Zebu Sponsors “Blockchain & Burritos 2022” in Cuenca, Ecuador
Our Senior Copywriter and degen, Joseph Kennedy, lives and works out of Cuenca, Ecuador. Interestingly, when he’s not at work, he’s organising tech events under the name Tech & Tacos. Recently he and co-host Diego Molina hosted Blockchain & Burritos 2022, the first event of its kind in the country. Zebu decided to contribute as the Headline Sponsor. Here’s what happened.
The event occurred on the same day that FTX and Binance went to war. As you’ll read, it did mess up the schedule slightly.
The Speakers and Their Presentations
Like with any event, the speakers can be subject to change at any moment. That happened with Blockchain & Burritos when speaker Santiago failed to show, and Eleazar, who works at Reserve.org, had to stay late and manage the chaos regarding FTX & FTT. With the two first speakers not arriving and the event ready to kick off, Nico Serrano came to the rescue.
Nico works at the Ethereum Foundation, was a developer on The Merge, and is from Cuenca! He was in attendance and fortunately had his laptop so that he could present the talk he gave at ETH Quito Day a few months ago. To have such a high-level developer in the audience was inspiring to the youngest members, with some university students in attendance keen to get Nico’s advice at the end of the event.
Fortunately, Eleazar arrived during the intermission and was keen to present, so the eventual order went like this…
- Nico Serrano - Ethereum Foundation Introduction
- Paul Rodas & Edison Ojeda - Private Blockchain Development
- NFTsLatam - Metaverse & NFT Gallery presentation
- Javier Yupangui & Lucia Baculima - BAS Asociodas (Local Crypto Brokers)
- Eleazar Camero - Reserve App Presentation
- Skolens Lab - Road to Patacon Friends NFT Collection
- Carlos Ugalde - Capitalika Presentation & Regulations in Ecuador
After everything was done, hosts Joseph & Diego announced a special surprise - Zebu was buying everyone a drink! Out came the beers and margaritas and the networking began. At the same time, the Skolens Lab team, consisting of Daniel, Carlos, and Jorge (Manuel couldn’t make it), did some live minting for four different paying customers.
NFT Giveaway!
After an impressive presentation, not only did Skolens sell four NFT packages to attendees, but they announced an NFT giveaway! The following morning, three more attendees placed orders, representing a highly successful event for Skolens Labs. The NFT giveaway ran for 4 days and then on Sunday, using Instagram Live, a random number generator, and by promoting the event through social media, 20+ people turned out to watch the reveal. Congratulations to Daniel Merino, the youngest guest in attendance. His dad actually found out about the event and wanted to come, but couldn’t make it, so he sent his son to report for him! What a great introduction to NFT technology for young Daniel.
The Blockchain & Burritos Metaverse
One of the attendees couldn’t make it in person, but their contribution was no less notable. NFTsLatAmArt built an incredible Metaverse for the event, filled with the logos of the sponsors, NFT artwork, and a huge 3D shirt from Skolens Labs. The digital space was then used for a virtual get-together to watch the event recap video.
Carlos Ugalde - Capitalika
For those in Ecuador, Carlos Ugalde is a big name and a contributing factor to why the event sold out in less than 24 hours. Carlos founded Payphone, which is now used in a dozen countries with over 3 million users. He sold this to VISA. After that, he launched Capitalika, now Ecuador’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, with ambitions to become a Neo-bank too.
Take Binance and localise it to Ecuador, which has confusing regulations, and you’ll end up with something like Capitalika (registered in Estonia). There’s an academy, a number of trading products beyond crypto spot markets, and solid branding that sets them up for the future.
Post-Event Rundown
The live minting activity which Skolens wanted to run during the networking time after the speakers essentially relied on there being audience members who wanted to buy a patacón. Fortunately, there were four people at the event ready to make the transaction and get their brand-new NFT.
Watch the event videos here*:
Javier Yupangui & Lucia Baculima
*reminder to use auto-translate to get the talk in English
Zebu Digital Sponsorship
Joseph & Diego, the organisers and hosts were delighted with the event, and want to extend their thanks to Zebu Digital for sponsorship.
“We had about a month to plan the whole event. The venue, speakers, sponsors, and selling the tickets. It was only our second event and we needed a smooth execution to make it work. We were keen to reward the community members who helped us sell out in less than 24 hours, so rather than keeping the event profits, we put all the sponsorship money on the bar and thanks to Zebu, everyone got margaritas and beers and the networking went until past 11pm! The event started at 6pm and people were having such a great time that they didn’t want it to end. Zebu’s financial support was amazing, but the design support, in creating the event poster, has given us a great template going forward and we’re thankful to Zebu and Sophie the designer for that too. As part of the sponsorship package, Zebu will continue as a sponsor for our next event, looking at innovative startups in Cuenca. Quite apt considering Zebu just got nominated for Start-up of the Year at the City AM awards! Kudos!” - Joseph Kennedy
We are looking forward to seeing what Tech & Tacos does in the future in helping to grow blockchain development and awareness in the small South American country.
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