Bitbrum was brill!

So Bitbrum has been & gone. How did Birmingham's first ever Bitcoin/crypto conference go? In a word... Brilliantly!

I'm a member of the local Bitcoin Meetup group that hosted the event.... But my role was very lowly! Meeting, greeting, sorting out any issues the speakers had, putting people's wrist bands on, that sort of thing. I loved it! There were many cups of tea drank & much nonsense talked by yours truly.

The two hundred tickets sold out, but on the day we probably got around half that (one problem with putting on a free event) .

The day was hosted by the near legendary Chris Coney (@marketingmonk). Here's a gratuitous picture of me & Chris at the end of the event:

Chris was a great guy... Even after I demanded to know why the Kexcoin ICO he was involved with hadn't reached minimum funding requirements. The sensible answer? Because people can make way more speculating in crypto than backing a project like this.

You might also recognise the young man in the first picture, that's none other than Erik Finman. I managed to have a brief chat with him & he was a lovely guy. How the hell did they get him for this event?! He told me of the latest project he's working on, but I'm not sure I'm allowed to reveal it here (watch out PayPal).

They know how to pay me well... With tea!

I missed the presentation from the crown coin guys, I'm quite interested in their master nodes as a passive source of income. This will be available on YouTube once it's been edited.

I had another brief chat, this time with the guys from Gimmer. They build crypto trading bots. I'm no trader, but their products sounded fascinating. Check them out: www.gimmer.net

These guys own Bitcoin ATMs around the UK. They had a working example at their stand, but I was never able to get to play with it as they were constantly busy (and btc was just about to breach $8000!) This sounds a great business to be in as they are currently charging 7% commission on sales.

Musik was provided by Crypto Rat, another very cool guy. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a picture with him.

A nice bunch of guys, but after talking to them & listening to their talk, I STILL don't understand the product, or the problem they're trying to solve!

Our keynote speaker was Professor Steve Keen, Maverick economist. I've heard him speak before on Max Keiser's show. He is a self confessed crypto newbie, but was quite certain Bitcoin is in a massive bubble. Maybe that was another reason I didn't use the ATM that day!

This is John, one of my Meetup group. He was audio-visual man for the day. He wants to remain anonymous, but that didn't stop him plugging his recording studio!

All in all a great day organised by Joe Ratheram...I hope to see some steemians at the next event.

The 'innovation centre' I've ranted about before had no interest in attended/hosting/sponsoring, nor did the local papers want to cover the event! Legacy media & institutions eh?!

Steem on.