Conferences bring large groups of people together to exchange ideas, network and do business. How can the industry ride out the Covid-19 era?

In mid-March, the 2020 PROMAX Europe conference was due to take place in Madrid, right as Spain locked down its entire country. As virus cases climbed, the annual entertainment-marketing conference - with its 500 attendees, 300 hotel rooms and £400,000 ($524,000) cost - was put on hold.

The postponement meant “that all of the tickets, all of the purchases, all of the speakers and all of the production commitments had to be put on ice, or at least kind of mothballed for the time being”, says Lester Mordue, the conference’s director.

Now, despite organisers’ hopes to resume later in the year, PROMAX isn’t taking place in 2020 – at least not in person. It’s just one example of the massive pause on the global conference industry in the wake of Covid-19.

In the age of Covid-19, they are the worst kind of ‘super-spreader event’

Conferences, which traditionally see participants convening centrally in a hotel or events centre, involve lots of close contact; members sitting together, sharing buffets and conversing in tight quarters.

Many see hundreds of participants flying in from around the world. In the age of Covid-19, they are the worst kind of ‘super-spreader event’: a conference held in Edinburgh in February resulted in 25 attendees contracting the coronavirus, including one who then seeded it at a child’s birthday party.

“It’s large numbers of people coming together, social inhibitions and norms being relaxed, and people spending time together that makes for a higher risk of transmission events,” says Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia.

“Conferences certainly do fill that criteria.”Right now, conferences are nearly impossible to hold – both logistically, due to travel restrictions, and as a matter of public health.

Yet they have to continue, as a $1.1tn global industry supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs. How does the industry go forward in such a changed world?

The digital transition

PROMAX took parts of its conference – including some keynote speeches – online, trading the auditorium for the Zoom window. Organisers weren’t alone: just as most elements of transacting business have moved to video-chat screens, so have conferences.



The main draw of conferences isn't always the speakers; networking and casual interactions are also valuable to participants

“Everyone was talking about e-conferences” before the coronavirus, but few bothered to explore it as an option, explains Mandy Jennings of Paje Consulting, an event-planning business based in Cheshire.

“We were in that situation of doing what we’re used to. This has forced everyone to embrace it, and made companies realise some of these things can be done in a virtual world, rather than sending people on a train or plane around the globe.

”Attendance at the online sessions that replaced PROMAX was “encouraging”, says Mordue, with some sessions getting the same number of attendees they would normally. Participants were allowed to transfer their tickets to the virtual event or to defer to a physical event in 2021.

PROMAX says it expects to adjust its pricing structure for future web conferences to allow people to choose events at a fair cost for them. Feedback has so far been positive, says Mordue, with many enjoying the ability to catch up with digital sessions on-demand.

We all know that networking is a big part of conferencing - Lester Mordue

But organisers acknowledge that digital events are in many ways a pale imitation of traditional conferences. “Our conscious decision to not try and replicate the conference experience is a recognition that in-person physical conferences have certain tangible benefits,” says Mordue.

Businesses spend money to send employees to conferences because of the networking opportunities and happenstance discussions that take place on the sidelines.“We all know that networking is a big part of conferencing,” says Mordue.

 “The ability to speak to the speakers or your community, to communicate your ideas and get inspiration – that’s the conference experience.”

Although organisers are trying to replicate as much as they can through online events, that intangible element of being energised around others is much harder to capture when people aren’t physically gathered.

“You tend to be sticking to that agenda in a digital conference,” says Jennings. “It’s shorter, and you don’t get the chance you do in person.

”A changed futureDespite the potential safety issue, some conferences are slowly starting to return to the calendar. In the UK, the government has announced conferences can recommence on 1 October, after extensive lobbying by the industry, which warned 30,000 jobs were at risk.



Conference staples like the lunch buffet and the pass-the-mic Q&A session will need to change during the pandemic

Conferences are worth £11bn to the UK economy, according to Rachel Parker, director of the Association of Event Venues, a UK industry body. She says between 50 and 90% of staff in the UK organising and venue industry were furloughed, with many starting to see redundancies as UK government support begins to end.

“While we’ve got a green light to go, we’re potentially trading at 15% to 25% in this last quarter, and so we need additional [financial] measures from government,” Parker says.

Physical conferences, when they return, will likely look very different. “Organisers will have to look at measures that happen within the technical side,” says Parker. For instance, most virologists would be chilled at the notion of passing a single stick microphone among audience members for a question-and-answer-session.

Instead, organisers are looking at boom microphones, which hang over the heads of participants, or using systems like Sli.do, which allows users to submit questions through an online chat system.

Holding social events in the evenings, where most of the informal networking would traditionally take place, seems challenging, given many nations are continuing to regulate large social gatherings.  

Parker’s industry body is also suggesting mitigation measures such as spacing out furniture, replacing paper handouts with digital ones and monitoring the density of conferences.

“There might have to be a traffic light system at entry points,” she says, adding: “We’re hoping we won’t have to do all these things.” It could be possible to cater for people with individually boxed lunches, instead of buffets, and provide extra space to network while remaining socially distant.

Masks, in keeping with most countries’ rules on indoor gatherings, will be compulsory.

Fear factor?Conferences are one of the best sectors to reopen as societies continue to tackle Covid-19, Parker argues. “We know who is coming to our events,” she says.

“You may get some walk-ups, but 99.9% of people who come to our conferences are pre-registered. Track and trace is already there.”

International conferences seem like a bad idea this year, full stop – Linda Bauld

Linda Bauld, a public health professor at the University of Edinburgh, is more cautious, however.

“One of the main benefits of conferences is you are gathering a lot of people in an indoor environment, and that’s exactly what we don’t want to be doing at this time,” she says. “I think a national conference within the UK, you could, just like we’re opening hotels, run it physically distanced.

But international conferences seem like a bad idea this year, full stop.” As well as the fact that travellers from some some nations will pose a higher risk due to higher infection rates, she notes that the risk of travel itself in planes and taxis will likely act as a deterrent to big international events.  

Hunter, the professor of medicine, believes that it is the arrival of a vaccine, rather than an efficient tracing system, that will unlock conferences for many. “I suspect some people sadly won’t get over the psychological fear, though I suspect most of us will,” he says.

“With an effective vaccine, if we do get one and it’s distributed early next year, the risks and anxieties from that will be a lot less.

”As the conference industry figures out its next steps – vaccine or no – Hunter himself is eager for their return.

“Part of the thing about conferences, especially in the scientific community, is the opportunity to meet face-to-face with people you might not otherwise meet and come up with plans for doing new science and projects together,” he says.

“That’s to a large extent how science develops. ”While conference planners and event specialists are certain that digital conferences will cannibalise physical audiences for the remainder of 2020, with respondents to a July survey by PCMA, the Professional Convention Management Association, saying coronavirus will have an extensive impact on their industry, they’re less certain it’ll have a significant impact in 2021.

“There are some lights at the end of the tunnel that are beginning to appear,” says Mordue. “But in the meantime, we have the good old internet to save us.”

• The Fourth Industrial Revolution will take center stage at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting next week in Davos, Switzerland.
• It's a term used by CEOs, policymakers and industry to describe technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 3D printing and the internet of things.
• Some companies and governments are struggling to keep up with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Elizabeth Schulze | @eschulze9



What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution?  1 Hour Ago | 04:10


The Fourth Industrial Revolution will take center stage at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting next week in Davos, Switzerland.The concept, a theme of Davos this year, refers to how a combination of technologies are changing the way we live, work and interact.

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the Geneva-based WEF, published a book in 2016 titled "The Fourth Industrial Revolution" and coined the term at the Davos meeting that year.

Schwab argued a technological revolution is underway "that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres."Simply put, the Fourth Industrial Revolution refers to how technologies like artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles and the internet of things are merging with humans' physical lives.

Think of voice-activated assistants, facial ID recognition or digital health-care sensors.

Schwab argued these technological changes are drastically altering how individuals, companies and governments operate, ultimately leading to a societal transformation similar to previous industrial revolutions.

The first three industrial revolutions

Zvika Krieger, the head of technology policy and partnerships at WEF, told CNBC on Tuesday there is a common theme among each of the industrial revolutions: the invention of a specific technology that changed society fundamentally.

The First Industrial Revolution started in Britain around 1760. It was powered by a major invention: the steam engine. The steam engine enabled new manufacturing processes, leading to the creation of factories.

The Second Industrial Revolution came roughly one century later and was characterized by mass production in new industries like steel, oil and electricity.

The light bulb, telephone and internal combustion engine were some of the key inventions of this era.The inventions of the semiconductor, personal computer and the internet marked the Third Industrial Revolution starting in the 1960s. This is also referred to as the "Digital Revolution.

"Krieger said the Fourth Industrial Revolution is different from the third for two reasons: the gap between the digital, physical and biological worlds is shrinking, and technology is changing faster than ever.

Telephone vs. 'Pokemon Go'

For evidence of how quickly technological change is spreading, Krieger pointed to the adoption of the telephone. It took 75 years for 100 million people to get access to the telephone; the gaming app "Pokemon Go" hooked that many users in less than one month in 2016.



Toru Hanai | Reuters

Pokemon Go app on an iPhone, Tokyo, Japan, July 22, 2016.Companies in industries from retail to transportation to banking are vying to incorporate new technologies like augmented reality, 3D printing and artificial intelligence into their operations.

A 2017 study by the European Patent Office found the number of patents filed related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution increased a growth rate of 54 percent in the past three years.

"Technology, and specifically digital technology, is so intertwined with many businesses, as well as our social and economic lives, that trying to separate 'tech' from 'non-tech' is becoming increasingly redundant," said David Stubbs, head of client investment strategy for EMEA at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, in an email to CNBC.

Left behind

Companies, governments and individuals are struggling to keep up with the fast pace of technological change.

Krieger, who served as the U.S. State Department's first-ever representative to Silicon Valley from 2016 to 2017, said technology is often missing from policymakers' "toolkits.

" As a result, he said, companies are left filling a void trying to understand how to implement — and regulate — advancements like A.I."There's an absolute hunger for concrete things companies can do," Krieger said.



Will robots take our jobs?  10:40 AM ET Tue, 30 Oct 2018 | 03:10

Jordan Morrow is the head of data literacy at analytics firm Qlik. He said individuals and companies lack skills, like interpreting and analyzing data, to successfully compete in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

"Not everyone needs to be a data scientist but everyone needs to be data literate," he said in a phone interview with CNBC. Studies show technologies like artificial intelligence will eliminate some jobs, while creating demand for new jobs and skills.

Some experts warn of a "winner-take-all economy," where high-skilled workers are rewarded with high pay, and the rest of workers are left behind.A 2018 report by investment firm UBS found billionaires have driven almost 80 percent of the 40 main breakthrough innovations over the past four decades.

In 2016, Schwab predicted inequality would be the greatest societal concern associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

"There has never been a time of greater promise, or one of greater potential peril," he said.

Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.

The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting at Davos takes place this week in Switzerland.

World leaders and heads of state from over 100 governments, titans of industry from over 1000 of the world’s foremost companies, and movers and shakers alike from NGOs and cultural organizations have converged in The Alps to discuss the state of global economics and plot a better future as we edge ever closer to a new decade.

In addition to being a catalyst for global business and geopolitics, annual events at Davos are critical in developing global narratives that help guide us to a more equitable future.

Founder Klaus Schwab’s vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a theoretical driving force that has encouraged thinkers all over the world to consider the intersection of tech like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and automation as it relates to our near term future.

Last year, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and distributed ledger technology were some of the dominant buzzwords at Davos as excitement about these nascent technologies reached a global fervor.

In 2019, it’s all about action, and putting decentralized technologies to work. Just like last year, Consensys’ Ethereal Lounge will be the hub of the blockchain action.We sat down with Sheila Warren, the World Economic Forum’s Head of Blockchain, to get an overview of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, how blockchain technology is integral to the 4IR, and what’s in store at Davos this year….

Can you give an overview of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and where we are in its progression?

So far we’ve seen a series of industrial revolutions. We start with the agrarian revolution to steel and the steam engine. Then, we have the digital revolution with computers, and now we’re in this fourth industrial revolution, where we’re seeing increased connectivity between different kinds of technologies. In a nutshell, we’re seeing a merging of technological and human processes in a way that becomes far more pervasive in our lives.

We see a number of technologies that range from being quite nascent to fairly well developed as critical to 4IR. Those include blockchain, distributed ledger technologies, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, 3D printing, robotics, machine learning, autonomous mobility, drones, AR/VR.

What we focus on in our San Francisco office — the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution — is these technologies, their intersection, and exploring policy mechanisms that can help these new technologies, as they become more embedded in society, develop in a way that’s inclusive, ethically considered, and has benefit at heart to society.

How does blockchain technology play into all of this?

We see blockchain as a foundational technology. While blockchain certainly has its own applications that are somewhat bespoke or unique, it also has the ability to serve as a layer in a tech stack that amplifies technologies like AI or IoT.

When you think about the potential of blockchain — which currently is not ready to serve as a substitute for a massive database — when you see scalability enter into the equation, there’s an opportunity for decentralization to enhance equality in addressing issues ranging from wealth inequality to access rights, to addressing personal autonomy around aspects like data in a way that’s more human centered.

We see blockchain technology as quite fundamental to the fourth industrial revolution, becoming a new layer that will amplify its speed, and provide opportunities to shake up in society that we think — if done thoughtfully and correctly — could be quite transformative in many ways.

Are there certain technological tracks that are most central to the 4IR?

Machine learning is quite critical. Robotics, which i’d put in a similar category. The idea that we’re actually going to be relying on machines to outsource some of our analytics processes is quite profound.

I think a lot of the attention on robotics focuses on labor displacement, machines taking people’s jobs, but I think the average citizen is not paying enough attention to things like algorithmic biases and our relationship to data in an automated world.I also think the Internet of Things is critical.

People use IoT devices every day without thinking about using them. There’s some media awareness around what it means to have smart devices in your home listening to what you’re doing — but it’s more from a surveillance perspective that people are concerned.

What they’re not thinking about what happens to us as people when we’re completely on-grid. The more we tech up in an IoT world, the more there’s a question of what that means. Concerns about this are often relegated to fringe groups, but this is extremely transformative.

Certainly, the way that my children are going to interact with machines and objects, and the expectations we have around privacy, are going to be quite different than before, and very rapidly so.

Watch Sheila Warren discuss ethics and blockchain at Ethereal Summit NY 2018. Tickets for Ethereal 2019 are on sale now!

What does your work at the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution focus on here?

The reality is that these technologies are already big money businesses. Where you have rapid opportunities for ROI, there isn’t necessarily the thought put into what the downstream consequences are when taken collectively, and how they may impact our world. We’re very focused on the ethical implication of these things and their intersectionality.

Every incremental device or app doesn’t seem like a big deal, and addresses convenience or access to data or property remotely in a way that seems simple. But when you aggregate of all the things connected, what you have is a totally new way of existing.

What we worry about at the Centre, particularly with the blockchain ecosystem, is that we’re just replicating a lot of our problematic systems, and we’re not really blowing them up! The reason i’m so passionate about DLT specifically is because it’s very distributive nature actually makes us more prone to being aware about these sorts of things.

Which is not to say that we’re not already replicating a lot of historical power structures inn crypto asset holdings, who’s making the money, things like that.

But, the technology’s nature if not a centralized one. It’s not a tech that is looking for a centralized body to control everything. It’s the opposite. It’s one of our best shots at actually mitigating some of the system replication and doing better.

What do you think the conversation around blockchain will be at Davos this year?

Last year, Davos was crypto crazy. It was insane! I feel like it’ll be a little more collected this year, which I’m grateful for personally! I think there’s a lot of interesting conversation happening around stablecoins, digital fiat, central bank digital currencies, digital identity is of course a big topic that’s important. Supply chain is really where enterprise is focused.

There’s going to be a lot of focus on layer two solutions. It’s not different subjects than last year, things are just more involved.Personally, I’m really excited about conversations we’ll be having around government use of blockchain and DLT.

Whether we like it or not, governments are some of the most successful distribution platforms. If we can find a way to use government to actually deploy and use blockchain technology, we’re going to move a long way towards adoption.

Much of what we do with the Forum is speak to governments, central banks, and other bodies about their own exploration of this technology. There’ll be a lot of that.

Are there certain regions that you see taking big strides in blockchain integration this year?

My eyes are really on Asia. I think Singapore, China, are doing a lot of fascinating work across the 4IR. I think the autonomous urban mobility movement in Japan is really exciting. They have an aging population, so there’s a need for considerations about transit.

The government is doing a lot of experimentation there. What i’m excited about is that a lot of high growth, emerging economies are doing a lot of the most innovative experimentation.

My hope is that some of those experiments will be picked up by some of the big, market making G-7 economies of the world, and we’ll see more willingness to take on some of those solutions.I do think India’s poised to be a big player in a lot of this 4IR technology. There’s challenges in every country, but India is a very tech minded country and they’re ready for a lot of change. The scope and scale of India — it’s its own market.

We opened up a Centre for the 4IR in Mumbai that’s focused on blockchain, AI, and drone technology, and we’ve got some exciting work coming out of there that we’ll be talking about more soon.

Disclaimer:

The views expressed by the author above do not necessarily represent the views of Consensys AG. ConsenSys is a decentralized community with ConsenSys Media being a platform for members to freely express their diverse ideas and perspectives. To learn more about ConsenSys and Ethereum, please visit our website.

No one could have seen blockchain coming. Now that it’s here, blockchain has the potential to completely reinvent the world of financial transactions, as well as other industries. In this interview, we talked to JAX London speaker Brian Behlendorf about the past, present, and future of this emerging technology.

JAXenter: Open source is crucial for the success of a lot of projects. Could you talk about why blockchain needs open collaboration from an engaged community?

Brian Behlendorf: I believe we are heading towards a future full of different blockchain ecosystems for different purposes. Many will be public, many private, some unpermissioned, some permissioned — and they’ll differ in their choice of consensus mechanism, smart contract platform, security protocols, and other attributes, and many will talk to each other. To keep this from becoming a confusing mess, or a platform war, collaboration on common software infrastructure is key. The Open Source communities behind Linux, Apache, and other successful platform technologies have demonstrated how to do this successfully.

The beauty of cross-company and industry open source projects is that organizations can share the unprofitable and unsexy work of building the libraries and standards, which underlie systems. A shared code base also serves as an excellent way of concurrently building a standard for coexisting on a blockchain. Hyperledger aims to provide tools for communities to build their own chains, rather than driving everyone to one chain. Much like the Apache web server project drove people to build their own websites, rather than encouraging everyone to just use one big site.

The goal for the best-run open source projects isn’t just to solve some technical problem in an open way but to be a long-term bedrock foundation for a software ecosystem. This is what the blockchain community needs today, and that’s why Hyperledger exists.

SEE MORE: Driving the future of Blockchain: From car to super computer

JAXenter: Could you tell us more about Hyperledger?

Brian Behlendorf: Blockchain technology has been used in crypto-currency settings for several years now. But there are many more uses for blockchain technology beyond crypto-currency. Any business network that records transactions — and can’t depend on a central proxy that everyone has to trust, and for which those ledgers must be immutable — can be remade through blockchain technology.

Hyperledger is an open consortium bringing together a community of organizations and individual developers to establish protocols and standards to improve the performance and reliability of blockchain technology. Hyperledger aims to provide tools for communities to build their own chains, rather than driving everyone to one chain. We envision a world of many chains, some public like the crypto-currencies and some “permissioned” — like you will likely see in healthcare settings. By developing a common distributed ledger technology that is shared, transparent and decentralized, the possibilities are endless.

JAXenter: According to a recent report by the European Parliament, blockchain could change the lives of EU citizens. What’s your take on that?

Brian Behlendorf: In the early 1990’s, there was a fairly compelling sense among those who were building the first web software and websites that this was going to “change everything”, by changing the fundamental cost and process of accessing and sharing information. We could not have specifically predicted Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc., but I think that sense that the laws of physics had somehow been altered was clear, and the ramifications would take a long time to play out.

That seems to be the case here — it seems like any industry that touches transactions — e.g., all of them — will be impacted in one way or another.  What this means for consumers is anyone’s guess — will it mean being able to manage your personal healthcare records through a “wallet” of some sort? Possibly. Will it mean inter-bank or even international payments settle immediately rather than over the course of days? Definitely. Will it mean the provision of government services — particularly when it comes to property registry, permits, voting registration, and other process/transactional touch points — will dramatically change?  Hopefully!  But specifics will prove elusive.

JAXenter: The author of the European Parliament report states that “since other applications can ‘piggyback’ the Bitcoin blockchain, the biggest impacts of Bitcoin may be found outside the currency domain.” Do you agree with this statement?

Brian Behlendorf: Crypto-currencies are one possible application on top of distributed ledgers but not the only ones. At times, having a token generated like a currency will be a useful way to fund the consensus mechanisms, or even provide services from distributed apps on a chain.  But it’s not the only way, as that accounting overhead adds costs for features that may not be as relevant in a permissioned chain setting. Some apps and “smart contracts” may be built on the Bitcoin chain, and even more on the Ethereum one, but I suspect the majority of transactions and smart contracts will be implemented on permissioned ledgers. I suspect Bitcoin’s utility as an uncensorable store of value will remain its biggest value.

SEE MORE: Brian Behlendorf explains the DevOps of Blockchain

JAXenter: How important is the law in this context? Does the development of blockchain depend on it?

Brian Behlendorf: Technology does not eliminate geography. In the early days of the Web, we hoped to see it as a sovereign place, where ordinary analog-world laws either didn’t need to apply or could not be applied. Reality set in: turns out us humans are citizens of countries, and we benefit from that association as much as are constrained by it, and technology does not provide an escape plan from that. So laws around money laundering, know-your-customer, securities registration, and all sorts of things are likely to continue to apply.

Turning this around, there is substantial hope that one could use distributed ledger technology to automate many of the business processes that today fall to humans to implement, which introduces the potential for corruption, delay, and error. To do that, some laws many need to be reformed, some regulations made more test-able by algorithm. I’m encouraged to see so many regulators, sovereign banks, governments, and others working to build up their own competencies in this space so that as industries start to implement their business processes as blockchain applications, the regulatory and statutory hurdles can be addressed.

JAXenter: Will blockchain eliminate the middleman? What are the benefits and/or disadvantages of a world without middlemen?

Brian Behlendorf: Yes, the blockchain has the potential to reinvent any transaction that now requires going through a middleman, including finance, banking, contacts, and retail. Before blockchain, buying and selling required an intermediary, a bank or broker who housed your financial data at their computers. When you transfer funds or make a purchase, a banker connects to the bank’s system to record the change. Blockchain replaces this central system with a decentralized ledger of records. Each record is connected to the one before and the one after it, yielding a traceable history of every transaction. No record can be deleted and no existing records can be altered.

In the future, blockchain’s ability to remove the middleman means it could support “smart contracts” with conditional clauses programmed into the blockchain. This makes the contract self-enforcing, by transferring funds only when the conditions are met. Smart contracts could change entire fields of law. Blockchain wills could automatically take effect when a person dies, transferring inheritances without needing an executor. Replacing legal jargon with blockchain logic would require a different type of corporate lawyer with skills akin to a computer programmer.

A distributed ledger gives us the chance to go into those kinds of business networks. Even here, there is sometimes a role for the middlemen; there may still be a need for a central market actor to set the human-defined, human-enforced legal terms by which the participants on that network work together, as well as to define the specific technology stack those participants use to talk to each other. And maybe that central market actor is needed to play policemen from time to time, as a kind of private market regulator perhaps but not to have to be operationally the hub at the centre of this market place.

SEE MORE: IBM bets big on blockchain, contributes 44,000 lines of code to Hyperledger

JAXenter: Have we fully tapped blockchain’s value? If not, how can we do that?

Brian Behlendorf: I think we’re just on the edge of blockchain’s potential. There is no shortage of big visions for this technology as part of a new Internet technology stack that, if done right, it can have tremendous positive impact for the tech industry and society in general. Hyperledger’s role is to enable whatever happens up that stack by building a great, trustworthy, modular, Apache-licensed and transparently built foundation for the base of that stack. We are the plumbers and if we’re successful everyone gets to move on up the stack to more interesting, profitable, powerful applications. By developing a common distributed ledger technology that is shared, transparent and decentralized, the possibilities are endless.

JAXenter: What can attendees get out of your keynote?

Brian Behlendorf: My talk “Blockchain: Why Open Source and Collaboration are Crucial for Tech” will walk through Hyperledger and why it is aimed at bringing an open dynamic to the blockchain community in order to provide governance so that everyone can spend less time worrying about the plumbing and more time building new blockchain products and services. I believe we are heading towards a future full of different blockchain ecosystems for different purposes. Shared plumbing will be a must, governance will be needed, thus collaboration and open source is key. The Open Source communities behind Linux, Apache, and other successful platform technologies have demonstrated how to do this successfully. And the aim with Hyperledger is to do the same.

Brian Behlendorf will be delivering a keynote speech at JAX London today that will go into more detail with these ideas. Brian will explain what blockchain is, Hyperledger’s role and its incubated projects, as well as use cases.

Discover more interviews and content like this on JAXentre here: https://jaxenter.com/behlendorf-interview-blockchain-potential-137740.html

Welcome to BlockShow Europe 2017!
Official website: http://www.events.cointelegraph.com
BlockShow Europe 2017 is a major informational and networking platform for showcasing established Blockchain solutions.

If you strive for gaining greater insight into the current state of the Blockchain, avail yourself of the opportunity to meet the key Blockchain persons and value generators.
You will get first-hand practical knowledge of how Blockchain has been successfully implemented in different parts of the world and what dramatic impact it has already had on the markets.


Organizers
The conference is organized by CoinTelegraph - one of the most popular media outlets in the world covering cryptocurrency, the blockchain, decentralized applications, the internet of finance and the next gen web.


CoinTelegraph is delighted to be partnering with Nexussquared, the Swiss-based business platform, and Blockpay, Munich based cryptocurrency payment processor powered by Bitshares, to host BlockShow Europe in 2017.
Where? ....
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/blockshow-europe-2017-tickets-28226245460

About the conferenceBlockchain financial instruments, experience of creation of the first decentralized autonomous organizations and rates of digital currencies, all these and other topics were discussed at the our previous crypto conference in Moscow.

The April and November Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference has demonstrated that there is a demand for blockchain technology and exchange of experience in this sphere in Russia.That's wht Smile-Expo is happy to invite you to attend Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Russia on 19 April, 2017 The blockchain is not only for IT pros. It is also for businesspersons and end users.

The blockchain application is not limited to crypto payments; smart contracts, auctions, tools for management of state property, law and logistics are build on its basis. Moreover, this list is not complete!

This year, we are going to be split up into two halls: for financiers and entrepreneurs.The stream for financiers will discuss the implementation of blockchain in banking, preparation of the bill on cryptocurrency regulation and creation of the Russian blockchain consortium.

The stream for entrepreneurs will discuss blockchain in telecommunications, insurance, notary, the Internet of things and asset management.

Who will speak?
Developers of financial and technical services-
Financiers-
Entrepreneurs-
Lawyers-
Investors -
Experts who have something to say about the blockchain development

Who will listen? 
Anyone who is interested in Blockchain and Bitcoin:development, future and prospects in the Russian Federation...

Learn more and get tickets:
https://moscow.blockchainconf.world/en?utm_source=PR&utm_campaign=Zcash&utm_medium=ZcashNewsBTC&utm_referrer=NewsBTC © Moscow Blockchain Conference

The Blockchain conference is taking place in Auckland New Zeland in May 2017

The Blockchain and Smart Contracts are set to transform the world. This event is about helping people to understand how the blockchain and smart contracts are going to change & disrupt every business sector from agriculture to finance.  

The event is aimed at anybody who wants to know what all the fuss is about including CEO's, Directors, Entrepreneurs, Project Managers, Programers in every business domain . We will take you on a journey from teaching you the basics through to exploring some of the real life ways that blockchain technology is being used to disrupt business models and transform our society.  

We will challenge you. We will inspire you. You will get to meet many of the world's thought leaders in this space.

Learn more...http://www.theblockchain.nz/