Conversations from PRODFEST W/ Mitong

0:00Amazing. Amazing. You’re trying to just keep it short and sweet like you can see how how big the man is in this thing. I’m not a big fan. I’m a small guy.

0:18But again, pleasure meeting you and um so I’m curious to ask where is that inspiration of prophets? Like what is this idea towards it? Okay. So um I think when we sat down sometime in October last year and we said we wanted to do an event in John but we we had to do research we looked at okay what are the current existing three events that happen and how can we do something that is a bit different now the big the big three events that we see that happen largely within the continent that all of us around the blockchain ecosystem is three logos and we looked

0:54at where logos and what logos does is a general conference. Um then from the three neighbors we went on to we looked at it acra. It acra is more of the hackathon experience and we looked at it safari. Yes. And all of these are unique in themselves and there’s what there’s what something different that they bring. But one thing that we saw um the it just builders community right from day one has been about building and that’s why it’s even in the name of the community itself. It’s just builders that we want to gather. I want to build technical nontechnical builders everybody that can contribute we believe

1:28you’re a builder. So content creators, marketers, product designers, they all they’re all builders and that is who we brought together. Now block is a very technical company. They train developers, they train new people and then they build products also. So we said okay let’s let’s pull these two together and why not let’s do a product focused conference and that’s where the name Profest came from. So portra is a mixture of products and festivaling

1:53and our goal was okay how can we get to showcase how can we get to celebrate product and the celebration of these products for us is largely on the ideas that um these products are are locally built these products are locally built and um giving Africans the opportunity a lot of times we we we see people where they say oh Africans are not consumers of technology they are not creators because everything that they bring and we are only edrop farmers, we are only edrop hunters. If you want to fund your projects, that’s why talk to us. But what we got to show at least particularly through portfest is the

2:32fact that we can also contribute. We can also create value. And the beautiful part is we what we showed here are people who have been creating value for a long time but probably didn’t have a stage like this for them to be able to showcase what they’ve been building. So that is the inspiration for what broadfest is and we hope that like this is the first edition. Uh we’ve been able to showcase any more than 15 projects 15 web three projects over the last 2 days that were built by people here a lot of them in from Jaws from Kabuna from Lagos from Abuja then Nigerians that built

3:06projects that so many of them have are already global people are using them. So for us that is the vision. So we get to put a put up a platform where um subsequently when people come to look at protest when people think of protest what people think about oh this is where we get to see the best that Africa has to presenting

3:24the products are showcased this year we want to bring them back next year and our goal is so that they tell us show next time you’re coming show us that you’ve grown show us that you’ve done better we’re not dumping you to say oh next year we need new products no no no no it’s about growth so why did you fail if for example within the next one year one of these products fail We bring you on the panel call. We had a panel session where we talked about um why products failed had conversations with founders. So that was yesterday. The goal was even all of the talks that we

3:54got to do at profess everything was product focused from the very first beginning to the end. Everything was was focused on how can we make three products better? How can we how can we grow their user base? How can we showcase three products? So it’s all it has always been about products.

4:08Wow. And like you said a whole lot. I I’m I’m really happy when I think you explaining more to me that makes me understand how I love the idea when you say technical and not techical listeners coming together and I mean you know I’ve defined to people sometimes that builders are not just dev

4:25like are developers and creatives so in media we build a generally somebody and then under it you can either be a dev or you can be a creative and our whole push now even now we have to niche down we’re focused on trying to create our own our long-term goal is to create a hub where developers and creatives can come together to provide to build products and provide solutions to an average man. It’s not really about web three. It’s about solutions at the end of the day. So,

4:54nobody cares if it’s web. Nobody even cares if it’s web 10. Exactly. If you can solve their problem, they will use your product. Exactly. So, that’s where we are now. And then I’m I’m amazed that that’s what prophet doing, which means yes, there are thinkers here that are trying to actually make things happen. And you know I’m looking at it now. How exactly I know I think I understand the people of how develop technical initiative. How how do you infuse that into this?

5:21Okay. So one of that we we looked at is you know let me even start from the from the hackathon point of view. From the hackathon you said every hackathon team must must have a designer. It must have a marketer. So it’s not just about that uh it’s not just sort of like about developers developers developers alone we expanded the scope and then even here um for all of the creatives that came around we gave creative space to say okay as far as you are on the profits b feel free create your content it is it is it is something that is is important to you but you not put the time to want

5:56to do it. So, however you want to do it, if you if you believe this is a stage where you can you can create it,

6:03come do it. Amazing. Amazing. So, over the last two days, people are independent creators have just been creating content and pump pumping out. We not not that oh, you register, you paid some money before we allowed you. No, just come. This is a space where we’re celebrating innovation. Want to see the uniqueness. Want to see the ideas that you have. how you might even end up presenting um the content that you shot here at podcast may be different from another person but it tells another story tell stories and we need all of that so that when we tell people because if we don’t have creators

6:33that come around to tell us tell the stories we we developers we just sit down and just do development things I’m even like even at your court team do you do you have a creative in there like you have a creative director there do you have someone that

6:45yes we do we do for profess for profess we we we designated a creative lead in the team itself. In the team itself, in the core team itself, every single thing from the branding of ProFest to

6:58Yeah, I I really do I do love the branding. I was telling them like, “Wow, I love the way you went about the aesthetic. You see that people were very intentional.”

7:05There was a lot of intentionality. Everything around the branding of Proctor like you see the patterns tell about the heels that you get to see when you come into Jaws. You see the J indigo bed the the bed is only found in Jaws in the whole world. So all of those things were incorporated into making the brand and even if you see the animations that come out that is all our creatively we don’t know if you ask me how that came to be I don’t know I don’t know that there was there’s a guy and and the guy had a team and he worked with his team

7:34that’s what we want people are doing what we actually advocating for right now even as even even me as an individual and even as as a community with a media we’re advocating to actually get creative not just as service providers But we’re also problem solvers too and um you know you can ask some developers you can see struggles they face trying to market their product how to tell the story of their product how to even let daily man understand how to use this product that it’s for them because everything is being but it’s amazing to see like I said and I’m looking at okay next year I feel like with this even in

8:06play how can we now come in to ourselves more to make sure that we can even evolve this because I feel like right now hearing this you could have actually done more than what we did already like no honestly

8:17no yeah no but then you The thing is this is the very first edition. So the idea has not yet caught on. It’s just been put out there and everybody is understanding what prophet is from the very like when we come back and we do it next year. We we don’t need to be introducing people. This is what prophets means.

8:33You already know what prophets means because you’ve seen it. If you don’t even know what prophets means, there are content a lot of content all around the place that tells you what prophets is. Yes. So it comes down to it um like we we used we we not not not used in terms of like bad word we made sure that we give space for the creatives within our team to explore to to go as far to go as wild as they can they want to go it’s also amazing right now like for example now we’re planning to have a to have a creators boot camp next next and we’re

9:04focused on on chain creators and bringing creators on chain because that’s what we’re trying to do we’re trying to encourage developers to start working out how to build more infrastructure to come in. It’s not really just about even the money, but it’s about letting understand what this piece is for and what is meant to do for the greater good. So, I’m really happy. I’m excited. I myself I’m a creative. I’m a storyteller. I’m a multi creative director. Actually, I don’t like cares about creative director because I can do branding content creation and stuff. So it’s like we’re just looking to be able to actually make sure that we have the

9:40foresight here now. Like I want to see whereby someone like Professor can actually web three artist performing cuz I I’m not I’m not even seeing that happening yet. So you can see what can happen when you actually have creative more inbuilt into

9:52because that is also a product that is a product that is coming from that person and then and then now is a web three artist actually that basically going to be using this product on chain to provide. So it’s like it’s going to be as a form of where you can encourage more actors, more creatives, more problem solvers to come into the space the opportunity to give the platform to. So you see that next next year we should be expecting a performance from highlight even we should be seeing that kind of thing happening where not it’s not about hiring the rem and they’re good people

10:25that are making good music and they’re minting things and this product they can come my product on this so we can this is why you can see why important it is that between hiring even a creative director and a creator because it give insight about how actually can you can utilize this web product.

10:46No, our our creative director is also creative director. They should have said no no no the point of yeah there was actually performances on deck but we didn’t really come around to you know when when you’re planning then there are like 10,000 things that you need to take care of and then you now come down to the last minute and you’re like okay so we not taking care of this this this this one step let’s just do let us do so right my entire team they are tired of me from talking about I said this is the MVP I say in core product is MVP

11:20But but in a in an event like this or in something that is in a brand like this this an MVP this is the memorable version of P first

11:29whatever we’re going to do from here is definitely going to be three four five steps higher and better and that is simply because now we’ve done the MVV we’ve seen what works we’ve seen the data

11:41yes we g our data we’ve learned yes we’ve learned not just sitting now and discussing oh this is how we think it should go we’ve executed it

11:47no I always do I always believe in productivity. You have to be proactive. You have to you have to be retro with what we’re trying to do. In fact, right now you see how people are even going about supporting the system now. It’s more around the end of interactive funding. So like show us what you can do. Show us the impact you want to create and then we’ll support you.

12:03True. So that’s but again like I’m happy that we actually made it because you see how we’re trying to get this because it made me understand who you are and I’m more bullish now. knows about even broadcast but about you entirely because at least um I’m good to have Scarface interview too actually scarfies

12:22that’s the name that everybody calls him his name is actually Peter I was like I I didn’t see the scar but it’s cool man but again it’s good to meet you again

12:31I appreciate you so much for actually taking your time to all the schedule I want to actually thank you for the opportunity and then yeah we’re going to look at the camera we’re going to see something here

12:40you’re going to uh we’re going to say your name Yeah, I going to say you are the conveyor of uh first and uh at Jos. Yeah, at Jos. I don’t know.

12:52Adjust. Adjust. Yes. Okay. And then uh you with read the media. Now wait for what we want. Spelly to the camera. Spell. Yeah. Booyah. Booyah. That should be B O U. B O Y A.

13:07B O Y A. Yes. You’re correct. Sure. You sure you’re correct. I think I’m correct. X D O Y E. Okay, no problem. Now, hi, my name is Mong. I’m the organizing lead of Protest 2525 that happened life in the city of Jaws and I’m with B Media Booya Booya. Thank you so much.