Hyland and KeyBank Sign On as Presenting Sponsors of Blockland Solutions Conference in Cleveland

Blockland, a community-wide movement to establish a blockchain ecosystem in Cleveland, Ohio, and put the region at the forefront of blockchain thought leadership, today announced that Hyland and KeyBank will serve as Presenting Sponsors for the inaugural Blockland Solutions Conference, which is scheduled to take place at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland from Dec. 1-4, 2018.

“The commitment of Hyland and KeyBank to the Solutions Conference illustrates the companies’ strong belief that the Blockland initiative presents an opportunity to put Cleveland on the map as a hub for developer and tech talent,” said Steven Santamaria, co-chair of the Blockland Thought Leadership node and CEO of Folio Photonics. “Their support of this inaugural conference is essential and will allow the planning team to provide unprecedented programming and an unforgettable experience for a first-year conference.”

“Thanks to a diverse community of willing collaborators, Cleveland is well suited to build an ecosystem of blockchain technology supporters,” said Brenda Kirk, co-chair of the Blockland Talent Development & Retention node and EVP, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Hyland. “People are at the top of our agenda, and the Blockland initiative and Solutions Conference, which Hyland is thrilled to support, will foster meaningful conversations to help us identify, attract, train and retain amazing talent in our region."

“Hosting the inaugural Blockland Solutions Conference is an excellent demonstration of Cleveland’s commitment to becoming a city of choice for technology employers and talent,” said Amy Brady, co-chair of the Blockland Talent Development & Retention node and Chief Information Officer at KeyBank. “As a community, Cleveland is focused on embracing evolving technologies, like Blockchain, to further evolve our developer workforce and transform our businesses.”

The Blockland Thought Leadership Node has also secured the following companies as content sponsors for the pre-conference workshops:

• Saturday, Dec. 1: Microsoft will kick off the pre-conference with a general session that is focused on an overarching view of blockchain technology and its various use cases/business applications.
• Dec. 1 (afternoon) and Dec. 2 (morning and afternoon): Three learning labs will run concurrently for developers to learn to code on three different Blockchain platforms: Hyperledger, Ethereum from ConsenSys, and ChromaWay Postchain.
• Dec 2: A keynote luncheon featuring ConsenSys founder and Ethereum co-founder, Joe Lubin, will take place as part of the pre-conference events.

Several Northeast Ohio companies and organizations have also signed on as conference sponsors: Destination Cleveland; The Cleveland Foundation; Cuyahoga County; City of Cleveland; ConsenSys; Ownum; PwC; BakerHostetler; Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff; Hardy Wealth Partners – UBS Financial Services; HIMSS; MetroHealth/MCPc; PNC Bank; Progressive Insurance; Ashland University MBA Programs; CardinalCommerce; Case Western Reserve University; Cleveland Clinic; ChromaWay; Cohen & Company; Deloitte; EY; Oswald Companies; McDonald Hopkins; Skoda Minotti; and Jones Day.

A strong lineup of blockchain experts are scheduled to give keynote presentations, including Nick Szabo, cryptocurrency and blockchain innovator; Mark Hurd, CEO of Oracle Corporation; Jerry Cuomo, IBM Fellow and Vice President, Blockchain Technology at IBM; Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia; and Alex Tapscott, author of “Blockchain Revolution” and co-founder of Blockchain Research Institute. In addition to daily keynote presentations, the conference content will include Learning Block sessions in various verticals including finance, insurance, healthcare, government, legal, manufacturing, emerging technologies and venture capital as well as workshops and meetups.

Destination Cleveland, the area’s destination marketing and management organization, is managing the conference.