Conference Networking Sucks. Can Lolo Fix It? | BBW 2026

Conference networking kind of sucks. You walk into a room full of people you should meet and somehow leave without meeting any of them. But we may finally have the solution. It's now the official networking app of Boston Blockchain Week and today we're finding out if it can actually make conference networking not suck. Welcome Ebu.

Ebu, thank you for joining us.

Thank you, Lauren. Thank you. Great intro. Glad to be here.

Thanks. First, so tell us a little bit about Lo Lo. What inspired you to create it?

Okay, so Lo Lo is a location social platform, which means it's a social network that's built on the concept of location being the primary you know, thing that connects people. Put in simpler terms, it's meant to help you find people nearby that you either know or might be valuable to you and then make plans with them very quickly. So it's like a Find My Friends, but for way more people than just your closest friends and can be applied in a lot of different ways. The reason I wanted to build it is because I, you know, worked in crypto for the past five years or so before I started Lo Lo and I was constantly going to different conferences and the problem I always had at every conference was I didn't really know who's there. Even though I probably knew a lot of people that were there, I didn't know how to find them or get in contact with them and I felt that most of the time I was going to just going to different side events and running into people that I knew before and I would just as like I wish I already knew who they or if they were there.

Then I might have been able to set something up with them and it also made me feel like if I if I'm randomly running into people at side events, then there's probably many more people that I didn't even know were here at the conference that maybe would have been valuable for me to meet up with again, reconnect with, grab a coffee, just have a chat. And I felt that instead of posting on X and LinkedIn that people are going to be at the conference and then just hoping for the best, it would have been smarter to have one dedicated platform where people can indicate that they're in town for that purpose and then it just becomes a a hub for people to connect on. So, that was one of the original reasons I wanted to build Lola and I'm excited to see it come to fruition with Boston Blockchain Week this year.

What made you decide that our event was right for Lola?

Uh well, one good thing is that you and I know each other from before and um it was a it was a natural conversation that started a few months ago as you were organizing the conference and I was continuing to build Lola. This is something that I wanted to try for a while which is like to plug in with a conference and I felt that yeah, it was a great opportunity. I'm glad we got in contact and we're able to work it out. I mean, it makes sense for me because as I said, I worked in crypto before so this conference theme is it's familiar to me and it's something that I understand and it's something that I already have a pre-existing network in so it's kind of a great place to start. It's a conference that you know, it's been going for a couple years and it keeps getting bigger and bigger every year.

So, it's the perfect time involved and hopefully if it goes well this year, we can do it again next year but primary focus is of course just making sure that 2026 goes well but to have the opportunity to get a couple hundred people together and really utilize Lola in the way that I envision it to be used which is to create density in an area and have have an experience where when people before, during, and after the conference but let's just say like before and during where it's really important, they can check okay, I'm checking into Lola before I arrive in Boston. Here's some other people that might be there. Here's where the events and the agenda is and then when they're there and they feel spontaneously that they want to see who's around or they just went to a speech or a or something like that And now they want to connect with the the panelist or they want to connect with some other people who are in that sector. Um that's what Lolo's going to be really good for. You can open it, see, okay, here's some people who are also at Boston Blockchain Week and they work at this company or they work on stable coins or they work on RWAs.

Let's invite uh them to a coffee or something like that. And it just makes that concept of finding people and meeting the right people really easy.

Yeah, no, we've definitely known each other for a while. And yeah, I was working on the event and then I happened to see you post on LinkedIn. You're like, "Hey, I'm starting Lolo." And I'm like, "Oh, we need an app." So, it worked out.

One cool thing about Lolo is that it also it it like grows and it compounds from conference to conference. So, like it's not it'll give value to people before and during the conference. And then once the attendees of Boston Blockchain Week go back home and then they go to another conference in the future, they'll still be connected to the people from Boston Blockchain Week. And then they're pretty likely to cross paths with that person again at a future conference. And it just kind of keeps that context for them.

So, the the connections they make at Boston Blockchain Week will last much longer than if they were kind of I mean, currently there's usually they just get lost after the conference.

Yeah, no, definitely. No, I agree with that. I mean, for me, whenever I go to conferences, it's like, oh, I meet people, I put their number in my phone or I get their card. The card gets lost on the train ride home or the plane ride home. If someone is attending Boston Blockchain Week alone, how can Lolo help them find the right people and actually make meaningful connections?

I feel like you already kind of answered this, but you know, if you want to summarize it.

Yeah, so when you go on the or maybe can I share my screen and show?

Yeah.

Like here's Lolo. Here's Here's a Lolo looking at New York, right? And one cool thing about well okay, you can immediately see the map. You can see some different people that have pinged in the New York area and this is my network in New York cuz I'm viewing from my profile. So, it'll look different for different people.

You may not see all the same people and in Boston it'll look a bit different but we'll use New York as an example. So, here here's how it might look when people arrive and then you would use the there will be a Boston Blockchain Week filter. You can apply different filters and it changes who you see on the map. Look this can be friends, phone contacts, people from X, and there will be one for Boston Blockchain Week and when you apply that filter only the people from Boston Blockchain Week will appear on this map. Then you can also just see here in a list format as well the people that will be at that.

And then of course when you click on somebody for example, you can wave to them to signal you're there, you can message them, you can create a plan with them, say let's go to lunch or let's go to coffee or something and even like you can grab multiple people at the same time. So, if you just like hold on the map you can connect different people in that way by drawing a circle or connecting the dots and then create a plan as well. So, if you see three, four, five people that you know and you want to get them together for a meeting, it's a super fast and and I think it's pretty fun way to do that. Once you say like let's say for example coffee this afternoon it finds you a spot in the middle of where you all are and then it creates a plan for you just dynamically. So, it's very very effective for seeing who's around and making a plan with them, inviting them to someone something or just sending them a message and saying what's up and you can also of course like ping your own location on a neighborhood, city, state or country level and these dots you see on the map are not where those people actually are.

It's It's actually randomized within their boundary that they ping. So, if I said hey, I'm here in Brooklyn or I'm here in my neighborhood like that will send a notification to people nearby and so it's a great way to signal I'm in town rather than posting on social media and you know it's we still will make a post on X we still will make a post on LinkedIn saying Boston Blockchain Week and that's of course that has a lot of value but this is like a very concentrated way to do that where you're going to get just the information you need and not the extraneous on the side.

It's more curated and like you said concentrated. I love that.

Yeah.

Very nice.

you get that information that you need when you need it and hopefully it helps people make more connections and the last thing is that it will you know sometimes networking platforms can be kind of scattered as you were saying before maybe one person you connect with them on LinkedIn another person connect with them on X another person you get their number and another person you get a telegram and it can there's so many platforms that we can connect on.

Yeah.

Then it's just hard to remember where all those people were and how where you connected with them if you're not writing that all down in a spreadsheet. Lolo kind of solved that problem and put all that networking on one platform where you can see when they're around and why that's relevant and I think for me being able to meet up with someone for a coffee whether it be for a to try to do business or just to catch up is is so much more powerful than sending a message and I think like that's what Lolo that's what Lolo will give to the to the attendees during and after the conference.

Yeah. No, I agree. What should attendees do before Boston Blockchain Week to get the most out of Lolo once the event begins?

When in the lead up to Boston Blockchain Week we're about a month out from it right now we'll be doing some collabs between Lolo and and the BBW channels which will first allow people to signal that they're going to the conference so the first thing is there'll be like a shareable uh link that people can put on X and people can put on LinkedIn that has custom branding and it's like, "Hey, I'm going to Boston Blockchain Week." So, that's a first way signal that you're going to be there and that will

I'm excited for that.

Yeah, it'll put it'll be uh it'll allow you to put some information uh and maybe sign up for Lolo early as well. I would of course encourage people it's good to get on the app, make a profile, download it before you get there. Um if not, I'll be helping people on board uh when they arrive as well, so no problem. And then once you're there, uh you know, you'll be able to understand how to use it and you'll get a lot of value from it, but I would say beforehand just download it or even just do that social sharing uh thing that will come out you know, sometime in the near future and just tap in there.

Awesome. Wait, all right guys, well, you heard it here first. We are so excited to be partnering with Lolo for Boston Blockchain Week 2026. For those of you who are attending, I will see you there and for those of you who have not gotten their ticket yet, there are limited seats available, so be sure to get your tickets before they sell out because they will sell out. Uh I will leave the link in the description box or you can visit bostonblockchainweek.

com for more information. Um and yeah, get your tickets today and of course, don't forget to download the Lolo app. I will add the link in the description as well. Eboo, thank you so much for joining us and yeah, I can't wait for this Lolo BBW roll out.

Thank you, Lauren. I'm really happy. I'm excited to do it, so we're cooking. Yeah.

Yeah.