Why should I go to a bitcoin conference vs just stacking more sats \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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Why should I go to a bitcoin conference vs just stacking more sats

1841 sats \ 20 comments \ @kepford 22 Jun 2023 bitcoin

I have worked in tech for many years. I started attending tech camps organized by the community. It was a great experience meeting people, learning, and sharing my experience. Then I began to speak at tech events. Later I started organizing them. Over the last 5 years my interest in traveling to attend tech events has greatly decreased. This is due to getting older, missing family, repetitive presentation topics, and the hassle of air travel. Another reason I lost interest in tech conferences is how corporate and sales focused they have become. I get it, but I'm not interested in that aspect.

I don't work in the bitcoin world and have never attended a bitcoin conference. Why should I? Or maybe you have and think its a waste of time. Wanna hear your thoughts.

Maybe I find a bitcoin meetup instead?

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301 sats \ 2 replies \ @0000 22 Jun 2023

Don't. You can get everything you need from a live stream. Those tickets cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Unless you have a group of friends you are meeting with it really is not worth the effort of going. Those conferences end up being a place for social media influences to mingle more than anything.

I learned this lesson from the gaming industry and attending events for work. If you do go just skip on the conference. There is enough activity generated from the conference or convention that you will find like minded people all over the immediate area in bars and different hang out spots. That is where the real fun of going is. That and if you get invited to after parties. That is fun and usually you can find one to get into.

A Bitcoin conference is not different from any other tech or gaming convention so listen to your gut.

25 sats \ 1 reply \ @fiatbad 22 Jun 2023

"Those tickets cost hundreds to thousands of dollars".

That doesn't sound so bad.

You should have said, "... Millions of Satoshis". This sounds unbearably expensive.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0000 22 Jun 2023

If I recall you can actually buy BTC Miami tickets in Bitcoin. There are VIP whale tickets you can buy too for some super crazy amount of Bitcoin with some additional perks. So you are not too far off the mark. I hope that one day Bitcoin is so boring that it does not need a specific convention. That is how integrated into society it should be.

203 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 22 Jun 2023

As someone who's been to many conferences, you know the main benefits are:

networking
- important if you have a mission and want to find other people who share it
learning including things you wouldn't have learned in a self-directed way
- important if you want to understand the bleeding edge and zeitgeist

These also apply to bitcoin conferences. If the goal is camaraderie, then meetups are probably a more efficient route.

51 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford OP 22 Jun 2023

Yeah, I just need to start/attend a local meetup regardless of the conference attendance. Meetups are awesome.

189 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 22 Jun 2023

You shouldn't unless someone is paying you to or you think there is some intangible value beyond the opportunity cost of less sats or it is a tie in to a vacation you wanted to take. I have never been to Miami so I did consider going to BItcoin Miami as part of a vacation out there to check out the city but Bitcoin was too cheap so I stacked sats instead.

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @psilo 22 Jun 2023

I've been to bitcoin miami the last 3 years. Progressively got worse. Actually this year was not too bad because low expectations. Ticket price is only reasonable if you buy the ticket a year in advance. Don't expect to learn anything at bitcoin magazines conference. only stage worth while is the open source stage. Bitcoin bazaar was fun. The ezpo hall is 95% trash booths trying to get your personal info. Wife asks me what I learn every time and I dig deep to find that I learned meetups are generally more fulfilling and educational. This year will be my first go at BitBlockBoom. I've heard great things about how interactive it is.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @falsefaucet 22 Jun 2023

find a meetup somewhere close. buy more sats.

went to first conf last year, PB, dont think im going back

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @BITC0IN 22 Jun 2023

honestly, you shouldn't. a lot of these "Bitcoin" conferences are just enterprise conferences with company booths.

very little technical signal or learning at many of these things. keep your sats, go to a free local meetup and find like minded people and you'll get more value.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @fiatbad 22 Jun 2023

Not to mention, they charge a few million Sats for a ticket.

Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed every conference I've gone to. But yea, it's a lot of company booths and online influencers hanging out and pumping their own shit.

Local meetups have been just as good. I would go to conferences more if they weren't all so expensive.

1 sat \ 1 reply \ @kepford OP 22 Jun 2023

Yeah, that's my gut feeling. Have you been to one though? I will say even as tech conferences got more corporate I was still able to meet people and learn from them. But, the conferences I went to still had mostly technical talks.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BITC0IN 22 Jun 2023

I just got back from one. most everything was below my level of learning, so it was frustrating most of the time re-listening to baby food, when I have a ravenous desire for meat.

best part was re-meeting a lot of the folks I've met a meetups in the hallways. not the talks. you did get some technical people there who usually don't show up to meetups too.

still not worth the price of admission imo.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @nullama 22 Jun 2023

Maybe I find a bitcoin meetup instead?

They are a bit safer nowadays

https://i.imgur.com/3fYvEKT.jpg

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @CoSatoshi 22 Jun 2023

They were less safe before? Do tell please...

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xIlmari 23 Jun 2023

You don't go to conferences for the panels and keynotes (in this day and age you can find the recordings online). You go there for the networking. It's up to you to decide whether the ticket it worth the opportunity to make new connections that could become friends or business partners in the future.

Also, make sure you're up to the task of networking. I am a highly introverted person, unable to connect with people "organically". As soon as I understood that I stopped wasting money on conferences, but your case might be different.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @f6287b82CC84bcbd 23 Jun 2023

To learn about the technology yes.

But if you do know about it already, its not very good opsec at all.

If you do understand it. Stack those sats instead. There is no second best

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @gnilma 22 Jun 2023

I too have never attended a bitcoin conference and never found the urge nor the interest to do so. Ticket plus flight plus accommodation plus food and commute adds up to be really really expensive. I much rather keep the sats.

Highly recommend on the local meetup idea. I started to attend my local BitDevs at the beginning of this year, and it’s awesome. It’s free to attend (although I donate some sats to my local BitDevs every time to help with the venue rental cost). I get to meet like minded people who share the same interest in bitcoin. Also, I see familiar faces each time, which help build relationship and friendship.