Blocknorth Block Party - 'Welcome to Blockchain' evening
When: Thursday 7th Feb 2019
Where: Tuspark Barclays Eagle Labs, Newcastle-upon-tyne
The Blocknorth team were delighted to host our very first Block Party at Tuspark Barclays Eagle Labs, Newcastle-upon-tyne.
It was a night of networking, discovery and learning on the subject of blockchain, with a particular focus on highlighting real life use-cases where the technology was right now making a difference in industry.
There were some fantastic speakers lined up to talk about their experience delivering blockchain integrations, including a virtual presentation from Syscoin.
The evening schedule looked like this:
BLOCKNORTH CSO
Gordon Dodd, CSO @ Blocknorth, opened the event to a packed crowd of over 100 people, which exceeded all expectations for the first Block Party event in an on-going series.
“We look forward to organising several of Block Party events throughout the year, and hopefully this fabulous audience this evening – which has surpassed our expectations, will continue to grow as these events start to take root and begin to blossom.”
Gordon then went on to thank our key sponsors for the evening,
“First off we have to say a massive thank you to Andrew Dixon and everyone at the Tuspark Barclay’s Eagle Labs for hosting our event. Then of course we’re delighted to have key sponsors Syscoin, Sintons LLP and Gospel Technology presenting here tonight.”
DAVID DIXON, DIGITAL CITY
David Dixon, Investment Manager @ Digital City, gave a presentation to detail the current overall landscape of blockchain, including some of the challenges to be overcome and enable increased industry adoption of the technology.
“The Gartner hype curve shows that blockchain is just behind VR and AR, and many blockchain providers are fighting like browser wars in the late 90s.”
GOSPEL TECHNOLOGY
Kevin Dunn, Global Head of Sales @ Gospel Technology, delivered a fantastic presentation focusing on a selection of enterprise projects where streamlined data management provided a clear solution to an actual problem. Gospel demonstrated a track record of delivering genuine efficiency improvements through blockchain technology.
“The vast majority of value that we deliver to our customers is through improving how different companies, or different departments in the same organisation, interact with each other and share data.”
SYSCOIN PLATFORM
The Syscoin platform delivered a virtual presentation which attracted a great deal of interest, as the attendees considered the benefits of using an multi-feature, open-source blockchain development platform.
Matt Watson, CMO @ Blocknorth, spoke in an interview at the close of the event specifically about the Syscoin presentation,
“The Syscoin presentation received a lot of interest from businesses in attendance tonight, especially with their exciting Syscoin 4.0 protocol launching soon. It is fantastic for us to be able to put our key partners on a stage in front of over 60 businesses from around the UK who are interested in blockchain, especially with big names like Barclays Bank and Norton Rose Fullbright in attendance tonight.”
AGENT NOT NEEDED
We had a fantastic Q&A session with Anthony Pentland, CEO Agent Not Needed. Anthony talked about his experiences running an initial coin offering (ICO), including the successes and some of the pitfalls of organising an ICO.
Agent Not Needed is a property platform that allows anyone to buy, sell or rent without an agent using blockchain technology.
KATE BAUCHEREL, A CONSULTANTS PERSPECTIVE
Kate provided a super interesting Q&A session, particularly with questions surrounding consensus and potential challenges of a consensus protocol within a private blockchain.
TUSPARK NEWCASTLE EAGLE LABS
We have to say a massive thank you to Andrew Dixon for working so closely with the Blocknorth team to help make this vision of the Block Party a reality. Tuspark Newcastle Eagle Labs is truly an amazing venue. We look forward to working with Andrew, and the Tuspark in partnership with Barclays Eagle Labs teams across the UK in the future!
A WORD FROM QEM SOLUTIONS
The Blocknorth team were delighted to welcome another key partner in the UK to the Block Party, QEM Solutions. Blocknorth and QEM will be soon releasing further news on the details of partnership which involves the development of an exciting new blockchain product.
Tony Couch, GDPR Consultant @ QEM Solutions, spoke of the importance of events like the Block Party,
“The event is important because blockchain is current technology, it is at the forefront, there is a certain element of optimism with it, but there is also a certain degree of reluctance, maybe a fear factor. Today is all about developing understanding, and I think the range of speakers is helping to demystify some of that lack of clarity and helping us to all look forward to the opportunities that blockchain will provide in the future.”
Overall, the night was a huge success and the feedback from all attendees has been overwhelmingly positive.
BRING ON THE NEXT BLOCK PARTY!
Special thanks to one of the key sponsors for the evening, Sintons LLP, who do amazing work in supporting local digital and tech businesses. Some of the Sintons team are shown here, along with the Blocknorth team:
