Octopus Ambassador Anecdotes

Bootstrapping my first IRL meetup in the Philippines

Published in

Omnity Network

5 min readSep 22, 2022

In August 2022, NEAR Protocol and Octopus Network decided to sponsor a groundbreaking flagship meet-up event in the Philippines — TICTALK 101. As a NEAR representative and the Octopus Network Ambassador to the Philippines, I was the logical choice to project manage the event and excitedly agreed — but then immediately became anxious.

I had never organized an offline event before! The thought of inviting speakers and gathering a large number of people for several hours seemed daunting. This is when I discovered the incredible support given by the Octopus Network team and community.

When I tentatively reached out to the Octopus Network Team with my concerns, I was expecting the worst. But to my surprise, I was given incredible support and reassurance. It turns out that they never expected me to be a pro, just to do my best and they were there every step of the way. As my imposter syndrome subsided, I got to work. And with Octopus Network’s help, the event was a success.

Industry leaders gathered in Manilla to address such topics as blockchain education in the Philippines, the future of GameFi, blockchain regulation, multichain networks, NFTs, and community building. It was a milestone achievement for NEAR and Octopus Network to have sponsored its first offline event in Manila. And it would not have been possible had it not been for the reassurance and support from the Oct Team.

Having walked through this experience successfully, I wanted to share the things I learned with the Octopus Ambassador Fam and Octopus Community in the event that you are ever asked to organize something similar in your community, city, country, or even online channel for the first time. I have distilled my takeaways into three main practical points.

#1 Rise to the challenge (but don’t be afraid to reach out for support)

When I was having doubts about my abilities to manage this event, I was overcome with imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is a silly thing. Anyone who has ever done anything for the first time is bound to experience insecurities. But imposter syndrome can paralyze you leaving you with no idea where to begin. What do you do?

I found when I was honest with the Oct Team and shared my feelings of anxiety and concern, I was immediately relieved. Imposter syndrome exists in your head alone. When you leave it there and don’t address it, it can cripple you, no matter how advanced your skill sets are. So, get it out. Share it. You’ll find that everyone experiences this and no one expects you to be perfect. Then you are in a better position to take the first steps toward organizing your project with a clear head.

#2 Share the Burden

One of my first concerns was “how am I supposed to organize all of this by myself?” Well, you aren’t. No man is an island in Web3. We have left the centralized system because we value the diversity that Web3.0 offers. Diversity means that we can source different talents and skill sets to reach our objectives. This is what happened in preparing for the TICTALK 101 event.

Among my colleagues, I was the only one living in the Manila area as most of them are spread outside the city — even on different islands! I was worried that perhaps they wouldn’t come. But I asked, and they came! One was assigned to do the merch for the event. Another was assigned to aggressively promote the event online. Still another did the poster graphics. And another for tech support during the event itself.

Again the result was a success. Each one contributed more than what was expected. We felt that our collective efforts paid off. As a result, we forged a closer bond together due to our shared sense of achievement. Just as a blockchain is distributed, our work and resulting success were also distributed.

Just as a blockchain is distributed, our work and resulting success are distributed.

#3 Network, Network, Network

When it came to inviting speakers, I realized that all of the networking I had done in the past could now came into play. Many of my contacts consisted of founders, core team members, influencers, and investors that I had already met at offline events I had attended in the past. Because I had saved contact information and stayed in touch, I was able to reach out to them and invite them to speak at TICTALK 101.

It’s funny to think that, when I attended these events and networked, I had no idea then I would really need to use these newly formed relationships to facilitate my first IRL event! But that’s the beauty of networking. You never know what opportunities you may be creating with that first interaction. It’s like a box of Belgian chocolates; you never know what you are going to get.

So, to maximize the value of attending any offline or online event — Network! Not everyone you meet at an event will add value to your future ventures immediately. But down the road, you may find that one contact you met briefly for five minutes in a Discord channel happens to want to collaborate with you. Conversely, you may connect with people at an event who may be in a position to collaborate with you today, but who have moved on to something else tomorrow.

Web3 is a huge, growing, breathing, organic space, it is never static — nor are the people in the space. Crypto moves fast and so do we. To maximize value, network as much as you can whenever you can. Not to mention, there’s nothing like exchanging ideas with Web3 people — even if you never see them F2F again.

Shout Outs!

Everything ever built starts somewhere and starts small. But that doesn’t mean it’s insignificant. Without small starts, big runs would never occur. In the next bull run, we can look back and mark the dates of events that made us appreciate the value of belonging to our community. Moreover, we can all explore different ways of collaborating with one another to build a bright future with Web3.0.