What Devcon is all about

Now that we’re well into the new year, our Devcon team wanted to share some of our thinking on what’s to come for Devcon this year. With new goals driving this year’s effort, we’ve learned from successes and challenges in recent years, and we’ll provide some early details on what’s ahead.

For those that are new to the Ethereum family, Devcon is the only annual gathering held by the Ethereum Foundation, and it dates back to a small meetup in Berlin (ÐΞVcon-0) about a year prior to the launch of the network. For some members of the Ethereum ecosystem, Devcon is a family reunion of sorts, while for others it’s a large stage on which to speak to the latest breakthroughs on content ranging from technical research to application releases and more.

Over the years, it has become clear that Devcon serves the community in other ways too. As we plan for Devcon 6, we’re working to define those goals, and to ensure that Devcon accomplishes each of them:

1. Collaboration & knowledge sharing

Devcon is a place where a lot of work gets done. It’s a chance to be in the same room as everyone else in the community working on a specific problem. It’s critical that attendees be able to find meeting space, a space to talk, to pull up to a whiteboard, and get to work.

2. Teaching, communicating, and generating new ideas

Devcon is a chance to learn, and to teach! People travel to Devcon to understand the cutting edge in the Ethereum space, and to share what they have learned over the last year with a large audience both at the event, and online.

3. Use our biggest stage to send a message

Devcon is a critical opportunity to communicate with the world about Ethereum. As the largest conference in our industry, the broader technology space and mainstream organizations pay attention to Devcon. Let’s show them what we’ve accomplished.

4. Using tech built on Ethereum through “dogfooding”

Devcon is a conference made by and for our community and it should make use of tools built by our community where possible and beneficial to attendees. In the spirit of educating our community and supporting Ethereum-based projects, Devcon should enable attendees to experiment first-hand with products built on Ethereum.

5. Growing the Ethereum Ecosystem

Devcon is an opportunity for each of us to engage with those from other teams and communities, both from Ethereum and blockchain related teams and newcomers from other industries. In past years, we’ve collaborated with UNICEF and the Internet Archive on stage, and brought the zero-knowledge community into the fold. Many people unfamiliar with the Ethereum ecosystem attend Devcon, and while this is a developers conference, they should feel welcome and inspired by our amazing community by the week’s end.

Listening and Learning

Our ecosystem has matured and is constantly improving, and we know that Devcon should keep pace. On this, the entire team wanted to first pass along a thank you for the constructive feedback that we’re confident will help lead to the best event that we’ve held to date.

Specifically, planning for Devcon (dc⟠vi) has honed in on 6 key areas to make for a better attendee experience.

Specifically, we’ve aimed to find a venue with:

modern WiFi infrastructure and connectivity

improved crowdflow, meeting space, and stages

in-house and easy catering options for attendees of all needs and diets

We’ve also taken a hard look at internal processes and are excited to speak to these topics soon:

an improved programming and stage selection process

fairer and more diverse ticketing systems

more ecosystem integration (dogfooding)

Addressing some of these in brief, a high-speed and modern WiFi infrastructure will smooth up streaming capability for a worldwide Ethereum user-base that deserves to watch each stage live, and workshop experiences for attendees. No matter how many friends are on-site, they’ll have ways to connect.

Over the last two years, the Devcon speaker application process decentralized through a multi-track process and over 50 reviewers. This year, we’re aiming to improve the experience for all applicants, to gauge attendee preference for help with stage selection, and more.

Our goal is to provide the best possible experience for all attendees, while remaining true to Ethereum’s roots. This year, we think we’re well on the way to making this a reality, and we hope that you’ll all be involved.

What’s Next

We’re well underway in planning for the first Devcon in which eth2’s beacon chain is live and ether is staked! In addition to the improvements listed above, we’re planning for an event with continued dogfooding, a smoother ticketing process and more – all to be outlined in coming posts.

As for this year’s region, the Devcon 6 search began prior to Devcon 5 with an understanding that the further ahead we are in terms of planning, the smoother the process will be for all attendees. After listening to community input, undergoing a thorough site-search in over 10 cities, we’re confident that we’ve landed a region and venue that are truly deserving of the event, and that accomplish every goal laid out above to help make this the best Devcon ever.

We’ll be announcing the location of Devcon 6 shortly — keep an eye on the EF Blog for more on site-selection, and for early application information and more.

Update (27/03/2020): Out of respect for those within our own community and around us currently facing the ongoing global health crisis, our team has decided to temporarily hold scheduled Devcon announcements, first teased above. While other news will follow and our planning continues, we appreciate your continued patience and hope that everyone is acting to stay safe!

We hope that you’ll be as excited as we are and somewhat surprised when we share more information in the next Devcon update over the next few weeks 🌎. These updates will come a bit earlier than in previous years, so check back often!

For now, thank you once again to all of our attendees for joining us in Osaka, to the presenters, to the supporters that made the event possible, and to you (the community) for your feedback over the last many months.

Moving forward while reminiscing…

Looking for clips and more from Osaka? We have a few albums and playlists to share that you may want to look through! Check out the photos and videos below!

Next, we know that talks have been widely shared, but if you’re looking for something specific or for your presentation (both the mainstage and breakout room playlists), see the links below!

Main Stages

Breakouts & Highlights:

Devcon had its share of highlights, including significant Eth2 announcements, presentations on eWASM and Eth 1x progress, a celebrity appearance by the world’s most well-known dog, Kabosu (the original “Doge”), and much much more. Such wow.

photo credit: Alex van de Sande

And if you missed the keynote, click here for an opening from the city of Osaka, the unveiling of the UNICEF Cryptofund, and more.

Most importantly, Devcon remains focused on the developers and researchers that make Ethereum what it is, and our own team will continue to learn from all of you. This never-ending goal of improvement will help to ensure that dc⟠vi is the best Ethereum gathering yet, and we hope to see you all there.

🦄

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devcon team