The Challenge
LABITCONF is Latin America's longest-running blockchain conference, and I led its communications across several editions. The recurring problem was not attendance or logistics. It was that the sector kept being defined in public by events it did not choose.
Twice during those years, high-profile controversies placed the entire industry under public scrutiny. Neither involved the conference. Both changed the questions arriving from press and institutions, and both turned a promotional job into an explanatory one, usually with no warning.
Underneath the crises sat the permanent task, and the one I care most about: establishing that this industry is not only speculation, but a field building solutions and testing technological innovation with concrete goals around financial inclusion and new business.
Strategy
An event of this scale is judged by the company it keeps. I worked from that premise, which meant mapping the ecosystem precisely and then being deliberate about which parts of it we brought close.
That map got sharper with every edition. It covered four layers: content creators and key opinion leaders; universities, and specifically their finance and entrepreneurship clubs, where interested audiences already gather; strategic media with genuine coverage of the blockchain news agenda rather than price reporting; and the companies actually building and deploying solutions across the region.
Execution
The decision that mattered most was treating the speaker lineup as a credibility system rather than a programming exercise. Every invited speaker went through compliance review and detailed analysis. In a period of public suspicion, the stage is the clearest statement an event makes, and I was not willing to leave it to chance.
The rest followed: high-calibre speakers, established sponsors I know personally, and press handled directly by me and my PR team rather than delegated to a generic agency.
Results
- 8,000 attendees in 2023.
- 10,000 attendees in 2024.
- 11,000 attendees in 2025.
- Growth sustained across three consecutive editions, through two industry-wide reputation crises.
The trajectory matters more to me than any single figure. One strong edition is momentum. Three consecutive years of growth, including through the worst press the sector has had, is structure.
Recap videos 2023 edition 2024 edition 2025 edition
Learnings
When public trust in your category collapses for reasons outside your control, argument is a weak instrument. Selectivity is a strong one. Being careful about who represented the event did more than any message we could have written.
I also learned to stop guessing where audiences live. University finance and entrepreneurship clubs delivered more genuine interest than broad campaigns ever did, because the people in them had already chosen to be there.