Devcon: Hacia Colombia en 2021

Queridos Amigos,

In our most recent update, we outlined what Devcon is all about and spoke to our renewed focus on growing the Ethereum ecosystem. Part of that focus is on making sure that, for all types of attendees, the next Devcon is all that we dream for it to be and more. For details on those goals and beyond, please read the full post here! Today, we’re going to tackle our site-selection and timing, along with more on what’s ahead for this year and beyond.

🥁 Our Selection 🥁

Getting right to it, we’re excited and proud to announce that the next edition of Devcon will take place in Bogotá, Colombia at the beautiful Agora Bogotá Convention Center in 2021!

The City

We can’t wait for the entire ecosystem to meet Bogotá; the capital city of Colombia and one of South America’s most lively and popular cities. Full of culture, art, history, flavors, opportunities, and unique experiences, Bogotá is the ideal city to host Devcon and our entire community!

In Colombia, you’ll find a consistent and comfortable climate year-round, and diverse destinations that cater to all tastes; mountains, rivers, and stunning cities like Medellín, Cali, Cartagena and of course Bogotá. It’s a rare find, and a country with a stable economy and rhythm running through its veins.

The Venue

Oh, and the venue? Agora Bogotá is a newly constructed and state-of-the-art center that we hope will be, by far, the best venue to ever host Devcon. Located just minutes from both Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport and from the historic Santa Fe and Candelaria neighborhoods of Colombia’s capital city, Agora presented us with an ideally-located and fully modern conference center that is built to handle the catering, WiFi, meeting-space and other needs of an event like Devcon.

The Process

The Ethereum ecosystem’s preference clearly aligned around a strong demand for an event in South America, and a very deserving request for a venue capable of welcoming and serving this large and growing gathering.

The Devcon 6 venue search began prior to Devcon 5 with an understanding that more time would lead to a smoother experience for all attendees. After both listening to community feedback and extensively reviewing options and many factors in over 10 cities, we’re confident that in Bogotá we’ve found both a region and venue capable of accomplishing every goal laid out for this year’s Devcon. Moreover, we’ve found serious potential to grow a significant community presence.

⏱ When, when, and what ’til then? ⏱

So here’s the plan:

1. Doing it right

This year has been trying for us all, and we’re as eager as many of you are to reunite, but we must also ensure that the event is done right by everyone in this community.

That means going bigger, and of course better than ever. We put in time to make sure that we could come together and grow our global ecosystem and that of a region that’s new to much of the Ethereum community, and that’s what we’re going to do.

Simply put, Devcon participation should neither be limited to a few willing travelers, nor dependent on hopeful changes to gathering limits. But our planning is ongoing, so we’ll confidently get together later next year while the drumbeat grows a little louder, and a firm date will be announced soon.

So what’s ahead in 2020? The right answer is often the most obvious: Decentralize.

2. Decentralize 2020

We’re proud to announce that, while our Devcon team remains firmly focused on delivering on dc⟠vi in 2021, *EF’s larger mission to continue supporting ecosystem activities will move forward too: we’re already hearing about large events on the way for this fall, and we’ll be lending our support to many in the community that are now stepping up.

Want to host something in your community, region, or online? Let us know here and our team will be in touch to learn more.

We’ll help to promote and potentially coordinate these efforts into something as unique as the times we’re living through. In short, it’s our hope that we can all come together as different teams, regions, offices and Ethereum users for a set of worldwide and independent events this fall.

3. No half-measures

Let’s be frank: We won’t simply serve up the least bad contingency or substitute option for the community and call it “Devcon” when we’ve just pledged to do things right.

Lockdowns are being lifted in many regions for the first time, but it will be a while longer before local leaders lift travel restrictions to the extent needed for an internationally-attended, large-scale event like Devcon. We’ve also considered what’s best for the many speakers, volunteers and attendees that deserve confident decision-making before preparing for long journeys.

So rather than asking you all to continue to wait with bated breath or delaying plans by a few short months, we’re going to lengthen our lead time and super-size our ongoing efforts around Devcon 6 in 2021. This can be done staying true to Ethereum’s roots with ecosystem-driven events in 2020, and without defaulting to a simple virtual event.

Devcon is meaningful to so many people and in many unique ways, and we’re thrilled to bring the event to South America for the first time. This event represents many things to the many different types of attendees that come together to be there.

It is a homecoming for many active participants in the world of Ethereum. It is a large stage on which to present the latest groundbreaking ideas and achievements for the builders that make Ethereum what it is and what it will become. And to all of us, Devcon is an opportunity to bring new faces, places and entire communities into the fold.

In Bogotá, we have already crossed paths with so many people and groups that are eager to meet more of the Ethereum community and to welcome Devcon for the first time. The pieces are in place to accomplish an important goal around community growth and assistance set out for Devcon. From builders, to educational entities, local business leaders, decision-makers and more, we’re already meeting and working with the people of Bogotá, Colombia, and South America to help make real-world use of Ethereum’s technology and to further it.

Devcon week is more than just one event, but a diverse set of meetups, sub-conferences and more that highlight the best of our ecosystem. Next year, we’re looking forward to adding some local flare, integration with other events, local businesses, and more.

More to come

With the extra lead-time, we’re excited to build bigger and better than ever, to reveal simpler processes for attendees, and to see far more integration with the local community.

In coming posts, we’ll cover more about the event date, the city and our recommendations for your stay and for getting around, our support for other 2020 events, the EF Scholars Program and more. Until then, keep posted to Devcon.org for more, stay safe, and thank you for your patience while we worked to figure out the best path forward. See you all soon!

🦄