Broadcasting from Sintra Beach – Highlights from Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto | S4 E30

After a whirlwind year of planning and a major move from Belgium to Portugal, I am thrilled to bring you an episode that truly captures the essence of resilience and innovation. 

Broadcasting from the serene Sintra Beach, I recount not just my exhausting relocation but also the electrifying experience at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto. 

What if you could hear firsthand about the emerging giants of Web3? Well, you can, as this episode features an insightful panel discussion on Ryo's groundbreaking projects, moderated by yours truly.

This episode was recorded in Sintra, Lisbon, Portugal on August 17, 2024. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

About one and a half year ago, I visualized recording a podcast on the beach in Portugal, in the area of Lisbon. And here I am, at Sintra Beach, and it's so amazing. Hello everyone and welcome to the Web3 CMO Stories podcast. My name is Joeri Bilast and I am your podcast host, and it's a special episode today. I've had a few heavy weeks, really exhausting. Maybe you heard, one year ago I wanted to move to Portugal. That was summer 2023, the seed was planted in my head and then from then I started to look for a way to make this dream come alive. And today I'm here in the Lisbon area Actually, I'm in Sintra and I've moved.

Speaker 1: 0:55

And it was exhausting because not only I had to sell my house, an empty house in Belgium I also had to drive with the car to Portugal while our stuff were transferred by a truck. We used the car because we have two bunnies and we wanted to be sure that our bunnies would survive in good shape. So I arrived in the house here in Portugal but without any electricity, any light, any gas, any internet, any water. So we had to sort out everything. And also, in the meantime, I went to Toronto to the Blockchain Futurist Conference, the biggest Web3 conference in Canada, and actually I knew about the conference but I was not planning to go because it would be too complicated to combine all that because it's in the middle of my move to Portugal. But when Lani Dizon, president at Rio, asked me to moderate their panel, it was like, okay, I really want to do this and I want to meet the whole team, because Lani had been a guest on my podcast in a few months ago and this episode was really popular and engaging, and so I said, okay, let's do this. If you don't know, rio Rio is the web3 company from Japan and they launched their coin. They also launched a convertible bond. If you're following on LinkedIn, you probably have seen that. I've posted about that too.

Speaker 1: 2:33

And so the panel. I think it was the best panel of the conference, to be honest, because we had so many engagement, so good feedback afterwards. I had four people on my panel Anthony Diaz, the founder of Reocoin, and then Lani, as I mentioned, and then also John Brownlee, the chief information officer at Reocoin Actually, reocoin is the project of Zanza Capital, so I should say John is the CIO of Zanza Capital. And then, last but not least, david Thompson, the Director of Business Development at Senza Capital. Our panel was called the Dawn of Web3, rio's Global Vision from Japan, and it was really great to see how engaged the audience was and how passionate Anthony, the founder, was when he was talking about his project. Of course, lani is always very engaging, as she's a lot on stage, and then we had John talking about a bit more technical security aspects of the Rio coin, and then David about how Rio is actually exploring new markets. It's a project that was not well known up until now. They have been building for seven years, but now they are going out there and they now used the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto as, I think, one of the first events in North America to create some awareness around everything that they are building.

Speaker 1: 4:18

And actually, yeah, rio was everywhere. They were the main sponsor. You really couldn't miss it. I also interviewed some people about Rio, because every time someone from the Rio project was on stage or and, of course, after a panel there were a lot of people going to the booth, and so then we interviewed people on the spot to hear their thoughts about Rio, and actually everyone was really excited and they learned about Rio on the event, because Rio was actually the best kept secret of Japan. A lot of things happen in Japan that don't go out of Japan and I understood from Anthony, like, for instance, the technology in the iPhone. When the iPhone came out, japan had already, seven or eight years before that, phones like that which he was already using to do video conferencing and so on his phone. Now japan did not export that and so, yeah, when apple came. The rest is history, of course.

Speaker 1: 5:25

It was a two-day event with more than 10 000 attendees attendees more than 250 speakers, 300 plus sponsors and partners, a lot of volunteers and present media partners. It was part of the Canada Crypto Week, so a lot of things happening in that week. Unfortunately, I could not stay longer than the two days because I had to go back to continue my move, my relocation to Portugal. On the first day, I moderated Rio's panel on the main stage. On the second day, I went to some talks on the second stage, which was on an upper floor, with a view also a really nice atmosphere and it was the hashtag eat women, hashtag eat Toronto event. Up there there are a lot of women with a lot of ideas, a lot of knowledge in the web3 space. I even heard that women in the web3 space would make 15% more money or get a salary that is 15% more than the men. I haven't verified it, but that's what I heard. That's unexpected, but means that women are really offering value in the Web3 space.

Speaker 1: 6:45

I like the whole vibe of the event. Also, the weather was nice. That really helps. I really felt welcomed by the Rio team. They were with more than 40 people present at the event, which is amazing. I think they really are building something awesome and you can be a part of it. There is the Rio coin. I think it launched around 1.4 USDC or the equivalent of the US dollar, and now it is around 9, if I'm not mistaking. And then they came with a convertible bond which gives you the opportunity to invest in Rio at 50% or more discount, and if you want to know more about that, you can contact me. I now know everyone from the Rio project so I can really give you firsthand feedback.

Speaker 1: 7:43

And so now when I'm recording this podcast, I am back. I am back in Portugal. Still a lot of things to do. I haven't got my desk yet. Yeah, I need to have everything installed so that I can work in a more ideal setting. But, yeah, that's part of the game of moving. This is the reason that I have been a bit less active on the social media and that last week I only released one podcast episode, like this week only one podcast episode but I want to come back to releasing two episodes per week as soon as possible, because there are several amazing episodes that I've recorded that I can't wait to release.

Speaker 1: 8:29

If you are in Portugal, in the lisbon area, and we haven't connected yet, yeah, be sure to send me a message, because I love to to meet more people in real life over here. I know that the web3 scene in lisbon area or in portugal, is much bigger than it was in Belgium, where I lived. So, yeah, I can't wait to meet you if you are around. Another conference I will be going to will be the European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona at the end of September. So if you will be there, if you want to go there, contact me. I also have a referral code so I can get you a discount. And if you will be there, if you want to go there, contact me. I also have a referral code so I can get you a discount and if you will be there, let me know would love to meet you in barcelona. I will be there with two crew members to create some awesome content for my podcast and for social media.

Speaker 1: 9:30

I hope you like this type of episodes where I share a bit what's happening in my life, but the next podcast episodes, again, will be with guests. Thank you so much for listening to me. I hope that you. If you haven't subscribed yet to my podcast, I would really love for you to do that and to also to give me a review. People always forget it. They say, oh, I like your podcast and they forget the review. If you can give me a five star review with some nice comment on it, that would be amazing. And then it helps because every time I go to an event like Pulse Blockchain Week, like Consensus, like Blockchain Futures Conference, there are always people that recognize me and give me feedback, and I love that. And if you aren't connected yet on social media or LinkedIn or on TwitterX or on Forecaster, be sure to connect and I would love to see you back next time as a listener to the podcast or in real life. Take care, ciao.