Last Wednesday, 3^rd October 2018, Malta’s Delta Summit event was held at St Julians (Intercontinental Hotel). The event attracted more than 4000 attendees coming from different countries and different industrial backgrounds; finance, legal and information technology. The event promoted Malta and its interest in Blockchain technologies, highlighting the recent regulations implemented. This is the first of a series of annual events which invite world-class speakers from around the globe to share their story and knowledge, promote their business, network and be part of the Blockchain community. (Delta Summit)

To view my review on Day 2 of the Delta Summit, click here.

At 5pm, over a thousand people queued up for the registration process, which was admittedly, slow and frustrating. Given that the Delta Summit was a tech event, embracing the latest technologies, it was very disappointing that registered attendees were asked to queue and re-enter their personal details. Upon registering, attendees were invited to a welcome drink organized by Cryptofriends. Cryptofriends is a group of international professionals who have the right networking connections. Readers may click here for more information. (Crypto Friends)

An introductory speech was given by several big names in the field. The first speaker was Dr Christian Ellul, the Director of E&S Group. He then gave the stage to Grahame Salt, a sharehold and director of Frank Salt Real Estate Group, Imogen Heap, the Founder of Mycelia, Rachel Wolfson, Crypto Journalist at Bitcoin Magazine, Forbes and The Merkle, Dr. Abdalla Kablan, Entrepreneur and Fintech Expert (also the organizer of the event) and Silvio Schembri, Parliamentary Secretary. This was followed by ICO Pitches, organized by Eric Benz and Daria Arefleva from Crypto Friends.

Wednesday proved to be a useful event for networking purposes and getting familiar with the setting. Those with ICO pitches found it a great opportunity to go round the crowd and explain their ICO to the people present. One in particular was Gozo ICO, which is not related to the island of Gozo. This ICO is a Travel Loyalty Club ICO where each member will receive a Gozo Wallet which would be available to handle receiving, sending and exchanging Gozo tokens, as well as a large number of other cryptocurrencies. Members can benefit receiving offers on airline, hotel and cruise bookings. You can click here for more information. (Gozo)

Unfortunately, there were several issues with the event. The registration process was lengthy and seemed redundant, given that we had already submitted our data when purchasing a Delta Summit ticket. The typical time waiting in queue was an average of an hour and a half which resulted in attendees being late for the welcome drinks sector of the night.

It was unfortunate that the sound for the event was disappointing to say the least. It was difficult to hear over the large number of people talking and even talks from Imogen Heap were drowned in the sound of people talking in the room. Imogen Heap, a singer well-known for her song Hide and Seek, tried to grab the audience’s attention and silence by singing but unfortunately this failed to do much. It was difficult to hear all introductory speeches and ICO pitches. Complaints around the room expressed the joint hope that the rest of the event would not follow the same suit.

Although the registration process was daunting and the sound was not set up properly to accommodate for the large number of people present and the sound in the room, day 1 of the Delta Summit proved to be quite successful when it came to networking. Attendees had the opportunity to network with people in the industry and with the people presenting their ICO pitches. Plenty of business cards were exchanged and promises of visiting the others’ stands in the coming two days were made.

 

References

Crypto Friends. (n.d.). Retrieved from Crypto Friends: https://cryptofriends.io/about

Delta Summit. (n.d.). Retrieved from Delta Summit: https://delta-summit.com/delta-summit-2018/

Gozo . (n.d.). Retrieved from Gozo: https://www.gozo.io/