The last 2 years of HandyCon were 100% online. Between Covid, the global community, and budgets, doing an in person event was not feasible.

As we enter 2023, the world is opening up, Handshake is growing, and we are open to consider doing some in person event version.

Already from the few people we have talked to, WE WILL KEEP IT ONLINE AND FREE.

We are doing these events to spread the love of Handshake, and to bring the greater community together (as well as welcome anyone - from UDfam to ENS DAO members, to ICANN leaders, to complete newbies) - so ensuring there is a free ticket online is paramount.

Yet we think having some offline in person element will make it even more powerful.

Miami is a discussion. Thailand another discussion.

Which leads to the thought:

Why not a hybrid.

We have learned from previous HandyCon that the Handshake community is spread around the globe, and asking all of them to fly to America (visa processing aside) is unrealistic. We are pondering having “local hubs” during the HandyCon where you can join local community leaders who will have the online event “streaming” and you can sit and connect with others in that local area.

Very early stage on this concept - but rest assured the entire event will be open for those tuning in online.

We’re all so excited! Jehan already spreading the word

https://twitter.com/collectionist/status/1584565554290905093

We want to hear from you ?

When do you think is a good time to do the event? There is discussion about early March, mid March, late March. We are sticking to March as that has been the month the previous 2 years have happened - and we want to keep the habit.

Also keep in mind Daylight Savings is in mid March - and in previous years we had HandyCon just after Daylight Savings which really confused a lot of speakers and attendees (as not everyone in the world follows that 1 hour shift).

Leaning towards :
Wednesday March 1 to Friday March 3, 2023.

We like the end of the week, we can rest and review the event on that following weekend. We know this will be intense and will need our full attention.

We truly are a global community at Handshake. The last 2 HandyCon showed that - and we are preparing for the timezones to cover for this upcoming HandyCon.

The event will be open the entire time to join and network and even put together your own networking session inside the event.

But for the speakers and content - we will try our best to reach as many timezones as we can. All sessions will be recorded and posted on the SkyInclude youtube channel - so don’t worry if you can’t make it due to schedule. Though it is much more exciting and powerful to be there live, to chat with the speakers and the attendees, and have a lot of fun.

Now, what is the style of the event.

We feel previous event formats of HandyCon were effective - just too “back to back”. We plan to add more networking between sessions, while sticking to the balance of panels and speaker sessions.

If you have a speaker suggestion, or you yourself want to be a speaker, please mention them on the survey (link below).

Now, HandyCon will always be free. But it has always been supported by amazing sponsors

Here are the 3 sponsors from HandyCon 2021

Now - who will step up and support the third annual - bigger and better than ever- HandyCon 2023?

We have a sponsor package and various levels of financial commitments to encourage all different parties in the community to support. In the survey we will have a section for you to say if you’d like to be a sponsor - or to recommend a company you think would be willing to sponsor that we can reach out to.

So now the fun part - We get to hear from YOU!.

This event is run and organized by the SkyInclude crew which has had amazing support from Fistful at HNS Fund, and Jehan at dWeb Foundation, and so many more amazing people.

It will be an intense time to organize this, to listen to all the input and suggestions- but we are all aligned - we want to show the world that Handshake is awesome, community driven, and here to stay.

So please take a few minutes to fill out the survey and give us your input.