The Harmony Protocol team members attended the 2022 Stanford Blockchain Week with a clear vision and goal. Let the industry know that Harmony is still building and that we have a plan. Our objectives were to connect with builders and projects, recruit engineers, demonstrate protocol stability and organization, and learn about the latest industry news.
Hundreds of builders, founders, and industry-leaders stormed the Arrillaga Alumni Center during the Stanford Blockchain Week. The Harmony Protocol was also in attendance with a small, but driven team at it’s helm. Only a couple team members were officially registered to be able to attend the many panel discussions in the auditorium. This was due largely in fact of the priority of this year’s conference going to those with a Stanford.edu email address. All panel discussions were taped. However, the magic of networking never happens sitting down looking at a stage. Outside of the auditorium, in the lobby of the Alumni Center and out in the courtyard, were hundreds of passionate web3 folk yearning for connection and learning. There, coupled with the many side-events around the area is where the Harmony team met with prospective engineering hires, potential partnerships, and reconnecting with existing projects.
The original plan-of-attack for this conference was more grandiose before it was decided that less is more and certainly more manageable. It was a smart decision and the budget was reduced from an initial $8K to less than $1500. Suede and Mikey performed prep logistics and on-the-ground coordination. Most of the Bay Area team attended, including: Li, Jack, Tom, Leo, Adrain and Demetre.
There was a tinge of uncertainty as the Harmony team was going to make its first debut at a large conference since the incident. This uncertainty was all the more highlighted by an understandably upset social media presence, however at times seemingly unreasonable. It was curious as too wether or not this same rhetoric would spill over outside of this bubble into the ‘real world’. The majority of consensus from the on-the-ground Harmony team members, and those that the team spoke with, was largely that the web3 community is aware of the incident, happy that Harmony continues to push forward, and wanting to help if possible.
Overall, Harmony at Stanford Blockchain Week should be considered a successful showing. Harmony accomplished precisely what it set out to do. Harmony showed up and told the industry that we are still committed, we are still passionate, and we are still hungry. In the weeks that follow, @Suede will be working with the other Harmony team members that attended the conference to maintain an open line of communication for the leads that we approached and connected with.