Marketing and events are often a hot topic of conversation within the Polkadot Ecosystem. Everyone has a view on how events should be executed, what the content should be and how we should present Polkadot as both an attractive space to build and a collaborative community to be a part of. These differing opinions often cause spicy debate, made even more spicy due to the fact that there is no a right or wrong answer.
The AVAX LATAM Summit was hosted on 16-18th October 2024 in Buenos Aires. Myself and Tim (Co-Founders of Archisinal) spend a lot of time in Argentina and landed back in the country this week and took the opportunity to attend the three-day conference for two main reasons:
- Catch up with old friends over some empanadas and cervezas
- Understand what are the core values for other ecosystems when hosting a chain specific event
Going to make this as short as possible, but I do think there is value here for any teams that have hosted/will host Polkadot specific events in the future. You might find it useful, you might not… But anyway, it is food for thought.
The only opinion I will give in this post (the rest being a summary of what we observed) is this:
Polkadot needs to have more of a presence at other chain specific conferences and events. I believe there were approximately 3/4 Ecosystem agents present and my view is that in order for us to grow as an Ecosystem, we must continuously keep up-to-date with movements in other areas of Web3 and (ideally) have them documented somewhere in some form of competitor analysis (from my time at Parity, I know there were ‘battle cards’ for other Ecosystems but not sure what happened to them). As an Ecosystem, we all love to moan about being in an echo chamber, and in order to avoid this we must not be afraid of expanding our education in other fields. If we do not keep our ear to the ground, we may miss out on opportunities for collaboration and risk losing touch with macro trends.
NB: this post is written as a mere observation of how other Ecosystems frame their value proposition and how they engage their audience. This is written from an impartial perspective and without prejudice to any team that is currently a mover and shaker in the Polkadot event space.
Hosting Events In Strategic Locations
It is no secret that Buenos Aires is becoming a hotbed for crypto innovation and growth. The Polkadot Ecosystem has recognised this for a long time. Decoded 2022 in BA was arguably the best attended and vibiest of the four locations that the event was hosted (I was part of the ‘22 organising team and thus have the authority to dub it the vibiest…). The reception of Gavin and the wider Ecosystem was noted as the PBA team returned a year later for the second cohort of PBA.
The Avalanche team organise their Summits in areas of strategic importance. Before the current Summit, Singapore played host and I believe London is next.
In terms of the event venue and location itself, the conference was hosted at the Konex Centro Ciudad. The venue was large enough to host multiple speaking areas whilst remaining intimate enough for networking.
Pricing - to charge or not to charge?
For LATAM residents, attendance to the conference was free. For non-LATAM residents, tickets were $500/person. Over the three days, I estimate that there were approximately 600-800 people in attendance. Now, this is a huge estimation but if I were to put a number on the LATAM v non-LATAM contingency, I would say it was 50-50.
Doing some quick maths, the ticketing for this event generated:
350 * 500 = $175,000
*complete guestimation 
Considering that the food and drink (incl. 2 hour happy hour for alcohol at the end of each day) was free for attendees, I would hazard a guess that the revenue generated from this would not cover the entire cost of the conference, but it sure helps. The free beer/wine at the end of the day definitely helped promote networking and encouraged people to stay longer. Smart move.
Content & Activities
The AVAX Summit was probably the most interactive conference I have attended to date. What really stood out to me was the blend of both talks, panels and having interactive spaces for people to learn by doing.
The stands were arranged in a way that didn’t just tell people what they were doing, they showed people. This was not only a great way to showcase work but also a way to keep people engaged. Three days is a long time for a festival and having gaming stations, art installations and networking areas was a great way to keep people’s attention (the outside area was particularly cool…).
One thing that could have been done better was having a dedicated area for calls and co-working but perhaps this was done intentionally to keep full focus on the activities happening within the conference itself.
In terms of the panels/talks, there were clear tracks spread across a series of smaller auditoriums. In honesty, the talks were not the best attended - but being able to drop in/out to sessions kept things fluid. I particularly liked the geographical focus of a lot of the talks. Having a specific focus on crypto and blockchain adoption in the local area was engaging and really validated why the event was being held in that specific location.
Closing Remarks
It is the job of the entire Ecosystem to stay educated and aware of what is happening outside of the Polkadot Ecosystem. So let’s keep learning and focus on providing a warm environment for builders and community.