Fair point, and we appreciate you sharing your perspective.
The goal of any great IRL event is exactly what you mentioned; learning, networking, and creating meaningful connections. Everyone wants more opportunities to engage with builders, founders, investors, and industry leaders.
That said, context matters.
Token2049 comes with massive operational costs, backed by serious commercial ticket pricing and deep ecosystem sponsorships. Even Sui Basecamp wasn’t just “community goodwill”, it was heavily supported by SUI and its foundation to make that level of access and experience possible.
Now bring it home. 🥅
The reality for African events is quite different.
Most ecosystem events in Africa are still navigating funding challenges, limited institutional support, and significantly tighter operating budgets. In fact, BlockFest 2025 last year was 50 percent funded by its convener. On top of that, attendance was completely free because the focus was on making the event as accessible as possible.
But growth demands evolution.
What people don’t always see is that structure, access control, and even pricing are not barriers. They are what sustain quality and protect the value of the experience. Without them, you don’t scale excellence, you dilute it.
What we can say is that the vision for BlockFest this year is much bigger than what attendees experienced last year. There are a lot of exciting things in the works, and the move toward a paid event is part of raising the standard of what a world-class blockchain conference in Nigeria can look like.
We also believe that not every interaction has to happen through unrestricted access to be valuable. Sometimes the most meaningful connections come from intentional networking opportunities, curated sessions, side events, and the conversations that happen around them.
We appreciate the feedback, and conversations like this help us continue improving the experience for everyone.
The intern has been informed that questions may be coming. Coffee has been secured ready to take all your questions, and even the ones you are thinking twice about asking. ☕🙂
A humble appeal to
@blockfestafrica organizers.
I think this upcoming Blockfest should add more value. The essence of irl event is to learn & connect to people especially those of value. When you keep people away from these persons of influence it forfeits the main purpose.