The Importance of Community and Human Connection
The importance of community & human connection
We look back at our recent experience at the Apex: XRPL Developer Summit, discuss our takeaways from the event and reflect on events post-Covid.
Coming out of Ripple’s Apex: XRPL Developer Summit in Las Vegas, our first live event since the COVID outbreak, I can’t tell you what it meant to us to have our client understand the value of community and human connection.
As this new event was designed to bring developers, contributors, and thought leaders in all things XRP ledger together, Monica Long, RippleX General Manager, continued to push for and have faith in a hybrid event; in lieu of the uncertainty of COVID potentially dissuading guests from showing up or shutting down the live component altogether.
She understood that based on the live programming being developed, even if the company and network of guests walked away with a small number of connections, they would be some of the strongest and most impactful. She was committed to making the investment, believing the human connections and relationships formed would have the opportunity to deepen, long after the lights turned down. Her passion for the live experience paid off as over 100 guests attended in person, and over 1000 guests joined online. All were able to soak up the featured keynotes from industry leaders including Alexis Sohanian and David Schwartz, maximize networking opportunities, and have a chance to connect and share with their industry colleagues and community.
In this messy climate that is COVID, we’re still navigating uncharted event territory, but having a client know with certainty in the direction they wish to take (live/hybrid/on-line only) made our jobs exciting and celebratory (once again). Not to cast a negative shadow on the world of online events, in which we are still fully immersed, but I must admit it is becoming somewhat disheartening to not come together as a community of passionate professionals and individuals. Being able to employ, collaborate, work with and actually see our staff and local suppliers (and of course client teams and guests) beyond a screen, was an experience we deeply missed and feel extremely grateful for.
With the return of live events our responsibility to ensure safety protocols for participants, speakers, production crews and the supporting hospitality industry only deepens. One investment we made for this event and will continue moving forward was to integrate a Covid Safety Compliance Officer to help build plans for every aspect of the project.
The key learnings were so valuable and are now very much a part of our day-to-day planning and service offerings. I’m excited to share these with you in a future post, so please check back, and most importantly, stay connected!
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More soon,
Sarah Vander Meer
Principal
Charlie & Sprocket Inc.
