Where Ideas Come to Life: Why I'm Excited About Meridian

I love those meetings that surprise you. When you walk in thinking it’s just going to be business-as-usual, running through a checklist of to-dos… until someone asks the group a question – something meaty, thought-provoking, and very difficult to answer. That’s when the meeting takes a turn, when the conversation starts to buzz, when the mood picks up and you can feel the momentum of collective wheels turning. It’s rare that you walk away with a single answer to the question that was asked… but that’s part of what makes it fun. It’s the energy you get from talking about hard issues with smart, engaged people.

That’s the energy I get from Meridian, Stellar’s annual conference. I love walking into that space and thinking, what are all these people going to teach me? What problems are we going to start brainstorming? What can we do with our collective knowledge and intellect to make a difference?

And this year in particular, I am even more excited about discovering that energy because it will be the first time we’ve all been together since 2019 – more than three years ago! The world has changed a lot since then. We’ve adapted to a global health crisis. We’ve seen conflict erupt in Europe. We’ve seen market turbulence and inflation impacting countries worldwide.

With all this going on, I believe there is no more important time to come together and find the ways that we can make a difference. That’s why we landed on the theme, The Urgency of Doing, because we know the challenges we face need urgent solutions and committed people to make them reality.

Meridian is a place where we can start having those meetings that I love – where we can ask each other and debate the answer to the tough questions that push towards action. Questions like how do we build a secure multi-chain world? How can we unlock economic opportunity for more people and what barriers exist beyond access? Who is regulating crypto and how do we make sure the industry is at the table? How can digital assets provide relief in times of crisis? And so many more…

I believe that the best solutions come from bringing together diverse perspectives and experiences. That’s why I’m excited to go to Meridian in Rome, to get that energy about what is possible and what we can do with so many smart, engaged minds working on hard problems.

So what are you waiting for? Register for Meridian 2022 – I hope you’ll join me there!