Original article published in French in Allnews on Friday October 14, 2022 (link).
A successful first edition for Web3Connect
Web3 and blockchain were the key words in Geneva last Wednesday, October 5.
More than 350 people (including 150 online) participated in the first edition of Web3Connect, an exclusive one-day conferences.
Discover the report and the story of an event at the crossroads of the financial and crypto worlds.
“Who owns Bitcoins?” Almost the whole conference room of the FER (Fédération des Entreprises Romandes) raises its hand to the question asked by Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, European flagship of the Blockchain. The boss of the world leader in B2C crypto custody thus opens the ball after the introduction of Christophe Utelli, deputy CEO of Cité Gestion, which co-organizes the event with Wecan Group and CREA OMNES Education. The rows are crowed and there is a massive and impressive turnout of the financial world to this first edition.
The best experts and world leaders in the field of Blockchain and Digital Finance among the speakers
It’s a festival of crypto and blockchain experts onstage. Ambre Soubiran, CEO of Kaiko, another leader in its field, blockchain analytics, presents the myriad of data serving institutional investors. The Bloomberg of crypto has a history of hosting top-notch blockchain events, and is sponsoring this Geneva event alongside Banque Syz and exchange platform BitMEX.
Specialist roundtables follow with Taurus, Metaco, Swissquote, SEBA, Sygnum, Scytale Ventures, Swissborg, 21shares, and the exchange platforms FTX, Coinbase and BitMEX.
Compliance and regulation, the essential link between the Web3 and traditional finance, are deciphered by Florian Ducommun of Bonnard Lawson, Ariel Ben Hattar of Lenz & Staehelin and Aurélien Vuilleumier of Heptagone.
Alex Zarrabi, new Chief Growth Office of Wecan closes this morning by introducing to the crowd Wecan Connect, our new Web3 messaging solution that protects privacy and respects the regulations in banks.
Traditional finance also in the spotlight
After a lunch break conducive to networking, and much appreciated by participants, Christophe Fonteneau of Request Network, a crypto company active in payment requests, demonstrated the potential of blockchain even in times of bear market. Three entrepreneurs support this statement by presenting their innovative solutions Rainfall, Colb Finance and Byteint.
Traditional finance takes over with an excellent presentation led by Charles-Henry Monchau, CIO of Syz, who presents the Bank’s developments and offers on the subject. Massimo Butti, Head Equity at SIX Digital Exchange, continues with a presentation confirming the growing interest of the financial world in Web3 and blockchain.
The intervention of Jan Brzezek, founder and CEO of Cryptofinance makes then the link with the last speakers resoluments more crypto as Shirly Valge who presents the protocol Velas, and Alexis Roussel, COO of NYM who closes this first successful edition by emphasizing the privacy necessary on the Internet, but also in all the current fields.
A strong interest from the Financial world and a successful first edition
Face-to-face seats were snapped up and there was not a single ticket left ten days before the event. In the middle of the “crypto winter”, this craze illustrates an ever-growing community and interest in blockchain-based technologies. The presence of both technological and institutional players confirms this mutual attraction.
This success puts Geneva in the spotlight on the Swiss and even international scene, and reinforces the Swiss leadership in the field of blockchain and crypto-currencies.
The event concluded with a networking aperitif at the rooftop of the Fédération des Entreprises Romandes (FER), offering guests from various regions of Switzerland and sometimes from abroad a breathtaking view of the city. Requests for a sequel to this first convincing edition of Web3Connect were not long in coming, and it is a safe bet that the enthusiasm will be even stronger for a 2023 edition.
Article written by Alex Zarrabi & David Delmi
Biography
Alex Zarrabi joined Wecan Group in 2022 in the role of Chief Growth Officer, after more than 15 years of experience as a company executive in German-speaking Switzerland and Dubai in the high-tech security industry. A graduate of EPFL, Harvard and IMD, he is active in governance with IMD and on boards of directors. He served as CEO of Touchless Biometric Systems (TBS), a world leader in biometric innovation.
