Slush 2017. Slush 2017!

Well, I thought that as a new undergraduate going to Fresher’s Week at Cambridge University was intense, but it pales into insignificance compared to those last two days in the Messukeskus at Pasila, Helsinki. Smoke from the smoke machines, regular thumping and grinding sounds in the background from the sound system, giant heads on video screens repeatedly mouthing: “Disruption, pivoting, thought leader, upscaling!” and the sheer overwhelming size of the venue meant that on the surface the event could only best be described as a mash-up of Bladerunner and Dante’s Inferno, and yet…

… and yet, the participants! The opportunity to talk to such a wide variety of people from so many different countries about so many different topics was exhilarating. Getting to demonstrate our new product to the queue of delegates that gathered in front of our unremarkable booth, and refine our explanations to the point that a 10 minute monologue could be condensed down to 30 seconds. Being able to wander about and connect with big data, machine learning and IoT experts (and having the opportunity to try to convince them that blockchain is just so much cooler than all of that “other stuff”). Handing out hand-crafted Chainfrog t-shirts and assessing blockchain use cases in the blink of an eye…

Congratulations Slush. I think you’ve managed to create something very special. And congratulations Chainfrog team – ditto.

And now, finally, I’m going to sleep.