Viva.. Smart Cities
I had the opportunity to present BLING and our EnergieWallet right the first afternoon in the Energy-track of the congress. To be more precise in the “unprecedented solutions to the energy-crises”-track. The room was packed with 250 people attending my presentation: “a local green smart currency for your smart city”. Some people trying to get in were stopped at the entrance because the room was too full. I presented our EnergieWallet and the BLING-program, showed my QR-card and afterwards there was time for the audience to ask questions. One of which was “ what is the biggest obstacle preventing mass adoption of your solution?”. I briefly addressed what we concluded at our meeting in Edinburgh: prejudice when it comes to blockchain, (local) governments being very risk adverse towards new technology in general and blockchain in particular.
The rest of the days were filled with setting up meetings and meeting as many attendees as possible. This was a very unique possibility: here were all these representatives from cities all around the globe who were eager to learn more about new solutions. Of course I was competing with hundreds of other initiatives and startups for their attention but nevertheless it was much easier than trying to reach them from home. I mean if you would have asked me “who do you call from the city of München to talk about your solution?” I had NO idea which of the over 3.000 employees I should approach. But here in Barcelona the innovation officers were waiting for me to talk to them. So I did, I waved my magic QR and did my song&dance probably over a hundred times. I mainly concentrated on German cities because that country is the nearest to Emmen. Had some nice conversations with parties from: München, Berlin, Bonn, Bochum, Bielefeld, Darmstadt and some smaller ones. I spent considerable time at the Dutch pavilion because even here people had more time and were easier to approach than back in The Netherlands.
Overall, it was a great opportunity to present our work in Barcelona. Talking to so many people about blockchain, inspiring them to have a look at all the possibilities this will bring and “infecting” them with a little bit of the passion I have for this smart technology for their smart cities.