Community and networking have always been at the heart of emerging technologies, especially blockchain. The COVID-19 pandemic has halted a multitude of events and meetups in the nearly two years since its onset, but it couldn’t best the inspiring blockchain community, particularly with the more active community members holding online events and sharing knowledge in any way possible. One of the events pushing through the pandemic’s limitations was the AIBC Summit, held from Nov. 16 to 18 in Malta, with over 13,500 attendees from all over the world.

A brief introduction on The Future Hour

The Future Hour, led by Jiazi Li, is a venture builder, publicization and marketing establishment that also specializes in the go-to-market strategy for China. The company was founded in 2018 when it co-hosted the Blockchain Week in Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Now, in 2021, The Future Hour is honored to be the official media partner of the AIBC Summit and provide details for those who could not make it to the event at the Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre. You can check out and watch our media coverage of the AIBC here

What did the AIBC’s attending market leaders do?

The AIBC Summit brought together a range of emerging technologies, such as blockchain, AI, quantum technology, big data and the IoT. The event was attended by myriad market leaders and great characters that The Future Hour will be introducing in the coming weeks via interviews and podcasts.

In attendance at the AIBC Summit was Christof Waton, the founder of ADA Finance, which won the nomination for “best DeFi project of the year.”
ADA Finance is a cross-dual-chain DeFi ecosystem powered by two powerful networks: Cardano and Avalanche. “The AIBC Summit succeeded all the business development milestones we had in our agenda,” said Waton, “I would like to thank Max Jones, our contact person from SiGMA, for his communications and the support he offered during the whole event.”

Our team from The Future Hour met with our clients from Dextools.io, an efficient market analysis and trading strategy design tool for DeFi users. The platform had its own booth at the event, manned by its chief technology officer Pablo Ojanguren, co-founder and chief marketing officer Frederic Fernández, development lead Ignacio García and software engineer Mario Antonio López Ruiz. 

Fernández said, “AIBC was a huge opportunity to share our project with many people and a great meeting point to know other top projects in the crypto ecosystem. It’s a pleasure to meet people in person after two years of restrictions.” Dextools.io development lead García added: “Great atmosphere at the AIBC Malta. We’re coming back home with batteries recharged. It’s great to see how the future is being built around the crypto space, which makes me feel we are in the right place at the right moment in financial history.”

Another notable participant of the event was Nick Spanos, a blockchain and crypto pioneer who was featured in the documentary Banking on Bitcoin. He is the founder of both the Bitcoin Center and the Blockchain Center, and also co-founded Zap.org. Born in 1965 and starting out as an early American computer programmer, Spanos has a long history of taking part in, and evolving, emerging technology. Now an inventor and serial entrepreneur, he provides sage business advice for young projects with his iconic background and experience.

When asked about the AIBC Summit, he said: “It was an incredible event, the coming together of these three events was a brilliant idea, and created a perfect storm of activity. I highly recommend it.”

At the event were also health-related projects such as Solve.Care, which uses blockchain technology for creating a digital health network, showing that blockchain is beneficial not only for the financial system but also the health sector.

We had the chance to interview Pradeep Goel, the CEO of Solve.Care, and find out more about his projects.

We all know that NFTs have been one of the hottest topics of the blockchain space this year. Other than the use of NFTs in gaming or other DApps, they have enabled artists to make contact with investors all over the world and sell their artworks in an immutable manner to a larger global market. Giving a speech on this topic and discussing the future of art and NFTs was keynote speaker and international NFT artist Talia Zoref.

The AIBC Summit was not only about blockchain, but also data science, AI, business intelligence and analytics — all of which are major tech topics with a growing number of projects. Amesto NextBridge is an IT consulting company focused on these topics, and its CEO Lars Rinnan was at the AIBC Summit. He shared: “I had a fantastic time at the AIBC conference, delivering two keynotes. One was about ‘The World in 2029,’ which is an optimistic view on how AI and exponential tech can address poverty, pollution, hunger and disease in the future. The other was at the MedTech World conference, titled ‘Improving cancer research with synthetic data,’ an impressive use case of machine learning that generates synthetic data without any privacy issues, which can then be easily shared without violating GDPR. The project was done by my company, Amesto NextBridge. I also did a podcast with Jiazi from The Future Hour, talking about the world in 2029. Great talk about the really important issues in life. A thoroughly enjoyable week in Malta. Really impressed with the organizers of this massive event. Hope to be back next year.”

The founder of AIBC Summit, Eman Pulis, was one of the more influential leaders of the event. As the founder of other leading blockchain summits such as iGaming and AGSS, he has brilliant experience in holding similar events, and as the general partner of Ikigai Ventures, he had a lot to say about venture capital investments in emerging technologies.

In conclusion

AIBC Summit Europe 2021 left a profound impression on its attendees. The experience and advice shared by the event’s speakers provided a leg-up for nascent projects in successful market entry and taking part in an innovative tech space that can truly change the world. Multiple new projects were able to introduce themselves to a professional and attentive network.

Energy Ledger founder William Garrett Pete shared his own experience of the AIBC event’s networking atmosphere: “Energy Ledger drew a lot of important connections and resources from AIBC and its multitude of leaders from the industry. Make sure to follow us for more info.”

Historically, events like AIBC Summit have helped groundbreaking projects get to where they are today. Keeping an open line of communication between the blockchain community and new entrants is essential to the advancement of the entire industry. The community’s growth has not slowed despite all the hardships wrought by the pandemic, and we are happy to announce that the next AIBC Summit will be held in Kenya on March 1 to 4, 2022.

Furthermore, the Dubai Blockchain Center is partnering up with AIBC Summit Malta to further nourish the blockchain industry. Dubai Blockchain Center CEO Marwan Alzarouni said, “Dubai Blockchain Center is always exploring new opportunities to partner with thought leaders in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. AIBC is the perfect platform for empowering blockchain companies and connecting people in the AI and blockchain ecosystems.”

Returning home with these unique experiences has made every second of the event worthwhile, and it sparks joy to see the community thrive even in such uncertain times.