My Report From CoinAgenda Barcelona

CoinAgenda, which took place in Barcelona from July 16 to 18, was my third conference on crypto-financing and "Initial Coin Offerings" - it seems to become a habit for me! I saw many people again that I had already met in New York and London, but of course I also learnt a lot of new stuff, as there is so much happening in the world of "Tokenomics".

Conference Party at Casa Battló

Barcelona is one of my favourite cities in Europe, so I could combine the conference with visiting friends and enjoying the inspiring atmosphere of the Catalan capital. I know Michael Terpin, whose company Transform PR has been organising this conference for a while, but never made it to any of their conferences in the US. Transform PR has been accompanying many successful ICOs in the past, among them Mastercoin, Safecoin, Augur and Bancor. So it was a good opportunity to catch up with them in a city which is  just a cheap flight away from Berlin.

Michael Terpin (Transform PR) interviews Brock Pierce (Blockchain Capital)

As I missed the opening party on a boat, my first impression was the introductory fireside chat of Michael with Brock Pierce, one of the most influential investors in the crypto space. His company Blockchain Capital just realised an ICO for their own venture capital fund, raising more than 10 million dollars in a few hours. ICOs are disrupting the venture capital world, so venture capitalists have to disrupt their own business model to keep up.

World Trade Centre in Barcelona's Old Port

The conference took place in the "World Trade Centre", a new building in the old port of Barcelona, close to the end of the famous Rambles. We had a terrific view of the sea, sometimes huge cruise ship passed by the conference venue.

VC Panel with Emmy Chang, Eddy Travia, Andrew Ivison and Brock Pierce

Besides the usual panels, about half of the conference was filled with presentations of companies who were doing ICOs. CoinAgenda is mostly targeting investors, so most visitors were venture capitalists, business angels or companies who would formely need them. Now everybody is raising money through ICOs instead of getting it from VCs. It is still unclear what the role of venture capitalists and business angels will be in this new world, in which start-ups are suddenly able to raise more than 100 million dollars in a few hours without a proven business model.

Pizza break

Listening to all these pitches became a little tiring if one wasn't looking for investment opportunities. But as always, most important at a conference are the breaks, in which you can meet new people and refresh the bonds to the ones you met a few weeks before on another continent.

Casa Battló on Passeig de Gràcia

The main party happened in one of Barcelona's most famous buildings, the Casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudí, who also designed the Sagrada Familia, the Casa Milá and many others of Barcelona's postcard buildings. I saw the house, which looks like a dragon, many times from the outside, but never went inside as the queues were always too long. It was great to finally see it from the inside - a perfect location for a conference party!

Conference Party at Casa Battló

I think I need a break from conferences for a while, but I will definitely follow what is happening in the ICO world. Although I am quite skeptical about the current ICO fever, in which everyone wants to ride the band wagon, as long as it still seems so easy to raise money, I believe that ICOs or, more correctly, Token Sales are here to stay. I am even considering to write a new book about this exciting new phenomenon, what would you think about that?