My First Event

Earlier today Lauren Schuhmacher posted a review of "The Digital Currency Round Table". There she provided, hopefully, an unbiased analysis of the event and what went right/wrong. Now I'm here to tell you what it was like planning it. It should be mentioned, however, that this wasn't your standard monthly meetup. I had been working on this event with CoinApex and we're hoping to do something of the sort again next semester.

Advertising:

We got really lucky here. The incredibly capable Andy Johnson of CoinApex designed some kickass advertising for us. Not only did we have a great poster and post cards around campus, but he also put up a great site at digitalcurrencyroundtable.com!

Speakers:

Connections are key here. The only reason this event happened is because I was able to get an introduction to the board of CoinApex. If I had not been given that introduction, then I seriously doubt I would have been able to pull this event together.

I met with Alex Waters and Sarah Tyre, they loved the idea I pitched, and the rest was just those two calling their friends and getting them involved! Getting quality speakers is really a connections game.

You can find bios on the speakers at the website posted above.

Food:

I made a mistake here. We did fine with the amount, but unfortunately I forgot to announce that people should go get some before the event started! We got going with the discussion before a box had even been opened!

Overshoot on amount, and be SURE people know the food is available!

Setup:

Most likely your venue will be able to set things up for you before the event, but make sure you've contacted them about this. I've had friends who forgot to do this and just assumed that the venue would take care of it, and when they showed up before the event nothing was ready. Be sure you know what you need, and make this list clear to the venue.

Attendees:

There are a lot of opinions on how you should how about getting attendees. In this instance I chose to offer free pizza for the students, and CoinApex sent out a media alert to their network, as well as a few email blasts to their mailing lists.

We also chose to stream the event in an effort to provide accessibility to those who couldn't attend (we got a lot of views on this).

Followup:

We are currently working on followup now. All the speakers we invited are receiving packets of our marketing material with a hand written note thanking them for their participation. In addition to this we are sending a packet to individuals we are hoping to have speak in the future.

The Digital Currency Round Table

On Wednesday, November 19, The King's College Programming Club hosted a digital currency round table debate in conjunction with NYC-based CoinApex. The debate, moderated by PaymentsSource reporter Bailey Reutzel, illuminated some of the major concerns, roadblocks, and advantages of Bitcoin for an audience of students, faculty, and New Yorkers with an interest in digital currency.

Participants were Alex Waters, CEO of CoinApex; Ryan Strauss, chair of the Payments Practice Group at Riddell Williams P.S. in Seattle and commercial lawyer; and Robert Adler, who is building one of the first Bitcoin hedge funds.

The discussion started with a question submitted in advance: "Is Bitcoin going to the moon?" The prompt, as quaint as it was poignant, allowed the panel to begin their discussion by considering the possibilities for Bitcoin as it continues to develop. It's only reasonable for us to wonder how great digital currency is going to be—and if it is going to the moon, we might want to get in on it.

The idea of wanting a piece of Bitcoin and its success transitioned the conversation into one of regulation. The debate stayed on regulation for a while, and there was some resistance from Adler regarding the utility of a regulation discussion: he argued that the panel would better serve the audience by discussing the possibilities that Bitcoin allows, so that the students specifically could see digital currency as a means to experience and create cool things. While there is certainly something to be said for the possibilities of Bitcoin, Waters and Strauss countered Adler's comments by arguing that a conversation about the possibilities of Bitcoin is useless without also discussing the regulation in place. What someone has to do with Bitcoin inevitably informs what someone can do with Bitcoin.

The discussion, I think, was most well-suited for audience members that had at least a small working knowledge of Bitcoin technology. Occasionally, the speakers would ask the audience if they needed an explanation of certain point—like the Blockchain, for example—and audience members would shout, "yes!" and the speakers would explain. Those moments were informative for listeners who entered the debate as novices to Bitcoin, but the majority of the content was interesting to people who came because they already knew about digital currency.

Because the debate ended only because it had to—we ran out of time, but not out of conversation—I think there's good reason to assume another event like this would be well-received. I'm sure that everyone who left the debate took an opinion about Bitcoin's future. Maybe it is going to the moon. 

—Lauren Schuhmacher

HackBit @NYU - November 14th, 2014

This Friday I will be blogging about NYU's first Cryptocurrency Hackathon! Currently almost 200 students have registered to participate, and I'll be providing a firsthand look into the world of University Hackathons as it happens.

Overview
This will be an overnight hackathon ending Saturday evening.

The judges:
Fred Wilson - Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures

Jalak Jobanputra -  Founding Partner FuturePerfect Ventures

Ryan Selkis - Director, Investments, Digital Currency Group

Peter Smith - Co-Founder, Blockchain

Adam Ludwin - Founder, Chain Alice Lloyd George Associate, RRE Ventures

The sponsors:

Bloomber LP

Chain Inc

Blockchain

Check back Friday afternoon for updates on NYU's first Crypto hack!

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UPDATE: 12:30am Saturday morning

We're well into the hackathon and the TKC Programming club is building a space invaders game that awards players bitcoin for high scores.

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UPDATE: 1:20am

Lego competition went well and we walked away with Pebble smart watches!

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Conclusion:

NYU sure knows how to throw a great hackathon. The university provided plenty of great food throughout the event (even a massive midnight Chinese meal!), and really brought in a huge amount of talent to compete.

Many schools were represented, and the judging panel was made up of representatives from many of the East Coast's top VC firms like Fred Wilson and well known Bitcoin community members like Yifu Guo. The sponsors and mentors were phenomenal as well. Both the Blockchain team members and the Chain founders stuck around the whole time and were a great help to us in our project.

I highly recommend attending one of NYU's hackathons if you ever get the chance. Everything about it was perfectly organized and we had a ton of fun meeting new people and working on our project (which, by the way, ended up taking first place!).