COZ participated in the fourth edition of StarBase Connect Day, held on June 26 and 27 at the Parque Tecnológico de Santos. Organized by ILIS — Instituto Litoral Paulista de Inovação & Startups — the event brought together entrepreneurs, students, companies, universities, communities, public authorities, and regional leaders from across Baixada Santista.

StarBase Connect Day is designed as more than a conference. It acts as an ecosystem consolidation platform, creating strategic connections between people and institutions that can turn early ideas into practical opportunities. This edition included more than 30 hours of programming, with business connections, community activity, technology discussions, project development, and an Ideathon focused on real innovation challenges.

For COZ, the event was especially important because of the role we played in connecting StarBase with Stellar. That partnership became one of the most meaningful elements of the event, creating a bridge between a local innovation ecosystem and a global blockchain network focused on practical financial infrastructure.

Working with the ILIS team and Stellar’s Developer Relations representative, COZ helped adapt the Ideathon format so that it could deliver real value to Stellar’s ecosystem. The goal was not simply to introduce blockchain as an abstract technology. It was to help participants understand how blockchain networks like Stellar can support real applications, real users, and real economic activity.

That mattered because, for many of the students involved, this was their first meaningful contact with Web3 and blockchain. During the Ideathon, COZ provided direct support to competing teams and engaged with more than 140 students throughout the event. Most were encountering not only Stellar, but blockchain technology itself, for the first time.

That first introduction is important. If Web3 is presented only as jargon, speculation, or infrastructure, it can feel distant from the problems students and new builders actually want to solve. COZ’s role was to make that introduction more concrete: helping participants understand what blockchain can do, why Stellar exists, and how open networks can support useful applications in the real world.

The Ideathon also marked a milestone for the region. For the first time, INOVA CPS, part of Centro Paula Souza, brought an Ideathon to Baixada Santista. Around 150 students from ETEC Aristóteles Ferreira participated, working through real innovation challenges with methodological support from Glauco Tabet Lima and Cássio Marques, in support of ILIS.

That student focus gave the event a different kind of importance. StarBase Connect Day was not only about showing technology to an existing builder audience. It was also about expanding who gets invited into the ecosystem. By helping students engage with Stellar and Web3 in a practical setting, COZ helped create a path from first exposure to future participation.

COZ also supported the visibility side of Stellar’s presence at the event. Through local community activation, podcast interviews, presentations, social content, and regional network support, COZ helped ensure Stellar reached the right local leaders and innovation communities. That work helped connect the technical opportunity around Stellar with the institutions, communities, and people who can carry it forward in the region.

This is where events like StarBase Connect Day become especially valuable. A strong ecosystem is not built by technology alone. It needs students, educators, founders, public institutions, companies, communities, and technical mentors all interacting in the same environment. It needs first introductions, practical challenges, credible follow-up, and repeated opportunities for people to keep building.

That follow-up is already taking shape. As a direct continuation of the relationships built through StarBase, COZ is running a hackathon for professional developer communities in Baixada Santista, with COZ providing the prize pool. The initiative runs until July 10 and is designed to extend the momentum from the student Ideathon into the region’s professional developer ecosystem.

The connections made at StarBase are also helping set the stage for a larger Harbor Hackathon later this year. That continuity matters: one event can create awareness, but a sequence of events can build capability. By connecting students, professional developers, local institutions, and Stellar ecosystem opportunities, the region gains a stronger path from first contact to real technical contribution.

For COZ, StarBase Connect Day reinforced a simple idea: meaningful adoption starts with useful introductions. Students and new builders do not need to begin with every technical detail of blockchain infrastructure. They need a clear understanding of what the technology can make possible, where it applies, and how they can begin experimenting with it.

We are grateful to ILIS, Parque Tecnológico de Santos, INOVA CPS, Centro Paula Souza, the Stellar team, the participating students, and the local communities that made this edition possible. StarBase Connect Day showed the strength of Baixada Santista’s innovation ecosystem and the value of connecting that ecosystem with global networks like Stellar.

COZ was proud to help make that connection. The result was not only a strong event, but a foundation for continued developer engagement, stronger regional collaboration, and new opportunities for builders who are just beginning their journey into Web3.