The ninth edition of the Follow The Entrepreneur event was held in Taormina from 21st to 25th July, a conference where investors were able to talk about fintech, blockchain and new market trends, including investments in the pharmaceutical, automotive, art and other sectors.
The very exclusive event saw the participation of more than 100 people including investors, fund managers, entrepreneurs and journalists from all over the world: from Europe to America, including Asia and Australia.
Being an event-based mostly on networking, the particularity of this Follow the Entrepreneur has been the fun and playful part that has involved almost all the 100 people in boat trips, dinners in the most exclusive places of the city and a tiring and interesting trip to Mount Etna, the Sicilian volcano.
To improve the level of knowledge of the people present, much of the event was not only based on boring presentations, but also on the organisation of team-building opportunities with people from all over the world and from all types of sectors.
Speeches were held on July 24th and 25th, among which one of the most interesting was certainly that of Dan Reitzik, CEO of DMG Blockchain Solution. Reitzik talked about the Wasabi project, a cannabis marketplace based on IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric technology used to track products.
“Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash create confusion. Instead, we need just one blockchain for cannabis. And there’s the need for IBM for such a big market. A startup cannot be doing this,” Reitzik said to explain why Wasabi uses IBM’s technology for its cannabis market project, which has an annual turnover of 4 billion dollars in California alone.
Another interesting speech was that of Selim Fendi, CEO of Aurum Monaco, a company that creates gold products and that is planning to use the blockchain for tracking the precious metal.
During the event, almost all the entrepreneurs involved said they were enthusiastic about blockchain technology and 90% of them plan to use it in their companies, mostly to ensure transparency of the materials or the finished products.
This is the case, for example, of Marco Mercanti of Oblyon, a company that deals with “art business intelligence”. Mercanti explained: “the traceability of art on the blockchain is a good idea.
A great deal of space has also been given to investment funds. Among these, it is certainly interesting to mention Prime Factor Capital which, represented by the head of investment solution Adam Grimsley, explained that most of its crypto portfolio is in bitcoin (BTC) because it is the most decentralised asset and in which the company believes most.
“We don’t like things such as Libra since it is centralised,” explained Grimsley.
Finally, it is impossible not to mention the presence of Max Studennikoff, CEO and founder of the CC Forum event to be held in London on 14th and 16th October and of which The Cryptonomist is a media partner. Learn more here.
