In Web3, the real action doesn’t happen under the spotlight it happens on a rooftop, in a co-working kitchen, or over sake at midnight.

As flagship conferences draw thousands, the most important conversations unfold quietly at side events now seen as the true pulse of the industry.

Nowhere is this clearer than at EthCC. In Paris, 2022 already saw 60+ community-organised side events orbiting the main schedule. By 2024, when EthCC moved to Brussels, the city overflowed with more than 300 parallel happenings: networking dinners, NFT exhibitions, hackathons, rooftop parties, “builder villages” tucked into coworking spaces. For many participants, the official programme felt like a footnote. The gravitational pull came from the ecosystem that bloomed around it. In 2025, EthCC in Cannes brought the trend into full bloom—official calendars and community recaps report well over 250 side events during the week, underscoring how the real momentum continues to play out beyond the main stage.

The Decline of the Keynote

This is not simply about logistics—it reflects a cultural shift. Even after two years of ramped-up Zoom panels during COVID, the real draw of convening in person isn’t another lecture—it’s the human connection. In today’s digital age, information is abundant and easily accessible online. What remains scarce is intimacy, community, and that spark of serendipity. Side events deliver that. As one Web3 guide to side events puts it, they are “where the real action happens” — the places for making meaningful connections and discovering fresh insights.

This isn’t a new evolution. In the fashion world, runways light up headlines, but reputations are often solidified at dinners and afterparties. In tech, CES and SXSW remain headline events, but introductions made in invite-only mixers frequently underwrite the year’s major deals. That same dynamic has manifested even more sharply in Web3. 

According to research from Cornell University, even when presentations are available online, in-person attendance substantially increases both intentional and accidental diffusion of ideas—bringing home the value of human interaction that large stages often fail to provide

The Side Event Economy

What began as informal meet-ups has matured into a parallel industry. Side events are no longer improvisations; they are carefully crafted experiences designed to stand out in a crowded week. Organisers treat them as brand statements, curating everything from the guest list to the playlists with the same precision that conferences once reserved for keynote stages.

Last year, at EthCC 2024, this shift was impossible to ignore. The sheer variety of side events gave attendees the ability to maximise their attendance, focusing on their personal and professional priorities. For some, that meant choosing intimate dinners where investors and founders could speak candidly; for others, it was hackathons, rooftop parties, or NFT exhibitions that blurred into afterparties.

The effect was a kind of “double FOMO”: not only the fear of missing a keynote, but the anxiety of skipping the one gathering, gallery, or conversation that would dominate the week’s narrative. As the calendar filled with hundreds of overlapping events, the real challenge was deciding which of the countless parallel activations could not be missed.

The Role of the Main Conference

Side events now define much of what attendees remember from the week, but the main conferences remain the anchor that makes it all possible. Flagships like EthCC, Devcon, and Token2049 bring thousands of people to one city, offer accreditation, and deliver the curated content that sets the official tone.

But once the attendees have touched ground at the flagship conference, the week’s agenda often moves beyond what’s happening in the main conference hall. The stage draws people in, but side events shape how the week is truly experienced, and this is where strategic curation becomes essential.

As side events become more strategic and more competitive the need for intentional design has grown. It’s no longer enough to book a bar and hope the right people show up. Success now hinges on access, vibe, and alignment with community values.

That shift has given rise to a distinct craft side-event strategy practised by agencies such as Ch3, where the focus is on designing rooms with purpose rather than stages with scale.

The Ch3 Playbook: Strategy Through Curation

Among those navigating this new landscape, Ch3 has become one of the defining architects of side-event culture. The team anticipated early that these gatherings would shift from improvised meetups to the true gravitational centre of Web3 convening. Instead of competing for keynote slots or audience size, Ch3 built its reputation around curation—crafting deliberately small but deeply resonant experiences designed to outlast the week itself.

That approach translates into a strategy of curation over scale. A Ch3-designed dinner may seat only a dozen guests, but every seat is intentionally selected to spark the conversations that cannot happen in a crowded hall. Likewise, a Ch3 activation might blend art, technology, and hospitality in ways that resonate deeply with a brand’s identity, creating moments that feel less like marketing and more like community milestones.

As the Ch3 team puts it, ‘Our job isn’t to throw the biggest party. It’s to create the room where the right idea changes hands.

Over time, this philosophy has proven to have a significant impact. In a landscape crowded with side events, Ch3’s gatherings stand out through careful design and thoughtful curation. Their work demonstrates that in Web3, influence flows from creating authentic, intimate moments where meaningful connections naturally emerge.

The Curation Arms Race

What began as grassroots gatherings with casual vibes has, in some corners, evolved into a curation arms race. As competition for attention intensifies, organisers now treat every detail venue, visuals, guest list as a statement of brand identity and community positioning. It’s no longer just about having an event; it’s about being the event that everyone talks about.

Side events today frequently feature co-branded experiences, wristband-only access, fly-in headline talent, and secret Telegram channels for RSVP confirmations. Some offer private transport to mystery locations; others publish their attendee list beforehand to signal credibility. In this new environment, exclusivity isn’t an accident it’s the currency.

This shift raises the stakes. Organisers face the challenge of balancing openness with intentionality. Go too broad, and you risk diluting the experience. Get too selective, and you replicate the very gatekeeping Web3 set out to dismantle. For attendees, it introduces a new layer of self-selection: choosing not just where to go, but what kind of space they want to inhabit—whom they want to be with, whom they want to exclude, and what that says about their own positioning in the ecosystem.

It’s a dynamic that mirrors venture capital culture: small rooms where access is social capital, where who invites you often matters more than what’s on the agenda. And while some decry this as elitism, others view it as a natural evolution a filtering mechanism for aligning, clarifying intent, and assessing impact.

The New Currency: Experiences, Not Stages

If keynotes once marked prestige, today status comes from creating moments people actually remember. It could be a rooftop dinner where builders trade half-baked ideas, a hackathon where strangers ship code overnight, or an exhibition tucked into a gallery that also serves as an afterparty. These are the spaces where loyalty forms and lasting connections are made.

Part of this is generational. Many younger Web3 builders came of age in Discord servers, DAOs, and Telegram chats. For them, a keynote hall feels formal and distant. What they can really connect with are environments that are messy, human, and most importantly, unfiltered – places like living rooms, converted warehouses, or makeshift coworking spaces. 

It also paves the way for more people to participate. Renting a booth or sponsoring the main hall still needs a significant investment, but hosting a pop-up or a meetup can be done by a small team with the right idea. With focus and imagination, these side events can leave a lasting impression that outshines the flashiest main-stage production.

The Power Dynamics Are Shifting

Conferences once controlled the narrative. Today, they are more background than main character. The decisive conversations shaping Web3 happen in parks, side streets, and late-night karaoke bars where hierarchies blur. A junior developer can find themselves next to a fund partner; a DAO contributor can stumble into a future cofounder.

In this model, legitimacy is not conferred by a speaking slot but by being welcomed into the right room. Trust and influence now flow through communities, not conference stages.

What Comes Next

The rise of side events doesn’t spell the end of flagship conferences but it does mark a redefinition. Conferences will continue to serve as anchors: drawing thousands to one place, offering accreditation, and setting the tone for the week. But increasingly, the real theatre unfolds around them in galleries, courtyards, co-working lounges, and whispered Telegram threads.

Whether side events eventually consolidate into formalised “meta-conferences” or remain decentralised remains to be seen. In a space defined by autonomy and experimentation, the latter seems more likely.

What’s already certain is this: the hierarchy has flipped. The keynote is no longer the main character. In Web3, the future of convening belongs to the side event where reputations are built, communities take shape, and the next collaborations quietly begin.

And among the few charting this new terrain with intent, Ch3 has emerged as the go-to agency for side event strategy less focused on scale, more on shaping the rooms where the future gets made.