First hosted in December of 2017., Bločk (pronounced Blochk), was the first developer-oriented conference in the Central and South-East Europe area. It was originally organized by Bruno Škvorc, the founder of Bitfalls, Coinvendor and Audithor, and privacy advocate at Have I Been Sold?
Having realized that technical education in regards to blockchain development is incredibly scarce not only in the region, but the world, a highly technical conference seemed like a good idea. Being from the small town of Čakovec, he decided to pay homage to it. The town's abbreviation "Čk" became a part of the conference's name: BloČK.
Bločk was hosted at TICM, a startup incubator providing offices and soon a coworking space to ambitious founders. The TICM management graciously partnered with Bločk organization and offered the lecture hall for free, establishing themselves as future partner as well. The TICM space is located in the middle of an old military complex, repurposing old barracks for high tech ventures and excellently using the available space there.
The plans for Bločk's second edition are to grow the conference - not in size, but in hands-on content. Where last year people were allowed to participate in the talks in the morning, and a mere half of them could participate in the workshop, this year the plan is to have four or five workshop sessions for smaller groups of people up to 25 in various classrooms, covering a wider range of contexts. This will foster more socialization, more diverse skillsets, and more creative discussion. There will be no talks - only workshops - making sure that only those who truly want to get their hands dirty come by.
