Bitcoin Forum

I think it's fair to say the 2013 Bitcoin Conference kicked off with a bang! Quick recap: 7 people from the forums met up at the Marriott Bar for drinks and bitcoin talk.. The conversation was great, and each person seemed to have their own unique background and perspective to offer. We hit the GigaOM meetup at 6:00 and it was packed. I would estimate approximately 300 people were in attendance, and it seemed like a very serious/professional crowd. Most of the information presented was what you've already heard before, but I have to say it was quite energizing to see all the speaker in person- you really felt their sincerity and enthusiasm for the movement. The crowd was equally energetic, filled the Q&A time, very international, mostly techie, and easy to mingle with- most of the speakers also stayed around to mingle after (not everyday you get to talk directly to Roger Ver!) The GigaOM crowd was also filled with VIPs and a lot of corporate execs, you can check out who was in attendance at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6462418267#m_1_200 (http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6462418267#m_1_200)...

Anyways, it really could not have gone better and I am very excited about the rest of the week! On that note, since today was such a success I thought it would be smart to set up another meetup for tomorrow (Friday) at 4:00 in the Marriott Bar... I ran into a couple people who said they did not come to today's pre-meetup because they just stalk the forums and don't post.. bullshit! My interest is in meeting and networking with as many bitcoiners as possible in the next 4 days so please consider joining me for drinks before conference registration begins! It really is a great way to meet people and engage in some longer, more intimate discussion.

This weekend is going to be a major milestone for the bitcoin community, and I am very proud to be part of it!

I had walked in the Tanq bar at the Marriott around 5:35 pm but didn't see any group.  Neither the server nor bartender knew of any group there, but had said a group left a bit earlier so I assumed I had just missed everyone.      What you might want to do is let the server and/or bartender know that if any arriving guests are there for Bitcoin, which table(s) you are at.

I second that. It was a very well organized meetup with a great turn-out. I wrote up some notes here: http://quantabytes.com/articles/report-for-day-zero-of-bitcoin-2013-the-future-of-payments. As David said, most of the presented information has been discussed before but it was very useful to put some names to faces.

One thing I'd like to add is a sense that there is a lot going on below the surface here. Whether on the business or the technical side, I got the impression that things are moving faster than most people realize. Whether that leads to "success" or not is a different question. But I definitely felt that the core groups have a lot going on.

 It was great and unfortunately i bailed cause i was jetlaggec (how lame of me) I will be at the bar at 4 even tho I would be down to do something even earlier...no point in wasting the day on my own when i can be hanging with fellow bitcoiners!!!

My flight doesn't get in until 12AM tonight.

If there are some people closing down a bar in the convention area, I will definitely come for a few beers before closing time.

I don't have Twitter or Facebook or anything because I dig my privacy (one of the reasons why I love Bitcoin  ;)).

So post here and let me know where the party's at.  :)

Cheers,

Ch

Just spoke to the bartender at the Marriott. Apparently they won't close the bar till midnight, and if things are really going crazy, they'll stay open till 1:30am.

I heard the Hilton's bar closes at 10pm...

So the Marriott is where it's at :-D

So pumped to be here... I'd be down for a meetup :)

I'm the dude in the black shirt walking around with the pretty girl :)

I agree.  Conference is a milestone.  I'm at he Hilton.  Missed the meet ups but the Trade Hill cocktail party on the patio at the Hilton was a good time.

If you all are meeting again pls post.

Thx.

My main impression was that bitcoin is not something that is going to disappear anywhere in the near future...
Even though if bitcoin would not succeed (which I hardly disagree) the essence of and the idea behind bitcoin and decentralized cryptocoins in general will carry on and will change our lives as we know today.

Edit: there were just so many good speakers and sessions... I was quite impressed, it was totally worth it.

There are already huge investments in to bitcoin, which is one of the reasons I cannot see it as somethign that would disappear...

It was also good to see the butterfly labs machines working :) gonna order some of those gigahash monsters...