On the second leg of this business development trip. This time I helped my father-in-law go with me from Shenzhen to Hong Kong airport – as he is flying to Chiang Mai (to hang with/ the family) while I move onwards to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – primarily for GM Vietnam where I’m told is the biggest crypto event in Vietnam.
After arriving here in Ho Chi Minh – some similarities since my last visit but a lot of development. Hard to even believe that was 7 years ago!
Thursday laid rather low, recovering from intense travel, and catching up on work. But had an amazing steak dinner with my long-time friend and Ho Chi Ming OG – Jon Myers. Then a pre-event for GM Vietnam for some light networking, but wrapped up early.
Kicked off an intense Friday with a morning workshop on branding and a case study of Excalibur Brothers at the Amazon Ho Chi Minh offices. Really smart and nice team there, and was a pleasure to share to their internal team and vip people both in the office and online.
Had a great lunch, sharing more insights and also hearing more about the Vietnam market and sellers and manufacturers.
After lunch, joined the first day of the GM Vietnam Blockchain Week. What was amazing and I kept hearing rumors that seemed true is the Vietnamese police arrested some of the speakers over the last couple of days. It is a sensitive issue here in Vietnam about blockchain – and some parts the government likes (tech) but others they don’t (coins) so it was a lot of stories about police, etc.
So I was wondering why the speaker room only had videos on in the afternoon (later found out why) – and had intense networking at all the booths. Very packed, and a young crowd and very heavy on the web3 gaming.
Yet whenever I mentioned we are making a crypto native physical product marketplace they all asked me if it is online as they want to use it. Even talked to some of the sponsor booths who sell physical items (cold wallet for example) and they only accept cash or credit card – WILD?
So just more reinforcement that Vietnam is the right market – though it is unsettling to see/hear multiple stories of police raiding speaking sessions and arresting speakers.
Yet, I still believe this is the destination – to build a community-owned and governed ecommerce ecosystem. And will keep forging ahead.
After the main event, a couple side events (in a sea of side events, a Google sheet that went on scrolling for pages and pages). Joined my new friend Kelly the Vietnam BD for Coinstore who had a nice evening session with complimentary drinks and snacks. That exchange is heavy in Southeast Asia and a huge crew on site from all over – Indonesia, Vietnam were 2 I kept meeting.
After the evening Coinstore party went to one that we all knew would be one of the wildest sessions – Broiler room was the event name, on the roof of Le Meridien starting at 9pm. Couldn’t pass up this as it was said to be the best after-party of the event.
And it didn’t disappoint. A wide spread of food, 4 drink coupons each, Pepe the Frog, and beautiful waitresses everywhere. Loud live DJ music and hyper networking.
One of my later nights in quite some time. What I am noticing as I attend more crypto events, I bump into other “regulars” like me in all these countries. From Hong Kong Bitcoin Asia to Bangkok’s Southeast Asia Blockchain Week, I am now bumping into those I met prior. And it is forging stronger bonds and reminding us to make some deals.
Still a few more days in Ho Chi Minh City- will type up more later (Saturday morning here) heading into day 2.
So much hyper-networking. Vietnam definitely has a community of blockchain builders and users – all in 1. Must do more business here.