Reflections from EthCC 🇫🇷
Last week was EthCC in Cannes... here’s what we learned.
Last week Dan, Bruce, Andy, George, Leo and Sarah from the Open Format team came together for a week in the glorious sun of Cannes. 🌞
Why?
For EthCC: a week of connecting with many, many, many interesting people from the web3 and AI ecosystems, deepening relationships with our partners (huge shout out to Aurora, Near and Coineasy) and aligning as a team.
We learned a lot, had a tonne of very useful conversations and attended some very interesting panels.
Here are some of our key reflections from the trip:
🚀 The product is resonating - and fast
One of the most encouraging signs was how strongly our product and positioning landed. We had an incredible ‘conversation rate’. Literally about 60–80% of the people we spoke to wanted the product for their project or community.
Thanks to a script Andy cooked up we were able to generate super insightful community sentiment reports for any community in just a couple of minutes. Seeing the reactions to these was one of the best parts of the trip, some minds were definitely blown and a lot of people were very interested and wanted more.
It was also very interesting to see how often people would mention ‘sentiment’, even before we introduced what we were building - a signal that the language we’re using is starting to resonate. Deeply.
💡 Strong alignment and team spirit
EthCC was as much about strengthening our team as it was about showcasing our product. As Dan put it, “the team meeting we had in Cannes was probably the best we’ve ever had - we left more aligned than ever and we’re very excited about what’s ahead.”
For newer team members, like Leo, it was also a great way to ask questions, get to know everyone properly and feel the energy of what we’re building.
🤝 Connections & partnerships
We had some fantastic conversations with friends and partners like Aurora, Beacon Protocol and PSG, as well as with countless new faces from across the ecosystem.
The optimism of the space was palpable, and the push toward privacy, AI integration, and meaningful community engagement aligned strongly with what we’re building.
🧭 Areas to improve
While EthCC was a success, it also highlighted areas where we can (and must) improve. For example, we noticed that phrases like “rewards” didn’t always land well with certain audiences, particularly the DeFi crowd, where “capital allocation” resonated better.
Once people got what we’re building, they really got it (and usually wanted it), but it sometimes took a while to get to that point. We’re rapidly improving how we communicate what we’re building though, it’s a process.
Next time we’ll hopefully be ready to literally onboard people to the product during the events, that’s how we’ll really bring the product to life.
👀 The uncomfortable realities
It’s also important to call out what still needs to change in the industry.
Some side events at EthCC (from VCs and organisations) still relied on outdated and unacceptable practices - such as hiring female hostesses in bikinis.
As Sarah put it, “It wasn’t as bad as TOKEN2049 Dubai (don’t get me started…) but the fact it happens at all is unacceptable and myself and other females founders at the events that I spoke to, are SICK of it. I’ve been sick of it for the 15 years that I’ve been going to global tech events and yet here we are, still, in 2025. Do better.”
There’s also still far too many headline presentations happening in influential rooms from businesses in the space who have raised a lot of money, and talk a good talk, but honestly, have very little under the hood.
❤️ Thanks, EthCC
EthCC reminded us just how much we can achieve when we come together - as a team and as a community. We left with stronger bonds, clearer focus and more conviction than ever that Open Format has an important role to play in shaping the future of web3 communities and AI-powered coordination.
People say events can be a waste of time, a distraction, but if we look at what we knew a week ago compared to what we know now - and how aligned we are as a team - I have to disagree. For us, this was invaluable.
Thanks to everyone we met, learned from and shared ideas with - and to the incredible Open Format team for showing up with energy, ambition and integrity.
See you next year, Cannes. ❤️
