With Inside Bitcoins NYC 2014 fast approaching, event organisers continue to roll out more information about what its thousands of anticipated visitors can expect during the two-day conference on 7th April and 8th April.
Inside Bitcoins, to be held at the Javits Convention Center, most recently revealed via its website that American Banker executive director Marc Hochstein, with support from Wedbush Securities’ Gil Luria, will be giving the keynote for day two’s events.
The announcement finds Hochstein and Luria joining Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire and Blockchain CEO Nicolas Cary on the list of the event’s keynote speakers, though their presence is no doubt a signal of the increasing appeal of bitcoin outside the industry.
However, good news for Inside Bitcoins NYC isn’t limited to bolstering the event itself. As BitcoinNYC founder Jonathan Mohan can attest, Inside Bitcoins has a big impact on his weekly meetup group serving New York.
For Mohan, the conference is an opportunity to capitalize on increased local awareness of bitcoin. Explained Mohan:
“The conference is great as an onboarding progress, because it gives people who aren’t in the community an easy roadmap into the community.”
It’s also popular with his existing members. Mohan indicates that since informing his community about the event to his group, more than 100 of its members have expressed that they’ll be in attendance to access the show’s free vendor booths.
Added Mohan with an air of understatement: “There’s a lot of interest.”
Inside Bitcoins 2013
Bitcoin NYC hasn’t always been able to rely on strong strong support, however.
Mohan indicated that his group formed in March of 2013, a few months before the inaugural Inside Bitcoins NYC, held last July. Since then, he indicates he has noticed a key change at his meetup groups: attendees are more open about revealing their backgrounds in discussions, a sign he suggests that bitcoin’s credibility is increasing, thanks in no small part to events like Inside Bitcoins.
Said Mohan:
“Initially in early last, we’d have people say ‘I work in finance’ or ‘Oh, I work on Wall Street’. Now we have people who say [they] work at Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs or Bloomberg.”
Preparing for the event
Of course, Mohan will have a bit more responsibility at this year’s event than his fellow meetup attendees. That’s because Mohan will be moderating the “New Ideas in Bitcoin” discussion, one of two panels that will directly follow the event’s opening keynote speech.
That panel will include Peter Earle, chief economist at Huminit; Chris Odom, co-founder of Monetas; Ryan Charleston, CEO of Bitcorati; James Gatto, a partner at Pillsbury Law; and Bitcoin Center NYC deputy director Austin Alexander.
Still, Mohan isn’t phased at the prospect of leading one of the day’s first events.
“I see it as no different than a meetup, which is to say, I don’t see it as the Jonathan Mohan show, I see it as facilitating a discussion between the people in the group. It’s a logical extension of something I’ve been doing for a few hours a week for the last year.”
Event preview
Mohan was able to share some of the topics that he is excited to speak about with his panel at the event. These included distributed corporations (Ethereum, MasterCoin, BitShares) and branded coins, among other topics.
Mohan also suggested that his personality would be onhand to help energize event attendees for all that day one has in store.
“I’m a high energy guy. I’ll try to keep them awake.”
Though, if the event’s full speaker lineup is any indication, he likely will have plenty of support in this goal.
Image credit: Meeting via Shutterstock