Hey everyone,

As many of you probably know by now, Stratis exhibited at the London Blockchain Expo last week, and I had the privilege to be there with them. A lot of team and community members came from all over the world to meet and to work.

I know a lot of you couldn’t make it, so for all of you that didn’t, hopefully this recap makes you feel like you were there with us.

General information about the Expo

This is the second time Stratis exhibited at the Blockchain Expo held in London’s Olympia Event Center.

This year, Blockchain Expo attracted more than 10,000 dedicated blockchain delegates over its two days and hosted some of the best and brightest blockchain experts.

Tuesday 17 April, 2018

The Expo was a great reason for the whole Stratis team and community to unite. In crypto, people are connected to each other from all over the world. It doesn’t matter where you come from, how old you are, etc. There is a place for and a mutual respect between anyone that wants to participate in earnest.

For Stratis, this meant team and community members flew in from all over the world (USA, Asia, South-Africa, Canada, South America, Australia and all around Europe). Everyone finally meeting face-to-face after a long history of talking and collaborating on social media was exciting.

The team and some of the earliest Strat community members arrived at Stratis headquarters on Tuesday. It was amazing to see everyone so happy and excited to meet each other. It felt like when you had not seen beloved relatives from the other side of the world for years; special and unique.

It’s true what they say about Stratis. It’s one big family — the team and community — and it’s filled with decent, down to earth human beings who are amazingly talented and exerting their efforts for all the right reasons. People aren’t in this just for the money. Actually building a platform that will change the world for the better is a clearly shared priority.

Stratis team and community lunch

Day 1 of the Blockchain Expo, 18 April 2018

The weather was amazing, so the cards were definitely shuffled in our favor. The first thing just about everyone saw entering the Expo was the Stratis booth. BAM, Stratis right in your face! All in a tasteful and eye- popping fashion.

Stratis had the biggest, best-positioned booth at the Expo. The booth was tuned to the finest details, making a big impact and also providing a welcoming place to sit and chat with various groups of people, including developers and all team members. Huge credits go to the graphic designer of Stratis for once again delivering an epic booth!

The Stratis Booth in the early morning

So, unlike the picture above (lol), which was taken very early in the morning, the Stratis booth was visited by a ton of people throughout the day. It was constantly buzzing. Aside from hosting enterprises and developers, it was also a place where community members and investors could interact with the team and each other very comfortably.

Unlike for many of the other booths, everyone on the team was there: Chris Trew, Dan Gershony, Jeremy Bokobza, Krushang Patel, Pieterjan Vanhoof, and all of the old-school legends greeting everyone. Newer Strat team members also manned the booth.

A crowded booth during the day

One thing everyone looked forward to was Strat’s presentation on Smart Contracts in C# by Developer, Jordan Andrews, and Jordan went on to deliver his demonstration to a very packed house!

Keep in mind I am not a developer, but Jordan even made it possible for me to understand, so that means he did a hell of a job explaining it. I remember ‘Pharaoh’ coming to me afterwords saying, “Did you see that code?” And I was like, “Yeah… uhm… it was a nice picture,” and he was like, “No dude, that code is AMAZING!” Aside from that, many others confirmed we are in for a real treat! Especially so because enterprises are looking deeper into Smart Contracts, and there are so many use cases that could easily revolutionize the way the world does business. Smart contracts are a hot topic, not only in crypto, but also in the more conventional, “normal” world.

Jordan’s talk was one of the best-attended, if not THE most well- attended presentation at the Expo. There were some big companies sitting in the first row asking questions (and then later on connecting with Stratis). So, I can safely say there’s plenty of interest in Smart Contracts in C#, from both enterprises and developers. This makes sense because Strat’s smart contracts will provide the first opportunity developers can intuitively use a widely-known coding language to code smart contracts.

Pictures of Jordan presenting

If you missed Jordan’s presentation you can see a small preview of the presentation over here. There is also a fully recorded version on YouTube, but keep in mind this isn’t the official video version yet. However, if you don’t want to wait for the official film, you can find the unofficial one over here.

Day 2 of the Blockchain Expo, 19 April 2018

After great successes on the first day, I was curious how many people would return on the second. The weather was even better then, so all signs again pointed to a favorable deck.

Developers working before going to the expo

We organised a meet and greet at the Stratis booth in the morning for community members to meet with the team. Considering Chris Trew and other team members get busy talking to potential clients all day, doing interviews, etc, it was great of them to make some time especially for community members. Everyone was so happy to meet the team in person, it emanated a lot of great energy from all around the booth.

To see how the booth looked, take a look at the video Mahesh Chand from C# Corner took. His video captured the vibe pretty well.

As I mentioned before, Chris was asked to do a lot of interviews. I look forward to those coming online as they are edited and finished. They will showcase Stratis for even more people.

One of the interviews is already released, and it’s a great one. You can find the video over here, and it’s a good example of Chris’ natural talent for being on camera.

The Day After

So…

What did everyone do after those crazy conference days?

Remember the team also went to India from 12 to 15 April, so they must have been exhausted, but they did what they always seem to do. They continued working hard to deliver an amazing platform everyone will be able to use!

Friday, I went to Strat’s offices to meet up with the team, and everyone was there, once again working! I guess it makes it easier that building Strat is what they love to do. It’s their passion to create something that truly could revolutionise the business world.

Friday was also a day of goodbyes. A lot of people flew in from all over the globe, and it was nearing time to go home. Everyone took a last moment to talk, and then we parted ways again. I’m sure we will soon be reunited, as families always are.

Feelings Looking Back at this Adventure

Excited, thrilled, bullieve (believe), family, love, #2018isOurs… Generally, just amazing, good feelings.

Let me start with the team members I have worked with since the dawning of Stratis (and have also met before): Chris, Krushang, Dan, Pieterjan and Jeremy. These are the core guys of Stratis, people I have known since the beginning, and they have never stopped building and giving 100% to this project. It amazes me to see how much energy and motivation they have and how they value the community surrounding Stratis. They took time for everyone and made it abundantly clear that they really feel blessed by the community’s support. Vice versa, the community is also blessed by their support .

Two very long-standing community members, who also work with Stratis, I never met until the Expo were Benoît and ‘Zeptin’ Kevin. It was a true honor to meet you both in real life! Next up are the community members I have been working with since the beginning and a few newer community members that truly make a difference. The list is so long (and please forgive me if I fail to mention anyone): Pharaoh, Acetmesis, Myco, Daddy, Zomertje, Eleven, Bennybig, Freeme62410, PistolPete, Sigma, and so many more. It was a true blessing to meet all of you in person and see the same motivation and dedication in you as I feel in me.

To the newer team members (some of whom I had previously met and some of you that I met for the first time at the Expo), it amazed me to hear some of your stories. For example, why you all became a part of Stratis. Everyone has legit reasons, and everyone seems to be in it for the same or very similar reasons — to make a true change in the world and to create an amazing platform for all C# developers to build upon. I already give a lot of credits to the core team members, but I want to pay my huge respect to all the other team members and all community contributors out there. It was a true honor to meet all of of you, and, believe me, all of you inspired me in your own unique way.

Two additional special people I met were Sameer Misson, the CEO of GLUON, and Mahesh Chand, the founder of C# Corner. They are truly a part of the Stratis family and are both great guys who want the best for Stratis, as well as the best for the brave new business world Stratis is pioneering. Mahesh and Sameer only reinforce that Stratis surrounds itself with people who have good core values in life and business.

Everyone combined together makes one big happy family based on mutual respect and equality, all sharing a common goal. As I like to say, “One team, one goal and one mission.”

I don’t know who thought of the following hashtag, but I like it: #2018isOurs!

Conclusion

The conference was the largest yet, with over 10,700+ delegates joining together for the co-located Blockchain, IoT Tech and AI Expo, which means 10,700 people that entered the Expo, at the very least, saw Stratis and its lively booth!

With Stratis being the highest ranked sponsor, you could see their name everywhere, so I am sure a lot of new people will look into Stratis. I saw first-hand how many newer people and businesses were interested by the constant activity at the booth, as well as at Jordan’s presentation on Smart Contracts in C#. It was a great move by Stratis to have such a huge presence at the Expo. I look forward to seeing what all this new exposure will bring to Stratis in the future.

I returned home with so much motivation and energy. It works both ways…

Team members get motivated by community members, and community members get motivated by the team.

I highly suggest anyone who could make it to any future events to please do so. You would quickly understand exactly what I have been saying all along.

In closing and again, it was a privilege to interact with everyone I have been working with for so long. Everyone I have met that is part of this growing family is a decent person, down to earth and has a lot of respect for each other. And, man, there are some highly talented people involved!

That’s it for the moment! See you guys soon.

Khilone

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