Hey all, really appreciating this feedback here and encourage you to fill out this survey for Schelling Point here: https://forms.gle/WMyfEuiW2yW7wg7N7
I wasnt at FTC but i think the point @CoachJonathan made about the “so what’s next” is CRITICAL and I’m surprised we weren’t ready with a QR code to a TG group so let’s not make that mistake again. +1 to @Viriya comment about CRM as well. How can marketing support the Product/DevRel/BD teams to make this as easy as possible?
In terms of other events, I think we need to also divide and conquer satellite events. Autonomous Ecologies, DAOist, Celo, and so many others also had side events I wish we had a bigger presence at. I’d love for us as a DAO to look at conference cals/event lineup a week out and game plan it together (for those attending) so we can cover as much turf as possible.
@CoachJonathan with regard to your point about not being able to answer technical questions - think that is totally ok. “I don’t have the answer to that, but I’ll connect you with the person that does” is effective - again, as long as we game plan it out in advance.
Onto Schelling Point.
In general feedback about this format has been overwhelmingly positive.
A reminder that the intention of the Schelling Point Sessions was intimate, participatory conversation. i dont think we needed evening events - we created those as programming for Gitcoiners specifically and as a value add to sponsors, but it ended up being bulk of our costs and not much measurable ROI so think its safe to cut especially since they werent even part of the original vision.
I think we should be striving to get these costs as LOW as possible. People dont even care about things like open bars, passed hors d’oeuvres etc. They want to connect with each other in a laid back environment. Thinking we try to strive for donated space, minimal catering, local entertainment (or even tap our friends - multiple people on day 2 told me theyd DJ)
I also think that the facilitators/partners that really embraced the participation elements were the ones that thrived, so moving forward i think it’s important we stress this as a key part of the format to ensure expectations of both partner/facilitators and attendees are met.
In terms of linking SP back to our products, want to remind people that this event was meant to really tie back to Allo but that as it came closer it became clear v2 would not be ready, so we pulled back on integrating Allo too much into the programming. Prior to that, we had said Passport was definitively not a priority and opted out of planning programming around it so we could focus on Allo - then we never really adjusted. Definitely would intend to embed our products into the programming move moving forward, and I think all of our products especially could have been played up more on Day 1 (about Funding/Security), but since that was the first day of EthCC it was a big day for our team to be on the ground there. All of this said, these were all designed for maximum participation and anyone at the house who worked at Gitcoin had the chance to integrate product shouts into the discussion - wish I had heard more of that, from more of us, but i think there was still a ton of value that came out of getting to have discussions at the house with attendees about the products.
Other learnings re: SP:
- great tool for capturing content. next time we definitely need someone capturing more live in the sessions
- very effective to have a content curation partner (Broadcast and Celo really embraced it and help bring some amazing facilitators to the table, plus their people showed up in droves; did not really have this from Drips/Salus/GoPlus), plus is took some of the load off of our team
- there is huge potential for SP to live on between events and there was interest from the community to help drive that
- huge potential for us to not have to fund SP at all - and for it to raise its own treasury potentially via a future Gitcoin Grants round
- while SP is still part of Gitcoin, would love to see our community propose/vote on topics for the next round of sessions
- totally unphased by attrition/way higher RSVP; in my experience for free events you can expect about 20% to attend; plus we were conservative in our attendee acceptance up until the day of which made it difficult for people to plan into their days
- a lot of NEW attendees; tbh not too many from the SP Telegram group - curious to see if we can reactivate them/what the purpose of that group will become
- several people mentioned still wanting a SP conference, but liking both formats and liking the fact that we can pop up sessions all over the world, keeping the community more closely linked in between the bigger events
More general feedback/takeaways from EthCC.
Maybe I have a very specific twitter bubble but one of the key takeaways I’m seeing a lot of people having is the need for us to focus on the app layer more - the UX/UI and the language that we use to make these tools more accessible. To that effect I’d love to see us reprioritize the UX audits we were planning
I talked with a lot of other DAO leaders who are hungry for more shared research/knowledge about what’s working/what’s not in terms of process and approach to everything from product development to design to marketing. I’d love for us to form some cross-DAO guilds or something. Or if this knowledge is being shared peer to peer, for it to be captured somewhere publicly.
In terms of other opportunities, I’m not sure I agree on the going narrower/deeper point but it depends on which niches we’re talking about. I think the real key is identifying our key targets and going after them with intentionality - and then like you said, if there is a blocker, identifying it and addressing it.
Yes, Gitcoin is good tech. But our tools connect people with money. It’s such a universal value proposition. I’m not saying we go that broad I’m saying we just speak directly to more specific niches, but we just prioritize which ones. I’m not fully sold on doubling down on just regen - unless when we look at our current pipeline of interested partners it already is mostly regen groups in which case that would make sense (but looking at our products, Passport definitely doesnt feel like it fits there, and Allo we’ve said from the beginning we want a wide variety of groups building on it)
Overall, such positive energy last week and excited to build on this momentum!