Earlier today I spoke as a part of Detroit Startup Week, my event was called “Introduction to Ethereum, Blockchains and DAOs” and was the only blockchain related talk of the week. The event in general was great and before getting into the meat of this, I would like to give a huge thank you to Adela Piper, Ann Elkina and Paul Riser for going out of their way to help me in promoting and making this event great.

Blockchain Lagging in Detroit

The moment that left the biggest impression from the event would be my short discussion about Blockchain in Michigan, specifically in Metro-Detroit. It began discussing Detroit‘s failure to keep up with similar cities in regards to many things involving blockchain technology. Areas I identified where this is most notable were the lack of blockchain startups, little to no educational opportunities, no effort to collaborate with outside-industry and what I eventually realized was the most important, media coverage.

Dan Gilbert Talks Detroit FinTech, Ignores Blockchain

During my section on Metro-Detroit, I asked the audience about the previous day’s Fintech in Detroit discussion featuring Detroit native Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans and owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

Me: How much of the discussion (with Dan Gilbert) was about Blockchain?

Audience: Zero, Zero, Zero

Me: I sent him an email and tried to contact him to invite him to this. In my opinion, if you are doing a talk on FinTech and you’re not talking about Blockchain, it’s pretty egregious. Inside the FinTech world, as far as media coverage and conferences, 60% of the discussion is about Blockchain. From the biggest banks like Goldman Sachs, to the smallest startups, it’s a major topic and it seems Detroit is lagging.

Audience Member: Agreed

The room was very dark, but it was still easy to see laughing when I asked if Dan Gilbert talked Blockchain

The event mentioned in this conversation had the title of “Dan Gilbert: What Makes Detroit An Attractive Place to Launch a Fintech Company”. For full disclosure, I did not attend the event, but I did ask a few who attended some general questions and the responses didn’t seem to be very impressive, with that said please take my comments with a grain of salt. The event claimed to be “a discussion with four experts in the fintech space across the region about why Detroit is an attractive place to launch a company and what needs to continue to happen in order for the environment to become even more attractive.”

The four FinTech experts consisted of a CEO of a “stock market for things” that actually exists as more of a sneakerhead marketplace, the founder of Benzinga (very reputable and an awesome guy who deserves to be on any FinTech panel), the CEO of a consumer-facing banking product similar to Simple that targets at Credit Unions and the CEO of a bookkeeping & payments app aimed at small-business. It’s a bit hard to judge the qualifications and quality of a panel when you didn’t see it so I won’t, but I will question the level of true innovation with at least two of the companies. Both of these companies seem to be something that currently exists, just targeted to a new customer. The reason this bothers me is that it’s a great but simpilistic analogy for so many startups that get media attention in Detroit, I don’t begrudge their success, but I wonder why more innovative and relevant startups are sharing this platform.

In a week where a groundbreaking blockchain project became the top crowdfunded project in history, a talk with Detroit’s most notable tech-entrepreneur about FinTech failed to even mention anything blockchain when given an entire hour. I find this level of disconnect to be astounding.

Blockchain & Detroit Media: A Larger Problem

While the lack of Blockchain discussion by Dan Gilbert was astounding (but not completely unexpected), there is a far bigger issue that must be talked about. The amount of media coverage that blockchain projects receive in Detroit is basically non-existent. I’m going to detail my personal attempts and issues with this problem, but I feel it’s important to note that the problem is widespread and I’m far less concerned about the lack of interest in my situations. My concern is that the lack of coverage has severely stunted growth of this industry in Metro-Detroit, something easily noticed when comparing it to other similar cities.

Since Blockchain Tech became my livelihood, I’ve had four speaking engagements in Metro-Detroit, each more successful than the previous. Before all four of these events, I utilized a variety of strategies to contact local media (print, television and digital) in hopes of receiving any coverage. For the first two events (July 2014 in Ann Arbor and October 2014 in Detroit) I did not expect to get any attention, so I wasn’t bothered by the lack of response or interest.

The earliest events were bitcoin-centric; newer events include more discussion on Ethereum & more attendees!

The November 2015 talk at Oakland University was originally planned for the Ethereum DEVCON1 conference which I couldn’t attend. Oakland University and Blockchain news site TheMerkle.com were helpful in promoting the event, with OU even using their social media channels for additional promotion. In the weeks preceding the event, The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Oakland Press, Macomb Daily, Metro Times, MLive.com, WDIV, WXYZ, Fox 2 Detroit and Crain’s Detroit Business were all contacted and sent a press release along with a more personal correspondence (the same strategy I’ve used to successfuly get coverage from major national media outlets for Augur). In some cases, I would find out who covers technology and reach out them directly via email or Twitter if I felt it would help my chances (of course I made it a point to not sound obnoxious or pushy). Of all those outlets that were mentioned, the only one who at least replied was Paul Kampe of The Oakland Press. Kampe’s reply simply asked “Thanks for sending. When you say “forecasting tool,” what does it predict?” A question that I immediately and succinctly answered, this answer never received another response.

The OU event ended up being a major success without any local media, over 80 people showed up and it was the highest attended AMA event ever at OU. I was mildly discouraged by the lack of media response, but the turnout, enthusiasm and growth of those interested in this space more than made up for any disappointment. Video of the event can be seen here and currently has almost 1500 views.

In the admittingly short run-up for my Detroit Startup Week talk, I went full force in media and press outreach. All of the outlets that were contacted for the previous event were contacted for this, only this time I made it a point to mention that I would be discussing the success of The DAO which had just become the most successful crowdfunding project in history. I also chose to spend money on a formal press release that went out over the wire, the release was ignored by all Metro-Detroit media. In the period immediately preceding the event, I asked for help from the Detroit Startup Week team that had been so helpful and of course they came through again! I was put in contact with Adela Piper of Siren PR, the publicist hired by Detroit Startup Week and fellow Oakland University alumni! In the short time she had, Adela went out of her way to learn about the project (no easy task) and prepare a pitch for media outlets, something I’m truly grateful for. Unfortunately there apparently remained no interest and the event, while successful, went largely unnoticed outside of the attendees and those who saw my grass-roots posts on various platforms.

This Affects Much More Than Me

On my drive home from the event I began to think about how hard I’ve tried to get any coverage in this city. The effort I put into media outreach for Detroit went far beyond anything I’ve done for national publications. With half the effort, I would have recieved at least 3 or 4 “hits” from national outlets…..needless to say this is bothering me a lot.

I decided to look into the major print publications, The Detroit News & The Detroit Free Press to see the level of coverage they have available on their digital platforms. The most prevalently used terms like “blockchain”, “bitcoin” and “ethereum” were what I used to see what I could find, the results were un-surprisingly what I expected.

The most recent locally-focused piece found on freep.com was from November 9th, 2015. It reads like something that would be published during the peak of bitcoin-hype of early 2014. Cliches like talking about Bitcoin ATMs, mentioning the “dark side” of darknet markets, talking to businesses that accept bitcoin and of course the token local University Professor (this one from University of Michigan). The only thing missing is incredible bitcoin stock photography used to visualize an invisible token.

This Free Press piece was written at the same time Ethereum was gaining traction and reputability (along with a Microsoft partnership), when large banks and finance firms started to announce involvement with internal and external blockchain projects and conglomerates, and when NASDAQ announced their blockchain project that will facilitate share transfers and sales on its private market. As these events were happening, Detroit media instead focused on local businesses that accept bitcoin as a form of payment.

This stock photo accurately conveys the vibe when reading the last time Detroit Free Press had local Blockchain coverage.

I felt it was a good idea to go one step further with this almost 7-month old Free Press piece and take a look at the comments, following the long reputation regarding online comments to local-news articles, this does not disappoint:

Detroiter’s 2015 reaction to a 2015 news piece that sounds like it was written in 2013

The Free Press had a similar local article published in July of 2015, but it also failed to mention Ethereum, smart-contracts or any of the groundbreaking projects that have happened in the past year. Unfortunately, I failed to find any locally-focused coverage at all in The Detroit News within the past year.

Why Is It Happening & Is There Alienation?

After my talk, I make it a point to talk to anyone who has questions or would like to exchange contact information, a tradition I enjoy as it leads to some interesting conversations and perspectives. This time, at least five different individuals noted the tiny portion where I mentioned that leaving Detroit was a necessity if I wanted to work on something I loved. They all said it hit home and echoed exactly how they felt, with one even saying I was an inspiration for what I have done thus far (he’s wrong, I’m just a dude).

How is there zero local coverage of this space with close to $1 Billion in VC investment and multiple successfully funded decentralized projects?

One idea for causation is that Detroit has always had a manufacturing-focused mindset, which in turn is a huge hinderance to true innovation. The Detroit mindset is pervasive and is even seen at the event where I talked about Blockchain at earlier today. Detroit Startup Week’s featured speaker, which all press focused on, was Ford’s Executive Chairman, Bill Ford. Bill Ford is 59 years-old and Ford Motor Company is 112 years-old, meaning the great-grandson of Henry Ford is not an entrepreneur and his company hasn’t been a startup for at least 107 years.

When “Detroit Startup Week” has the leader of a company that is often perceived as a dinosaur in regards to innovation, maybe the fact that local media doesn’t cover bleeding-edge technologies like Blockchain isn’t so surprising. It’s obvious that Detroit isn’t San Francisco or New York, but there is no reason the city shouldn’t be on par with Atlanta, Seattle or Austin.

What Can Be Done To Change This?

If there was some easy solution to this problem, I would definitely share it and go out of my way to implement, but there definitely isn’t.

The best starting point would be to find one outlet and/or one reporter that is open-minded enough to introduce to newer blockchain projects like those built on Ethereum or groundbreaking new ideas with great monetary support like The DAO. It’s quite apparent from the Free Press coverage mentioned earlier that there is an ignorance to the evolution of blockchain tech that has happened in the past year. Once there is one person who is active and covers the space, it will only be a matter of time before others start to follow. The two biggest challenges to my suggestion will be identifying who should be pursued and crafting an approach/pitch that properly explains the ramifications of the technology and the value in coverage.

Cracking this nut is honestly one that I cannot do alone as I am no longer a full-time Detroit resident and this really is something where a multi-tiered strategy is necessary.

What could help the most is if notable individuals in the space were open to speaking in Detroit and utilizing their credibility to help solve this problem. There are easily enough successful people in this space that could fulfill this role, it mostly comes down to who would like to help and who sees potential in my hometown, a city many have given up on.

My Vision For Next Year

For next year’s Detroit Startup Week (or any other blockchain event in Metro-Detroit), I would like to see event organizers reach out and contact someone like Pamela Morgan to speak at the event. Pamela is a successful attorney with a history in Detroit, her current role is the CEO of Third Key Solutions. Third Key is very notable in the blockchain space as the company’s CTO is Andreas M. Antonopoulos, someone considered by many in the community to be the most respected and best public spokesperson/representative for Blockchain Tech.

Pamela is the exact type of person that makes this space so unique and interesting and a message she sent me on Wednesday reaffirmed this belief. She shared Third Key’s DAO Proposal that was recently submitted by Andreas for the Decentralized Arbitration and Mediation Network (AKA: DAMN).

Here is an explanation of DAMN from the proposal:

“The DAMN project aims to bridge that gap by providing a tool that will allow traditional commercial contracts to incorporate a dispute resolution smart contract and the outcomes of smart contracts, in a broadly recognized and legally enforceable way.”

A project with great potential and a great leader is the type that can blow down some of these barriers that I saw today in Metro-Detroit. It’s interesting that my very first speaking engagement in Detroit was an event shared with Pamela Morgan. It’s two years later, we are both involved with this technology but in drastically different ways. I just hope that if she can’t do this, that someone else can emerge to help us that love Detroit to get noticed and get the coverage that is deserved.

Hoping Michigan and Metro-Detroit move on from bitcoin’s early days and discover the groundbreaking things happening right now with blockchain technology!

An extra special thanks to Tiffany Hayden, Ashley Kuwik, Alex Fisher and Kelly Frazier for their help in promoting and filming today’s event!