Inside Bitcoins New York has announced its keynote speakers for this year’s conference to be held from 7th to 8th April at New York’s Javits Convention Center.
Headline speakers at the event will include Circle’s Jeremy Allaire, who will give the opening keynote; and Blockchain’s Nicolas Cary, who will present the afternoon keynote on the 7th April.
In addition to these notable speakers, a second event track has been added to day two of the event, which will be dedicated to exploring the financial issues associated with bitcoin.
Alan Meckler, CEO of event organizer MediaBistro, spoke to CoinDesk about the latest additions to the event, indicating that they provide further evidence of his organisation’s dedication to putting quality first.
“We don’t skimp on the intellectual side. We’re building a seminar of high intellectual capital first, and the exhibits follow.”
Also added to the event’s lineup was SecondMarket’s Barry Silbert, who is slated to speak as part of a panel discussion on Wall Street on 8th April; and the Bitcoins Trading Cafe, sponsored by Bitcoin Center NYC, which will provide a relaxed area for bitcoin buyers and sellers to interact through the conference.
Return to New York
The event marks the second time Inside Bitcoins will hold an event in New York, after its debut in July of last year. That event ran for one day and garnered more than 150 attendees and four exhibitors, Meckler said.
By comparison, this year’s Inside Bitcoins New York will mirror the industry’s growth over the last year. Meckler estimates that close to 1,000 attendees could be present, with an additional 1,500 to 2,000 people touring the exhibits.
Still, despite the smaller turnout, Meckler was quick to recall the importance of last year’s event to his own personal evolution on bitcoin:
“I just could not believe the enthusiasm and interest that I was seeing, and I’ve been in the trade show and seminar business for almost 40 years. The closest thing I’ve ever seen was the beginnings of the Internet.”
New programs added
The initial events planned for Inside Bitcoins can already be seen on the event website, but new attractions have also been announced.
These new conference sessions will include:
- “A Startup Perspective: Building a Trading Platform from Scratch”, to feature Coinarch’s Luke Jones
- “Bitcoin Merchant On-Ramp”, helmed by GoCoin founder Steve Beauregard
- “Bitcoin in the Cloud”, hosted by CloudHashing COO Benjamin Gorlick
- “Bitcoin Comes to Mainstreet”, featuring eGifter CEO Tyler Roye
- “Beyond Bitcoin: BitShares Delves Into Digital Shares”, by BitShares.org CEO Daniel Larimer
- “Megawatt Mining”, by Data Center Crypto-Consultant Eric Doricko.
Continued growth
Though a second track may seem like a big step for the show, Meckler said this will pale in comparison to what Inside Bitcoins is likely to feature in 2015, when he predicted as many as four or five tracks could be running simultaneously. Furthermore, Meckler said next year could feature as many as 100 to 200 companies in 100-square-foot booths.
Speculation aside, tickets are still available for this year’s event, although early-bird prices will be gone soon.
CoinDesk readers can get a 20% discount on full conference passes by entering the code BCSponsor20 at the checkout.
Disclosure: CoinDesk is a sponsor of Inside Bitcoins New York.
New York image via Shutterstock