Gitcoin’s 2024 IRL Events Plan

đź‘‹ News and Community
1

Introduction

As we embark on the new year, Gitcoin is excited to unveil its 2024 events strategy, which aims to amplify our presence in the web3 ecosystem and foster strategic partnerships that drive growth and innovation. Our IRL engagement will be centered on three key objectives:

1. Partnerships:

One of our main objectives is to establish and nurture strategic partnerships. Collaborating with like-minded organizations in the web3 ecosystem will be our priority, creating mutually beneficial relationships that strengthen the positioning and reputation of our products.

2. Funding Public Goods:

Highlighting the importance and impact of supporting public goods remains central to our mission. We will emphasize this focus in our events, advocating for the common good and inspiring our community to take action.

3. Vibes:

We will continue our tradition of creating engaging and vibrant community events. These events serve as informative platforms and memorable and enjoyable experiences, maintaining the unique culture that defines Gitcoin.

Events by Vertical

Events will be organized around three primary verticals:

  1. Grants (Grants Stack, Gitcoin Grants, Allo)
  2. Passport
  3. Community (Schelling Point)

Grants Vertical Objective:

Within the Grants Vertical, our focus is on positioning ourselves as the definitive experts in the Web3 grants space. Our events in this vertical will emphasize showcasing our expertise and innovative solutions in grants and funding distribution, contributing to thought leadership in this domain.

Passport Vertical Objective:

Within the Passport Vertical, our aim is to position Passport as the premiere solution for easy-to-use identity management tools that protect communities from Sybils and bots. Events within this vertical will underscore Passport’s unique capabilities in identity management and its significance in the web3 ecosystem.

Community Vertical Objective:

Within the Community Vertical, our goal is to create meaningful and memorable experiences that celebrate a culture of public goods funding. Events in this vertical will hone in on Gitcoin’s long history of funding public goods and being a meeting place for individuals working to make the world a better place.

Gitcoin Event Attendance

Criteria for Attending an Event

To strategically decide which events Gitcoin should attend in 2024, we evaluated each opportunity based on the criteria below along with their ability to help us meet our objectives (outlined above).

Size of the Event:

Larger ETH events are more likely to offer more opportunities for networking and making an impact.

Attendee Profile:

The presence of partner organizations is crucial. Events with a higher concentration of these groups will be prioritized.

Cost of Attending/Running an Event:

We will consider the financial implications of attending or hosting an event, aiming for a balance between cost and potential benefit. In places like Denver, SF and London, events will generally be more expensive than in places like Istanbul or Thailand.

Recommended Events

We have identified several key events where our presence is crucial. These events are not only significant in the web3 space but also align closely with our objectives.

Reasoning behind going to these events:

  • Some of the largest events in web3
  • Strong Gitcoin fan base in attendance
  • Generally ½ dozen to a dozen Gitcoiners planning to attend each

Note: More detailed plans for events will be announced for each of our products. This is meant as a general overview and recommendation for major events where Gitcoin will be represented as a whole.

Note 2: All plans are subject to change based on availability of funding, market conditions, shifting needs and strategies of the organization and its products.

ETHDenver (Feb 23 - Mar 3, 2024)

Planned Presence:

  1. Gitcoin House (already booked)
  2. Schelling Point Sessions
    • Sat Mar 2nd @ Gitcoin House
    • Details TBC
  3. Co-hosting and sponsoring Metagov Web3 Grants Summit (Feb 27/28)
    • Day 1: Program Managers day by Metagov (private event)
      • Providing space at the Gitcoin House & catering for the day
    • Day 2: Gitcoin x Metagov Presents: Builders Day (details TBC)
      • ½ day to full day application-based event specifically for founders & grantees
  4. Hosting a “Friends of Gitcoin” afternoon for Stewards, loyal Gitcoin fans and Citizens
    • Time & Date TBC @ Gitcoin House
  5. LexDAO x Gitcoin - DAO Legal & Governance event
    • Fri Mar 1st @ Gitcoin House
    • Details TBC

EthCC (July 8-11, 2024, Brussels):

Planned Presence:

  1. Gitcoin House
  2. Hosting a “Builders Day” with current and prospective grantees
    • ½ day event with programming around impact reporting, marketing/sell your ideas, grants applications best practices, raising VC funds, etc.
  3. Schelling Point Sessions
    • Details TBC

DevCon (November, SE Asia):

  1. Schelling Point Unconference
    • Large conference between 500-1000 people
    • Several stages related to events around several topics
    • Open to sponsorships
  2. Gitcoin Presents: Event related to Allo and building on/integrating with Allo
  3. Passport Presents (Details TBC)

VII) Other Events in Consideration

The events below are other notable events that will take place in 2024 that Gitcoin will attend in some capacity, exact details of our presence TBD.

  • Token 2049 Dubai (April 18-19)
  • Token 2049 Singapore (Sept 18-19) and ETHGlobal Singapore (Sept 20-22)
  • ETHGlobal San Francisco (October 15–20)

This list is not exhaustive and may also include more localized events that will be decided on closer to the time of the event.

Note: This post does not include information about hackathon appearances which will be a key part of Gitcoin’s appearances in 2024.

We’d like to hear from you!

One item not included in this post is around ETH/Crypto Meetups and Localism Events. We’re looking for ways to get plugged into communities around the world and would love to hear from groups and communities about how Gitcoin may be able to support their work.

Please feel free to comment on the thread below or go to https://www.gitcoin.co/contact and reach out if you are interested in trying to work with us to plan something.

18 Likes
2

Hey @CoachJonathan this is a great lineup and the strategy of more IRL events for Gitcoin looks solid. We are organizing something here in Paris along the lines of an un-conference for May 2024 that might fit one of these criteria. Maybe I could run it by you to see what you think?

2 Likes
3

Yes. Please reach out and let’s chat.

1 Like
4

This looks good to me. However I’d say with Devcon in SEA, you can look to partner for nore events before November to actuvate the community in the Asian region. Also, have you thought about going for Eth Bangkok as well?

4 Likes
5

hello @CoachJonathan!
My name is Maksim. I’m a program department specialist at the Blockchain Life Forum.

We are excited to announce our upcoming Blockchain Life 2024 event, which will be held on April 15-16 in UAE, Dubai. Venue: Festival Arena.
Among speakers are founders and management of: Tether, Tron, Binance, Ledger, Litecoin, Dfinity, LayerZero, DWF Labs, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures and others.

In this regard, we invite you to discuss with us the possibility of your founders or other C-level colleagues as speakers. With whom I could discuss this possibility?

2 Likes
6

Hey @HTETM you can send an email to marketing [at] gitcoin.co with your inquiry.

1 Like
7

@CoachJonathan
Yeah, I tried to find this mail, but I found only mail for support. Could you share the marketing address please

1 Like
8

So where is work happening on these objectives?
Who are the strategic partnerships? What are the criteria being used to define what partnerships are “strategic?”
How do contributors participate and lift these gatherings, or is this a closed door process?

I’ve attended Schelling point in Amsterdam, Bogota and Paris. None of these gatherings have impressed me. To be specific I have noticed that Schelling points tend to be super traditional (glossy venues), totally disconnected from the local context(incredibly unique chance for advocacy work that just doesn’t seem to be in the design brief whatsoever), presentation heavy(non-participatory sessions), most of the vibes are in between the stuff on the agenda. Rather than just complain I’m happy to contribute to improving them, but I don’t see the affordances to influence the norms here.

To be specific there is still quite a lot of time to hip-check the vibe for EthCC and many of the core contributors to the squad of Regens Unite are local there, so where do we find one another?

1 Like
9

Thanks for the feedback @gospelofchange.

The upcoming Schelling Point at EthCC is well underway - some details can be found in the Ethcc activation post.

Strategic partnerships are generally those that are aligned with our Gitcoin = Grants = Growth narrative, are interested in helping us solve problems in the Capital Allocation space (as outlined in detail in our whitepaper) and tend to be complimentary in terms of their services offering.

A great example of this is Tally.xyz who will be our upcoming partners for Schelling Point Sessions: Grants Program Design at EthCC (more details coming soon).

The “vibe” of Schelling Point has changed quite a bit - it used to solely be a home for self-described “Regens”. It has now expanded to include the new “Sessions” format that you attended in Paris to much praise and positive feedback. This format moving forwward will exclusively be focused on grants-centric content.

To get involved in the planning of a Schelling Point right now, I see two routes:

  1. Apply for a GCP through the Citizens Innovate grants program

  2. In the next couple of months, we’ll be rolling our a Decentralized Schelling Point program for Citizens to run a Schelling Point X (similar to how TED has decentralized their programming). Information about this will be posted to the governance forum once more details have been sorted out (ex: eligibility criteria, amount of funds provided per grant, the purpose of these events and how they relate to Gitcoin’s goals, etc.).

2 Likes