder? There were events and talks for all sorts of disciplines and communities

The event is still builder-first, and much much more.

Event-Market Fit

Although all types of folks were in attendance, I underestimated how many would be from the NFT space. Multiple projects held events and parties, but the ones that stuck out to me (partially because I attended them lol) were the events from Pudgy Penguins.

They had not 1, but 2 events.

Announcing the events

Typically, event announcements and RSVP links are shared weeks in advance. The Pudgy Penguins events went against these best practices.

Builders was announced 3 days before the event while NFT Happy Hour was announced 1 day before the event.

If it were a non-NFT project or company announcing an event a day in advance, the team might be sweating bullets. This is where the strength of NFT communities come into play. As a holder, I immediately registered for these events and prioritized them over other conflicting events (sorry!). I’m assuming other attendees and community members went through something similar.

Few have the benefit of pulling this off, and NFT communities are one of the exceptions to the event planning rule.

Another interesting observation was that the Builders event was announced by the Pudgy Penguins account, while the NFT Happy Hour was announced by the Lil Pudgys account. I don’t have any insights into why they did this, although it’s worth pointing out. Maybe this was a way to drive attention to the Lil Pudgys account or a way to drive interest from a different audience. Or without overthinking it, just a way to change things up?

Partners and themes

It’s interesting to compare the two events and their approaches.

The main takeaway is that the Pudgy team took a divide-and-conquer approach while keeping each event fresh for those who attended both.

The team also understood who the audience was. Yes, it’s the Pudgy Penguins community, but ETH Denver is about building and they acknowledged that in different ways for each event. Event-Market Fit 🎯

Reinforcing the airdrop magnet foundation

I don’t think this is a primary reason for the Pudgy builder-themed events. However, if we think about how communities can increase their chances of becoming airdrop magnets, getting more founders to be part of or close to the community certainly is one tactic.

Plus, if you’re a builder why not consider joining the PengPal Mafia? It consists of some of the most stacked builders in the industry.

Tapping is the new scanning

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, conferences would be more interactive thanks to NFC chips and IYK.

Instead of scanning QR codes, tapping is an easier experience and encourages connection more effectively (you can capture a QR code from far away, you can’t tap from a distance).

IYK chips were embedded into 18,500 attendee badges (they were unnoticeable) and 4,000 chipped products were redeemed by participants who completed quests and earned points.

ENS partnered with IYK and POAP to create personalized cards that gave out personalized POAPs. The best part is this is more than just a fun experience. You can share your contact info, keep a log of who you met, when you met them, and reach out to them at a later time. Conference CRM is evolving and becoming more convenient than ever 💪

Interesting insights, companies, and products

Safary’s Web3 Growth Summit: I had the pleasure of speaking at Safary’s inaugural Growth Summit. It was great to meet other growth folks in the industry and provide some (hopefully helpful, or at least entertaining) insights on Content x Growth in the side of things.

I’m expecting Justin (CEO and co-founder) and Safary to put up more of these. The space needs them!

Dan and Broken Reality: It was great to chat with one of the BUIDLthon hackers and learn about what he was building. He even posted his own ETH Denver recap from a hacker’s perspective.

Index Network: A protocol for knowledge graphs and discovery, using natural language. Shoutout to Shawn from Consensys for the breakdown!

HMX: Decentralized perp exchange on Abritrum. The product was cool, but what’s more interesting was chatting with the founder, Pep who’s based in Thailand. I learned about the Thai crypto scene, community, and their behaviors and preferences. Hope to head to an event in Asia eventually to learn more about the crypto/web3 scene there 🙂

Blocklive: An onchain ticketing, loyalty, and events platform

Colony: Physical collectibles onchain. Similar to Courtyard, and I’ll need to dig in at some point to learn more about the differences.

Top projects from #BUIDLthon: I didn’t get a chance to watch the presentations, but the winners are worth a look, check them out!

People I met

As I’ve attended more and more conferences, there are more familiar faces and always some new ones!

Unlocked: Great seeing you guys again! Alex, I hope you had a great time mentoring the BUIDLthon hackers and Chris, thanks for sharing your epic Burning Man stories 🔥

The Myosin crew: I need to spend more time hanging with you guys next time, great seeing you all again!

The NRN crew: Last year it was just Crier. This year it’s Crier, Frankie, Yaba, Toast, Phomo, Greg and more. Great to put faces to names!

Justin + Safary: Always a pleasure seeing you and thank you for having me contribute to the Summit. I hope you host more of them, and hope you’re enjoying NYC!

Marc: Great meeting you in person and being on the Safary panel together! Keep cranking out that content. There’s only so many of us doing it for the professionals.

PSE and co: Jay, Tyler, Devansh, Griffin, Jake — It was great to meet you after working together on various projects. Looking forward to VoiceDeck launching soon 😉

Shawn: Great connecting! I’ll send you the piece on Blast’s incentive program once it’s published, hopefully later this week.

Flow team: I was super late to the event and you guys brought me back to the Hacker House where other people were hanging out. Appreciate you Alex, Luke, and Chirag, and it was fun to learn more about the early days of Dapper Labs.

Chris: Always great catching up with you as one of my oldest web3 friends. I’m expecting you to publish more soon *cough cough*

The Doodles community: I’ll be honest, I didn’t plan to attend the Flow and Doodles community events until I bumped into Happy. It was refreshing to experience what a passionate community looked and felt like, sans glitz and glamour. It was great meeting all of you Chief, Winterpop, Azkedda, Frenchloaf, Pearl, Doodlifts, Chef Tony P, Chriba, and Aaron.

Members of the Pirate Nation and Treasure teams: Web3 gaming is where it’s at, great to hear what you’re up to!

JUMP folks: Dean, Jacy, Christian, Chris, Dan, Drew and others. Always great catching up with you!