Recap: Cardano Summit 2022

13 min readDec 31, 2022

Dear Revutonians,

It’s time for my long-awaited recap of the Cardano Summit 2022, which took place in Lausanne, Switzerland. Before I start describing my journey to the summit, once more, I need to thank you for putting Revuto and me in a position to be there in the first place. As many of you know, there was a voting process through which Cardano projects and their teams got an opportunity to present their projects on the stage(s) of the leading Cardano Summit conference in Lausanne. There are no words for how good I felt once our team saw Revuto and I (the company’s CEO) were among the winners. In that regard, our journey to the Cardano Summit started with the voting process and the results. Now more about our trip to Lausanne.

The team decided to go to the event with a small delegation. Revuto attended the Cardano Summit 2021 in Berlin, so we were already familiar with the event and had experience meeting with other participants, so why not do a follow-up? Also, this time we decided to travel by car because there was no direct flight from Zagreb to Lausanne, although it was a 10–11 hour drive.

The event took place from November 19th (Saturday) to 21st (Monday). To get there fresh on Saturday, we decided to leave our hometown, Zagreb, on Friday morning. The drive was long and exhausting, especially because we encountered heavy traffic around Milan (Italy) late Friday afternoon. Still, we managed to arrive at our destination by midnight. We booked a hotel just a 15-min walk from the SwissTech Convention Center, where the event was held. For us, it was important to get there by early Saturday, as I was scheduled for a tour of the venue, more specifically, to familiarize myself with the stages on which I was presenting. There was a main stage where I was given an opportunity to participate in the live panel and a second stage where I was scheduled to present the Revuto project. Although both were scheduled for Monday, the venue tours for presenters were scheduled for Saturday, as there was no official program during the day.

Before we arrived at the venue, we picked up a former team member, Filip Srdoc from Genius Yield, who is still a good friend of ours. Filip was at a disadvantage because he came to Switzerland by plane and from Geneva to Lausanne by train. Additionally, his hotel was 20 minutes away from the venue, so we helped him get there.

Also, it was funny as Filip didn’t have VIP tickets as we did, so as soon as we arrived, he was all over the place to get one. My touring of the venue started at noon. I have to admit I was impressed with the organization at that time. Everyone was very professional, the staff was explaining to us all the details and procedures about what was coming during the next two days. The purpose of the tour was to get familiar with the process of when to come (how soon before the presentation) and where to go before my live talks.

To grasp the atmosphere that day, you can check my Tweet with some photos and videos from the tour. You’ll see guys from Charlie3 with me, as we were both scheduled to participate in the same live panel on the main stage on Monday. https://twitter.com/v_vukman/status/1593956557800329216

After the tour, which was about an hour long, we drove to the center of Lausanne to attend the first Cardano RealFi Alliance (at the time) gathering. The meeting was scheduled for 3 PM, and it was important for us to be there. It’s not DeFi, and RealFi is something we believe will drive mass crypto adoption because RealFi projects connect blockchain technology and crypto liquidity with real-world business use cases. Also, RealFi was the name of the panel in which I was scheduled to participate on the mainstage, so it was a really important meeting for me.

Once I came to the office where the meeting was held, I noticed that many familiar faces — team members of the biggest Cardano projects — were already there. Surprisingly, many of them were involved with the Cardano DeFi alliance, to which we were not accepted. The room was full of people, so obviously, the topic was hot. That’s also where I, for the first time, met with Peter Van Garderen, who started the Cardano RealFi initiative and gathered us there. Peter is also with the Cardano ecosystem as he’s an early investor in Cardano and the founder of two projects on Cardano (https://www.orcfax.link/ oracle and https://www.landano.io/).

The purpose of the meeting was to see if there’s a need to start such an organization, if yes, why, and who would be the key members and drivers behind the initiative. Also, we discussed what would be topics to cover, the mission, and the objectives. Not getting into the details, I DO need to say that I was amazed at how even DeFi alliance members showed interest in our organization and admitted we might have something there. For those who want to find out more about the organization, which is now called the Cardano RealFi Consortium, please visit https://real-fi.org/, and follow us on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/cardano-realfi-consortium/. You can check out part of the atmosphere via this video link.

Those who are interested in joining us can apply online or contact Peter Van Garderen(the chairman) directly. Also, you can join our discord server https://discord.com/invite/mzZbwdFgXp. I will finish the topic with the information that the consortium is actively working on its tasks to promote Cardano RealFi projects and that Revuto agreed not only to be one of the main drivers of the initiative but to dedicate time and resources to grow the organization.

After an almost 3-hour meeting, we went back to our hotel to get ready for the Cardano Summit opening event, which took place in the Lausanne Olympic Center. Arriving at the event around 8 PM, the venue was already packed with people coming from all over the world. It was a good place to meet with everybody who will spend the next two days at the Cardano Summit. The evening event was led by people from Emurgo, who did a short opening talk about why Cardano is so great and why we’re all there. Strangely, they announced the 5th birthday of the Cardano blockchain with the “Happy Birthday Song” followed by a DJ playing loud music. The music was too loud for any meaningful conversations, but, to be honest, most of the participants came there to meet with others, grab a few (free) drinks and mingle around. You can check out part of the atmosphere via this video link. The event was perfect for meeting familiar faces and for getting to know new ones.

Day two (Sunday) was the opening day of the conference. After an early breakfast in the hotel, we came to the venue around 10 AM. No need to say it was a crazy day. I met with several people from other Cardano projects (NuFi for adding multichain support to our wallet, with the CEO of WorldMobileToken, the Emurgo team regarding support for USDA, the GeniusYield and GeniusX team, the CEO of NEWM, IAMX regarding KYC, Marvin from Maestro for creating the Revuto Staking Pool and ISPO (R token) on Cardano, Patrick from NMKR for minting Revuto NFTs and NFT products in general, the Profila team, meeting with Bitrue for potential REVU listing, Cardano Foundation, IOHK team members (hydra and micro-payments) and many more. That morning, I was the first to be interviewed by the GeniusYield team.

The same day, at 1 PM, the Cardano RealFi Consortium did its first workshop. The workshop took an hour and was open to an audience. The purpose was to announce everything we agreed upon the day before to the Cardano community. You can check what it looked like in this short video.

My personal feeling about the first day was 100% positive. The agenda was packed with awesome presentations and workshops; many people mingled during the breaks, allowing us to talk to others and tackle many topics. Still, there are a few things I need to mention that could have been better. There were people, but the venue was so big that it could easily fit many more people from what I saw there. Sometimes, even the main stage was not filled up with a sizable audience. The food was terrible. I’m not the only one with that opinion. Also, there was no alcohol at the venue, which forced many of us to leave the venue and settle with others in the brewery across the street.

The day ended with another official evening event, a Gala Dinner, where the main stage became the stage for announcing this year’s Cardano winners in several categories. This time we were nominated among the best DeFi products. The nomination was packed with awesome and well-established Cardano DeFi projects, so I knew it would be difficult to win that one. I must say it was amazing to see so many important and influential people from Cardano were packed in one big room. I’m not sure how many round tables there were, but each table was for 8–10 people, and we sat with the guys from GeniusYield/GeniusX. In general, those people were the ones with which we spent most of our time discussing plans, partnerships, experiences, and many more. The event was electrified not only because of the great stage and lighting, but because Charles was there. Many took the opportunity to take a picture with him, while others took an opportunity to drink at the chank. Alongside a very fancy setup and catering (food), the downside was that we had to buy beer by ourselves. Strangely, nowhere during the summit could we use crypto or ADA to pay for something. The official part of announcing the winners took around an hour, and for the rest of the evening, we were free to network with others. Again, besides a few projects, I believe everybody important in Cardano was there. The atmosphere was pumped but at the same time relaxing. Around 11 PM, people started to leave, and we were forced to clear out, too. Many went to side events and bars to continue networking (drink). We went directly to the hotel because I had two presentations to hold on the next day. Video 1 and 2 from the event.

Day 3 (Monday) started with a quick breakfast in the hotel, after which we were at the venue at 10 AM, again. The last day was the most important day for Revuto because I had 2 live appearances scheduled. The first one was a RealFi panel on the main stage. I was quite nervous about it because I knew the panel would be streamed live to a big audience, and I would share the stage with some of the most clever people from Cardano. Peter was the moderator of the panel, and I met with all the other participants during the last 2 days, so it was a bit easier because we were all familiar with each other and we knew the topic very well.

You can check the atmosphere before the panel: videos 1 and 2

Personally, I believe we did a good job but more importantly, we set the stepping stone for recognition of Cardano RealFi projects within the Cardano community. After the event, we were approached by many people wanting to hear more about our plans, asking about how to get involved or how they could help.

Cardano Foundation tram navigating me and the Hosky team member before our 10-minute presentations.

The last presentation was probably the most important for me because I was given an opportunity to present Revuto and our community to a broader audience. The presentation took place in the smaller auditorium where I knew there wouldn’t be many people in the audience, but I was pretty aware of 4 cameras streaming live. Still, the stage was big for me. There was a big screen behind me where I had to run my 10-minute presentation. I was pumped up because I prepared awesome slides to show the world what we’re up to. The plan was to emphasize our product use case (the real problem we’re solving), traction, our staking center, and most importantly, our Debit Cards. Everything was set up to make a big thing out of it until I stepped on the stage and switched my presentation to slide #2. That was the time I realized the organization messed up my big moment, our big moment, because, for no reason, they put up my draft presentation, which I sent them almost a month before the event. As a presenter, I was given a deadline when I needed to submit my final version of the presentation, which I did, but unfortunately, that presentation was not the one they put up. They took the first one. There were no words to describe how I felt on the stage the moment I realized I didn’t have the slides there…the slides which I prepared for my speech. After that, for me, those 10 minutes seemed like the longest ones of my life. Somehow, I managed to pull it off, but it left a bad taste. It was a very unfortunate moment for Revuto.

After I did my presentation, around 4 PM, there was a closing ceremony (presentation) held by Charles Hoskinson on the main stage. Of course, it was the most attended presentation, but I noticed many of us were already exhausted from the last 3 days of a packed schedule. Charles did his thing, as usual. He gave a flawless speech, after which many of us left the venue to visit the nearby brewery and do our own closing by drinking a few beers. To see how exhausted we all were, you can check out this (funny but epic) video.

In the brewery, among many other things, with the TV show presenter Jennifer De Broglie, I managed to arrange Revuto a live shooting for i24NEWS (France), where I’ll present the project to a wide TV audience.

And finally, the party. The last evening was reserved for the closing party in one of the clubs in the center of the Lausanne. We got there around 9 PM and already warmed up.

Revuto occupied the best table near the dancefloor where everybody could come and take a drink (whiskey). It was a nice ambient to relax with friends from Cardano after 2 exhausting days. I have to admit that some Cardano community members have nice dance moves.

Some familiar happy faces at the Cardano Summit 2022 closing party in Lausanne

I hope with this small recap, I gave you better insight into what was happening there. For us, it was an excellent opportunity to meet and network with many people from the Cardano community, to show them what Revuto is all about, to make new partnerships, and, most importantly, new friendships. With our participation, we showed everybody how important Revuto is for the Cardano ecosystem and that we’re one of the most recognizable projects. I will wrap up this recap with the conclusion that it was good to be there despite all the negativity coming from the crypto market in Q4 2022. At the event, there were rumors about specific projects having difficult times, with many openly admitting that 2023 would be a very challenging year, but we decided not to talk about it.

With this recap, I wish all our community members a Happy New Year. No matter what is waiting for us in 2023, Revuto will keep on pushing, and eventually, at some point, I’m sure our hard work will pay off.

See you next year,
Vedran Vukman, CEO

In case you missed:

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📲 Download the Revuto app now! — Available for iOS, Android, Huawei
🎥 Revuto Deep Dive — Watch the video
📻 UK Radio campaign — Listen to our slot
💫 Unique Revuto NFTs — See all NFTs
🎥 Our co-founder Jos on Cardano360 — Tune in at 38:20
🎂 Our Token Generation Event (TGE) aka REVU Token birthday — See the event
🎙 Cardano live podcast with our co-founder Jos — Listen to the podcast

Recap: Cardano Summit 2022

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Written by Revuto