Conferences and Events Archives

Ross Mintzer Band (Bitcoin Band) to Perform Live in New York City

Mar 292015

The Ross Mintzer Band, affectionately dubbed the Bitcoin Band owing to their early adoption of Bitcoin and their performance at the Bitcoin music festival last year in New York City at the New York Bitcoin Center, is performing in New York City on April 4th 2015. Mintzer studied music at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan during high school and continued at the Manhattan School of Music in New York during college. He also performed at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

Ross Mintzer has performed at several Bitcoin-themed events and is an avid supporter of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Most recently, he performed saxophone live at the Dubai Bitcoin Conference at the Dubai International Financial Center in December 2014.

Ross Mintzer has been a supporter of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and an active member of the New York Bitcoin community, attending events at the New York Bitcoin Center.

The Ross Mintzer band sells tickets to the general public through Eventbrite, but has always made the option of paying with Bitcoin possible.

If you want to attend this event in New York, you can check out the Eventbrite page, or pay through Bitcoin through Ross’ personal Coinbase page.

North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami

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Jan 022015

The North American Bitcoin Conference (TNABC), held in Chicago in 2014, is going to be held in Miami. The event takes place from January 16th to January 18th 2015. This would be the first major Bitcoin conference in 2015, and looks like it would be ready to live up to that expectation. TNABC has a history of well-organized events and a good list of speakers from the who’s-who of the industry. This year, they are doing other special things, like a startup stage hosted by Pantera Capital.

There are some very good speakers and panelists for the event, along with several exhibitors. The events are generally well attended, and it’s a nice opportunity to meet with a lot of Bitcoin entrepreneurs and enthusiasts. On the media side of things, both Mashable and Forbes are listed as media partners. I don’t remember seeing a more mainstream tech blog/news site like Mashable before, so that should be exciting if a Bitcoin event gets good coverage in a mainstream tech publication.

Speakers include Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum founder and former Bitcoin Magazine editor), Tony Gallippi (Bitpay CEO, and a happy man after the Bitcoin Bowl), Roger Ver (Angel Investor and one of the early adopters), Vinny Lingham (Gyft CEO, one of the early movers selling gift cards for Bitcoin), Jeff Garzik (Bitcoin Core Developer, and a popular personality in the Bitcoin-geekdom), and several others.

The tickets are $215 for a full pass for both the days. There are some exciting speakers and people at the conference. We’ll be covering the event through blog posts and live-tweeting the event, so follow BTCGeek on Twitter to stay up to date.

Cryptolina: First Bitcoin Conference in the Carolinas

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Jul 262014

Cryptolina is the first Bitcoin Expo taking place in the Carolinas, with the event scheduled for August 15th and August 16th 2014 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The conference is turning out to be an interesting affair already, with a variety of speakers and sponsors already lined up for this opportunity. It is great to see Bitcoin conferences popping up in different cities throughout the United States and not just the East and West Coasts, which seemed to be the case even a year ago.

Cryptolina follows another interesting Bitcoin conference, this time in the heart of Midwest, in Chicago, which took place on July 19th and 20th, 2014. The United States, unsurprisingly, is taking the lead in Bitcoin-based businesses and startups, and developing the ecosystem around cryptocurrencies. It was only a matter of time before the ideas spread to other smaller cities. The US is also leading the world in terms of the number and variety of Bitcoin conferences and expos, with only more of them to come in the future.

Cryptolina seems like a very special event, as it is courting unconventional speakers, and therefore promises to be an interesting mix of talks covering everything from the philosophy, economics and technology around Bitcoin. It is always nice to see events happen more locally, where people can attend and participate in these expos without too much of a travel-hassle. I am sure this event would be well-attended by the entrepreneurs and thinkers around the Carolinas.

One of the most interesting aspects of the conference seems to be the choice of Keynote Speakers – Edmond C. Moy, 38th Director of the United States Mint and Adam Draper, Founder/CEO of Boost VC – acknowledging that Bitcoin has grown up, into something more mature and mainstream than it was even a year or two ago.

I am excited to be a part of this conference, and will be live-Tweeting the event as well as covering it in various formats. If anyone else is attending, drop me a line.

Bitcoin Conference in Chicago in July 2014

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Jun 172014

The North American Bitcoin Conference is coming to Chicago on July 19th and July 20th 2014. This is the second North American Bitcoin Conference, the first one being held in Miami. Just like in Miami, the conference promises an exciting ‘pre-party’. Also, remember that Bitcoin has grown a lot in one year, and the conference in Chicago will probably attract a much larger crowd and audience.

This list of speakers and panelists is impressive, and is a nice mix of Bitcoin businesses, speakers and libertarians. The speaker list reminds me of the Crypto Currency Convention in Atlanta in 2013, which also had a lot of philosophical and economic speakers, as opposed to just Bitcoin businesses (which is usually the case at Inside Bitcoins conferences). There will be two speaker tracks, since there are so many speakers to accommodate!

I think the speakers and panelists have a lot diversity, and it would be a very interesting meeting place for people in the Bitcoin community. Bitcoin conferences are a great way to meet others in the community and also get to absorb some of the best ideas from the people involved with crypto currencies.

This is also the first Bitcoin conference in Chicago that I am aware of (correct me if I am wrong), so it should be interesting to see if this attracts enough attention and people in the midwest of United States can attend. Chicago happens to be an important city, with upcoming tech and financial industries (not as evolved as New York, but still important enough, historically and for the future).

Tickets are $275 for the entire event, or $225 for a single day pass. Go grab your tickets today!

If you’re attending this conference, let me know in the comments and we can probably meet up.

Bitcoin Music Festival at New York Bitcoin Center

Conferences and Events 1 Response »

Apr 282014

If you’re in New York, there is absolutely no reason not to go to the Bitcoin Music Festival on Saturday, May 3rd 2014. This is being performed by the Ross Mintzer Band, a passionate group who “perform music for the hearts, minds and bodies of people everywhere”. Check out the Facebook page of the event to learn more and make your presence felt.

It’s a great opportunity to network with some fellow crypto-currency enthusiasts at the generous Bitcoin Center in New York at 40 broad street, right next to the New York Stock Exchange. The event starts at 7:30pm and goes until midnight.

Ross Mintzer has been a regular at the Bitcoin meetups in New York as is passionate about promoting Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies through the medium of music. It provides a great opportunity for him and his team to connect with the ordinary people and make them aware of Bitcoin and what the future holds. The whole community would greatly benefit if are more artists and performers who can reach the common folk through their art and promote and educate people in this area. I am very happy to see Ross take this first step in this direction.

This is the first Bitcoin Music Festival that I am aware of, and it should be a very interesting performance. Come there to show your support for the band and for the promotion of Bitcoin through music. In Ross’ own words, “I created this festival as a celebration of humanity and music, and as an opportunity for the Bitcoin/crypto currency community to bond.” So come there to bond with your fellow community members!

Get Ready for the Crypto Currency Convention in New York

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Mar 312014

Lots of things have happened since we first wrote about the first Crypto Currency Convention in New York that focuses on all crypto-currencies and not just Bitcoin. This conference will probably set a precedent for future crypto-currency events, and people in the community are watching closely. I am happy to report that the conference has attracted several prominent speakers already and has some prominent media affiliates too.

I’ve been to several Bitcoin conferences and there are many elements of success that the organizers need to get right – good speakers, full-house or relevant audience and good media coverage. It seems that the organizers are getting all three elements right. It doesn’t hurt that the event is being held in New York, a city at the heart of the global financial and media system. It would be nice to see mainstream media covering the event too, as it seems some of these news outlets are looking beyond Bitcoin for coverage, which is always a welcome move. Some of the media sponsors of this even include the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company.

The conference is also a good platform to give voice to the developers and promoters of altcoins who would probably only be snubbed at any Bitcoin conference. Even though there has been a huge influx of altcoins with no innovation, there are plenty of altcoins that are trying out new ideas and it goes to see which ones would be adopted by the market and future developers. It is important to experiment in this space, and let the market decide the best features.

There are lots of altcoin developers and promoters, so you can learn about their projects and interact with them. However, one set of speakers stood out for me – the cofounders of BitAngels group which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in this space. They are speakers at the conference, but are they looking at new ideas to fund too?

Anyway, visit the Crypto Currency Convention website today and book your tickets for April 9th!

First Crypto Currency Convention New York

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Mar 052014

We’ve seen several Bitcoin conferences, but here’s the first real crypto-currency convention, right in the heart of the action – New York. The conference is dedicated to crypto-currencies in general, and the speakers include developers and marketers of various coins (there is a good list already, which keeps expanding by the day).

This crypto-currency convention is on April 9th. The timing is curious, because April 7th-8th is a huge Bitcoin conference in New York by Inside Bitcoin, which I anticipate is going to be huge (I was there at the Las Vegas conference of Inside Bitcoin and it was great). So people who are traveling to New York for the Inside Bitcoin conference can stay a day more for the first crypto currency convention. We at BTC Geek will be covering both the events live.

Also, just to mention again, as far as I know, this is the first real crypto currency convention involving altcoins. I say real because some conferences in the past were named crypto-currency conventions but dealt with Bitcoin mostly. For instance, the CryptoCurrencyCon 2013 in Atlanta in October last year was named Crypto Currency Conference but it dealt with Bitcoin and the libertarian philosophies behind Bitcoin, not with any altcoins.

This convention comes at the right time for crypto-currencies and altcoins. They have been in the news a good deal, and people are beginning to recognize that math-based currencies are going to stay with us. It is also a great time for altcoins to come out from under Bitcoin’s shadow (not that I anticipate this happening soon, but perhaps eventually) and establish themselves independent of the Big-B, for instance, be priced independent of Bitcoin.

I would also encourage altcoin teams to attend the event. Events can be a great way to meet a highly concentrated bunch of highly interested people and introduce them to the coin. It is also a very good way to get some media attention, especially since this event is in New York.

I also like the fact that New York is taking the lead in these events. New York is the perfect hub for this to grow – it has a strong financial and media industry presence, and a very up and upcoming but strong tech-startup scene. It is a great place for Bitcoin and altcoins to take off. The Bitcoin Center in New York is doing great work introducing people to Bitcoin too. And I think conferences like this one only help promote crypto-currencies to more and more people, and begin the process of making them mainstream.

Get your tickets for the convention today!

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