A group of Polish people standing together in Lisbon at LisCon. We were drinking, snacking, and enjoying the vibes. And someone said: “We should have it in Warsaw too.”

That’s it. A ray of sunshine. A half-joke that suddenly got real. 

And at the beginning, it felt exactly like that. New, exciting, a little chaotic, maybe even impossible. But every obstacle felt like a challenge, a puzzle to solve, something to overcome together.

This year? The puzzles turned into chores.

We wrote twelve-page grant proposals. We made sweet deals with beverage companies that were a logistical nightmare. We organized our own side-events for extra funding. We chased sponsors. And chased. And chased. In the past, sponsors would say yes or no. This year was special: “We’ll let you know later.” Which meant never.

And it’s not that I’ve never been ghosted before. But here, I can’t just uninstall the app.

There are different theories about what is going on with the events. We weren’t the only ones struggling. Some say crypto companies got big enough that they no longer need conferences for recognition. Others say that it’s just a recession and no one has the promo budgets they used to. Or maybe there are just too many conferences in the region. Without clear communication it’s hard to tell for sure. Community events are supposed to be a dialogue. A two-way street. It’s not a supermarket where you pick a different cheese every time, we’re aiming for a picnic, where everyone brings something to the table.

I don’t want to guilt-trip anyone into sponsoring us. I want to adapt. To spark joy. To make people happy.

This year’s ETHWarsaw went smoothly. It was professional. Everything worked. The team was strong. The systems held. The number of attendees was on par with previous editions. On paper it was a success. In Notion it was a masterpiece.

Luckily, you can feed the hackers pizza and Auchan cornflake knock-offs, and they’re satisfied even if the bounty pool was less than half of last year’s. (But I admit the knock-offs are pretty good). 

Some even said it was the best edition yet! People were generally content. Except for the guy who asked for a refund. 

Some people are sad we won’t do ETHWarsaw [5] next year. Same people who showed up for three hours, drank a coffee, and went straight to a side-event. I worked six months for your latte, my friend. 

We lost the magic somewhere along the way. It got routine for us and for the attendees. The obstacles felt like chores. The thrill was gone.

Maybe that’s not entirely a bad thing. It means the hard work of the last two years paid off: polishing the processes, onboarding new team members, perfecting the Notion pages. We built something sustainable. But routine isn’t why I’m here. 

I said this at SheFi Warsaw Meetup: once you master a process, you have to decide whether to repeat it or to push yourself into something new. And I know myself well enough to know I’ll choose the harder path. 

Easy is for normal people.

ETHWarsaw isn’t over. It’s just changing shape. Kolektyw3 opened this summer. Bootcamps are coming. There are experiments and ideas we haven’t even said out loud yet. That’s where my energy is going: into building something fresh, fun, unexpected. Into bringing back the feeling that anything can happen. And giving you another ray of sunshine.

And being totally fair, we didn’t start at LisCon. We started at a side-event.