More often than not, the first thing to be cut out of the budget is marketing. When the going gets tough and the coffers start emptying, the first head on the chopping block is usually the marketing intern. Followed by PR and event organization. But while the industry’s certainly seen a few layoffs in 2018, crypto conferences are still going strong.
Crypto Conferences Bucking a Trend
According to cryptocurrency researcher TradeBlock, even in the crypto bear market, when you may have expected to see a correlating decline in conferences, that was far from the case.
In fact, with the exception of December, crypto conferences hit their highest numbers toward the end of the year in October and November.
Despite the #crypto bear market during 2018, the number of industry related conferences did not see a steady decline in the latter half of the year. In the chart below, we track the number of conferences that occurred across the globe over the year. pic.twitter.com/vN6YJBBa3r
— TradeBlock (@TradeBlock) January 10, 2019
What Does This Mean?
Even in a bear market, industry events did not die out (in fact, there were some 53 and 52 conferences in November and December respectively).
The other month with the highest number of crypto conferences in 2018 was May. This saw some of the industry’s best-known and highest-attended conferences, such as Consensus in New York and Silicon Valley’s Global Disruptive.
Bitcoin conference in Prague, 2018
The conference scene slowed down a little throughout the summer unsurprisingly, but picked up speed again in September, with some 39 conferences. These included World Blockchain Forum in London and Berlin’s Dezentral.
October and November saw conferences with more focus on regulation. The hotly-awaited Malta Blockchain Summit saw an attendance of around 8,500 delegates. And Web Sumit in Lisbon as the world’s largest tech conference pulled in some 70,000.
Despite many studies pointing to a dwindling interest in crypto from the public, it seems the industry is still keeping the home fires burning.
Crypto conferences are not cheap either. A regular ticket at a mass event like Consensus or Web Summit will set you back around $2,000.
That the crypto conference bull run didn’t end in 2018 is a positive sign for the industry. There may be less popular interest, but more and more industry investors are keen on entering the market.
According to the annual SFOX Volatility Report:
While public discussion about crypto has waned since the start of the year, we’re seeing sustained interest at SFOX from institutional investors who want exposure to crypto.
Crypto Is Alive and Kicking
The same report places the crypto market at ‘moderately bearish’ as we enter 2019. But while prices look to be on a downward spiral once more, blockchain companies are busy building key infrastructure.
Solutions for scaling will find real use cases this year, Walmart and Wall Street will place more confidence in blockchain tech, and clearer regulation in the US should help ease uncertainty. So let’s hope the conferences keep up the pace throughout 2019 as well. And that they keep on serving free drinks.
Will 2019 see a change in the bull market trend for conferences? Share your thoughts!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock
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