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Who's going to http://bitcoin2014.com in Amsterdam, NL this year?

For people like me, that were previously put off by the price tag: They are now offering a student ticket for 75€ (normally 350€), and also are looking for volunteers (15+ hours of work for free admission).

The conference is going to be on May 15th-17th. They are already sporting a broad range of speakers, but unfortunately no conference schedule has been posted yet.

Update:
Meanwhile a schedule has been posted.

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    If I lived in the area I would certainly go. But I am the NW USA. A bit too far to justify the travel expense. – fredsbend Apr 2 '14 at 5:22
  • I am finally convinced that this is not only on my computer. :D – Murch♦ May 15 '14 at 20:35
  • So it's too late now, but I just remembered that you can get SE to reimburse for things like this if you can prove that it will benefit the community. Next year, I guess. – fredsbend May 15 '14 at 21:19
  • Yeah, I only really decided to go about a week in advance, as far as I remember they require such applications at least a month in advance. Next time I will probably decide earlier. – Murch♦ May 19 '14 at 12:26
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I am still considering. It seems affordable, but I am not sure what exactly I'd will be doing there. ;)

It might be exciting to see a few people from the Bitcoin space live, and I think it would be nice to meet a few of them/you. I guess, I'll sleep yet another night on it. ;)

Update: I just registered for the conference, will make travel arrangements tomorrow or so. I will see you there, I guess. :D

Thursday evening at Conference update:

Arrived in Amsterdam at 3pm. I am finally convinced that this is not only on my computer. :D

Today I met some people from bitcoin space: Met Jeff Garzik and Pieter Wuille, talked to David Schwartz, Ron Gross, and Alakani Itireleng, had a beer with Stephen Gornick, I saw Brian Armstrong, Gavin Andresen, Erik Voorhees, Tony Gallippi, and Meni Rosenfeld. I visited a bunch of booths and talked to people from Ripple, NXT, iceVault, GoCoin, BitPay,... ;)

I am excited for tomorrow, hope the presentations will be interesting.

After Conference update (@fredsbend)

There were four different tracks, which (with exceptions) were running in parallel at all times. The recording looked very professional and as far as I've understood all sessions will be made available online. There were about 1200 participants at the conference from some 50 countries. There were maybe forty or fifty booths: Payment-Processors, Exchanges, Mining Equipment Manufacturers, ATM Manufacturers, Ripple Labs, Altcoin-Projects, Bitcoin Merchandise, ...

I met quite a few members of the Bitcoin.SE community and also was able to point out some use-cases where Bitcoin.SE offered advantages over forum-based communication a few times. Altogether, I think I talked to maybe 100 people. I took a lot of inspiration and food for brain out of the conference.

Some of my favorite sessions were: - The interview with Alakani Itireleng - The Panel on the Economic behind Bitcoin (not much new to me, but interesting to hear some economists pick it apart)

Other impressions:

  • Terrible male/female ratio ;)
  • The entrepreneurial spirit was tangible in the air
  • On the other hand, the community is still so small that everyone is able to talk to all the "big-shots": For example I've talked to Gavin Andresen, Mark Woods, David Schwartz, Jodie Brady, Peter Vessenes, Ron Gross. I met Roger Ver, Brian Armstrong, Jon Matonis, Jeff Garzik, Pieter Wuille, Meni Rosenfeld
  • The whole thing is growing rapidly, I was offered several jobs and approached about being funded a few times (unfortunately I didn't have a project). ;)
  • Amsterdam has a very interesting atmosphere, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring it
  • It was terrible not to have a business card!

Two new Bitcoin Foundation Affiliates were announced during the conference: Germany and (I think) Mexico. We had a meeting of the Bitcoin Foundation (which I joined at the conference) after the conference ended on Saturday. My impression was that quite a few grievances were addressed and I got the feeling that the parties concerned understood that everyone is trying to do the best they can, but that the whole space is changing and growing very rapidly.

The Bitcoin Foundation announced that they would be working on separating their local efforts in the US from the international efforts, and that they would soon be opening an office in London for the international portion of the Bitcoin Foundation.

Gotta run, have a lecture now. ;)

  • Thanks for the updates. Looks like a bit of an erratic program. Mostly panels and quite a few concurrent sessions. Combined with the very late delivery of the schedule and the location (I personally would have picked West coast USA or Asia) I would guess that the show is not as well attended as it should be. I record conferences for a living, so I get a feel for these kinds of things. I could be wrong, though. About how many attendees are there? How would you rate the quality of the content being delivered? Are there recordings being offered? – fredsbend May 15 '14 at 21:24
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I will be there. I will be speaking. I believe a schedule hasn't been posted yet because it's still being worked on.

  • Nice talking to you today. :) – Murch♦ May 15 '14 at 20:34
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I will be there too. I won't be speaking this year, though.

  • wave Nice meeting you. ;) – Murch♦ May 15 '14 at 20:34
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I'd like to go, but the getting there is expensive.....

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I'll be there. Pieter Wuille, can we meet?

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