Cleveland's blockchain conference, Solutions, to take place in December

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland will host its first blockchain conference, Solutions, Dec. 1-4.

That gives blockchain proponents in Cleveland just over 4 months to find funding, arrange workshops, book keynote speakers and design a program that will attract thousands of coders, public officials and business leaders to the Huntington Convention Center.

Solutions has the full weight of Cleveland car mogul's Bernie Moreno's "Blockland" group behind it, including David Gilbert, CEO of Destination Cleveland.

Moreno hopes to make Cleveland an epicenter for blockchain, an online ledger system best known for hosting Bitcoin and other online currencies. The new, hyped technology can be used many ways, from hosting government records to keeping track of patient records.

Gilbert headed the host committee that brought the Republican National Convention to Cleveland. He's been board with the plan to transform Cleveland to blockchain central since the beginning, flying with seven other Cleveland leaders to visit Toronto's Blockchain Research Institution in June.

Gilbert announced the dates for the conference in a Monday morning meeting, hosted at cleveland.com's offices on Superior Avenue. More than 80 people attended.

Along with Steve Santamaria, a technology entrepreneur who recently moved to Cleveland from Seattle, Gilbert laid out an ambitious timeline for the conference.

By Aug. 6, Santamaria and Gilbert hope to have keynotes confirmed. By Aug. 15, they want to send out save the dates.

Though these dates aren't set in stone, there's very little time to waver.

"We're trying to pull off in about 120 days what most people who put these on start 12 to 18 months out. … 12 months is a tight timeline," Gilbert said. "We can't do it on our own."

Article written by Emily Bamforth, for Cleveland.com

Posted by: Jeffrey Sloe