I outgrew birthday parties before my perpetual traveling career began. But before my 27th birthday, I decided to bring them back. Now I celebrate my birthday with 5-day parties.
In all seriousness, it’s an event that is needed, and I am just using my birthday as an excuse to put it on.
The month was August 2017. 70 people — friends, family, business partners, followers of mine and even interns — converged upon Vienna for the first annual Heureka Conference. The five-day event consisted of just one day of speeches. The other 4 days were devoted to drinking.
Actually, not. While there was just one day of speeches, much of the other time spent in Vienna was devoted to scholarly activities, like hanging out at the one and only Scholarium, a learning center and library where the Austrian School of Economics is alive and well. Wine was served on the premises, but only as an additive to conversations on entrepreneurship, internationalization and free market economics, as well as the current state of affairs in Europe, which most attendees viewed as troubled, at best.
The walking tour that coincided with the Scholarium trip was comedic. It was led by a man who has a penchant for professional comedy, as well as climbing on top of statues and monuments and screaming at the top of his lungs. Still, the tour managed to squeeze in the history of Vienna’s grand city center architecture, as well as background on the city’s historical entrepreneurial prowess.
During the actual conference, speakers delved into topics like private cities, geopolitics and cryptocurrency in China, the tax advantages of Cyprus and the opportunity to turn Malta into a “Bitcoin island.” I announced my own island project, which is exactly that — my own island. A partner of mine and I delivered a joint presentation about the island nation we are building off the coast of Panama, which will serve as a haven for nomads, libertarians and cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
Whether it’s on my birthday or not, it’s important to gather among like-minded people, network, discuss flag-planting topics, and of course devour wieners and Viennese wine. For the latter, we headed to a heurige, or wine tavern, for a massive buffet dinner and pitchers and pitchers of Viennese wein.
The festivities did not end when the dinnertime pitchers emptied. Nighttime activities included visits to some of Vienna’s top clubs, where Heuereka participants — young and old — remained until after the sun rose.
On one evening, we created our own feast, grilling sausages, steaks and just about any meat we could get our hands on in the middle of Prater, Vienna’s large public park/amusement park. My interns handled much of the cooking, while some of the many people in my “Stateless” network bonded and got to know each other.
The crowd at the first-annual Heuereka turned out to be a tight-knit group. People who met while celebrating my birthday have since been traveling together and teaming up on projects. Most of them plan on returning to the second annual Heuereka, which will be a much sought-after event.
Since it’s my birthday event — funded by me — it’s invitation only conference/party. But if you’re a scholar of Austrian economics, a perpetual traveler, prior taxpayer, tax non-resident of Germany, advocate of private cities or just a cool guy or gal who managed to penetrate my network you will probably get an invite. Probably. ?
Also, Mikheil Saakashvili is welcome because he is a stateless man now.
As for the rest of the worldwide Stateless community, let’s connect, and let’s connect in a city in the heart of Europe that is home to a non-state-run school of economics, as well as grandiose buildings and endless pitchers of heurige wein. If you hadn’t heard of Heuereka, now you have! If you want to be a part of it, just write me to apply for an invite!
