[Proposal] -Schelling Point Istanbul

[gloria]

Summary:

This proposal seeks funding for running a large one-day Schelling Point event during DevConnect on November 13 in Istanbul, Turkey. This proposal is requesting a total of $275,000 from Gitcoin’s treasury to be used for production costs (more details outlined below). Like past events, most (if not all) of these costs will be recuperated through sponsorships and (newly exploring) other possible funding mechanisms. The event will be planned by Supermodular in coordination with Gitcoin.

Abstract:

Schelling Point is one of the largest Web3 events that focuses on expanding the conversation around regenerative cryptoeconomics. This proposal is seeking funding to run another one of these events at the upcoming DevConnect conference in November - one of the largest gatherings of builders in the Ethereum ecosystem in the world.

This proposal will go into detail to outline the motivations behind this proposal, benefits and drawbacks, details of what a November conference might look like, expected costs, and how this conference will be different from previous conferences.

Many of the exact costs will be ballpark estimates until planning officially kicks off upon the passing of this proposal. It is important to note that Schelling Point events have historically been fully funded by sponsorships (with the exception of the most recent Schelling Point in Denver, which cost the DAO $40,000).

Motivation:

Gitcoin’s support for this proposal is motivated by several key factors:

Public Goods Steward: The event aims to foster a culture of public goods and serve as a platform for creative discussions and connections. It also represents a unique category where believers in community-led positive change gather to explore the intersection of technology, art, science, and education. This event will continue to perpetuate Gitcoin’s rightful place as a key steward of the public goods narrative within Web3.

Marketing and Community Engagement: Schelling Point is an essential component of Gitcoin’s strategic marketing and community engagement efforts. It’s an event that originated as a convergence of impact, sustainability, and technology, and has evolved into a manifestation of Gitcoin’s vision and values. Running another Schelling Point will strengthen Gitcoin’s legitimacy and further position it as a thought leader in the public goods funding movement.

Partnership Development: Schelling Point has historically served as an opportune meeting place for developing relationships that ultimately lead to fruitful partnerships for Gitcoin. This stands from both the developer relations lens as well as broader partnerships pertaining to our products (ex: Gitcoin Grants) and beyond (ex: other community initiatives).

Product Positioning: Being the title sponsor of this conference, Gitcoin will have the opportunity to showcase its products front and center through having a booth and several speaking slots.

Specifications:

Date: November 13th

Venue: TBD - venue will likely be used by other DevConnect events, giving us negotiating power to reduce the cost of the venue rental (and perhaps production costs as well)

Length: 1 day

Expected attendees: 3,000

Aspects of the event:

• Sponsor Thank You Dinner
• 3-5 stages (depending on the venue size)
• Chill space
• Vendor booths area
• Lunch provided to all participants
• Coffee & water stations
• Speakers area

Changes from previous proposals:

• No after-party

Expected cost breakdown

Item	Ballpark cost
Venue	$40,000
Swag	$30,000
Food & beverage	$60,000
Sponsor activities	$20,000
A/V production	$70,000
Other production (furniture, signage, etc.)	$30,000
Art Installation	$20,000
Team costs	$25,000
TOTAL	$275,000

The planning will lean on several teams at Gitcoin to support and align the execution of this event:

MMM team

• ensure KPIs are met
• ensure that all work produced on behalf of the DAO aligns with the rest of Gitcoin’s brand work
• lean on MMM’s design, social media and brand strategy resources and expertise to successfully execute this event

Partnerships & DevRel

• Ensure that the event supports their business objectives

KPIs:

• +20 DevRel leads
• +20 Partnership leads
• 8 or higher out of 10 event satisfaction (from feedback form)

Benefits:

• Branding: Gitcoin will be front and center as a title sponsor, creating goodwill within the Web3 ecosystem and positioning itself as a category creator and thought leader.
• Highlighting current protocols: As a title sponsor, Gitcoin will have the opportunity to feature several DAO contributors on stage as well as sharing about their products via booths on the conference floor.
• Community engagement and Partnerships: This event will serve as a great platform for relationship building with potential partners.
• Strengthened relationships with partners, sponsors, and conference speakers: Similar to previous points, Schelling Point gives Gitcoin (as the title sponsor) the opportunity to bump shoulders with other big (and small!) players in the space.

Risk and Drawbacks:

• Difficult to quantify ROI: Like many IRL events, measuring the exact return on investment (ROI) is difficult. The fostering of connections, relationships and brand equity that IRL events like this enable is difficult/impossible to quantify. This proposal has done its best to create KPIs, though this might be inadequate compared to other more measurable initiatives.
• Potential unrecoverable costs: The bear market has hit the Web3 hard as we saw first hand in Denver with our first, cost-deficit Schelling Point. One risk we might encounter is difficulties fundraising which will leave Gitcoin footing the large conference bill.
• Opportunity cost: By spending funds here, there might be other events that Gitcoin could sponsor, own a stage, etc. that will likely be passed on.
• Disconnection from Gitcoin: There have been Schelling Points in the past where the connection to Gitcoin has been very loose, meaning that patrons don’t know Gitcoin is behind the running of Schelling Point and is a lost opportunity to build brand equity.

Vote:

1 - Yes, fund Schelling Point at DevConnect Istanbul for $275,000

2 - No, do not fund Schelling Point at DevConnect Istanbul

3 - Abstain

[azeem]

Hey Gloria,

Thanks so much for getting this together. I’m super bullish on Gitcoin hosting Schelling Point events in non US countries at least once a year, especially ones outside of the traditional spaces in the United States or Western Europe.

Seeing Turkey was an exciting one that I’m happy the team is being proactive in thinking about. And as someone who’s helped work on the last two Schelling Points it’s awesome seeing this continue to expand.

I know we’ve already privately spoken about this and will find some time to get on a call about it as well. My biggest worry at the moment, especially based on seeing the difficulty around sponsors for the last Schelling Point is that we won’t be able to raise that much in funding from the PGF side.

If we are to do this, I think the idea we can’t raise the funds and this would be more of a potential expense on our end should be more front and center for it. We will still do everything we can to raise funds for the event irrespective though. Partners always want to be associated with Schelling Point. I’ve just got a hunch that the price points they’ll want in will be very different.

As we get deeper into the bear market we’re seeing partners who either full pausing sponsorship efforts or if they do want to fund offering much smaller amounts.

That does put me outside of A, B, and C though.

[Maxwell]

Hey Gloria!

Thanks so much for taking the time to write up this proposal. Unbelievably excited about this.

I want to voice the same concern of Azeem. Having helped with partnerships and fundraising the past few Schelling Points as well, its becoming increasingly more difficult to fundraise for efforts like this. Even loyal funders and supporters are beginning to not sponsor events or reel in external expenses generally.

I’d be highly supportive of this proposal if we make it clear that fundraising efforts are increasingly difficult and we can’t necessarily use previous fundraising success as a baseline at the current moment. Azeem, Juanna, myself and others who support fundraising will work tirelessly to fundraise, but we just want to vet expectations given where we are in the market.

I’d love to propose an addendum re-writing this section

@gloria

Like past events, most (if not all) of these costs will be recuperated through sponsorships and (newly exploring) other possible funding mechanisms.

to “While during past events most (if not all) of the associated costs were recuperated through sponsorships, the fundraising team will work to yield similar success while acknowledging the current bear market. In the event that fundraising 100% of the funds is not possible, the Gitcoin treasury will incur any additional costs.”

Thanks so much, Gloria! Can’t wait for this!

[bobjiang]

Thank you @gloria for your proposal, and definitely Schelling Point is a great and successful conference!

With the same concerns as @azeem and @Maxwell , in such bear market, with $275k cost to have Schelling Point, is it aligning with the most important thing?

so there are some questions I have to consider before go for this proposal:

• align with the most important thing?
• any alternative way to support Schelling Point except sponsorship?
• what if GitcoinDAO didn’t sponsor $275k?

From this proposal, we can see Schelling Point could support the GitcoinDAO (MMM and PGF) goals and benefits, but I have a question here:

• by supporting GitcoinDAO goals and benefits (or KPIs), do we have another ways to achieve them?
• how much cost for these ways?
• which is better for GitcoinDAO?

all in all, it’s bear market, for GitcoinDAO, we must be careful about the budgets and treasure management.

[juanna]

Thank you very much for this proposal Gloria! While I am incredibly excited about the prospect of bringing Schelling Point to Istanbul, the challenges that have come with raising during this market, especially for irl activations such as SP make me echo Bob, Maxwell, and Azeem’s sentiments on ultimately, the funding source + Bob’s questions

Considering our status as a newer Protocol DAO versus previous status as an Impact DAO, although our mission remains impactful on the space, we are shifting away from extremely manual scenarios (i.e. human calcs + disbursement of funds, hitting up sponsors each time an event is planned) in favor of experimenting with technology and ideas.

Bear market means funds are limited in the space and we need to think about sustainable models to protect this conference as a public good. Currently we need to drive protocol/product adoption and usage while also positioning thought leadership, and (playing devil’s advocate here) there could be much more cost-efficient ways to go about this than our bespoke biannual, free-to-attend conference.

Last Schelling Point–we raised over 200k in sponsorship funds. And our treasury spent 40k on top of that, when we perhaps did not need to–such as throwing the afterparty. I see that we no longer opted for that expenditure this time around, yet the cost is higher–which is somewhat expected given the overseas logistical planning. Don’t think defaulting to generous partners as the funding source will pan out as we have always hoped–based on continuing conversations w/ partners and colleagues in the space shifting away from larger-scale irl activations due to poor ROI.

This makes me nervous to host SP this time at around the same scale as our EthDenver event, and why I’m really looking forward to experiments in smaller scale formats at EthCC where it would theoretically be much simpler to trace direct impact from a much smaller pool of invited attendees.

@Maxwell

“While during past events most (if not all) of the associated costs were recuperated through sponsorships, the fundraising team will work to yield similar success while acknowledging the current bear market. In the event that fundraising 100% of the funds is not possible, the Gitcoin treasury will incur any additional costs.”

This wording makes me more comfortable proceeding with the SP Istanbul proposal.
While it may seem I’m making a lot of points against it, I fully support the event itself, & its presence in the space as a public good. It’s really important that SP continues to be accessible, but also sustainable long-term.

We’ve just started to see a bit of unraveling w/ traditional sponsor funding the last one. This time, would love to see us be more proactive in exploring alternative ways of pursuing this free (to everyone else) $275k (to us) event. Ultimately, I will support this proposal but also need to ensure we’re protecting the DAO and my team’s resources + ability to execute.

[ThePeregrineCo]

Hi Gloria- This is a great writeup and proposal!

Hello everyone! +1 on all the above. I produced media for a lot of top web3 events in '22 and I can confirm everyone is feeling the budget constraints this year.

I worked on Schelling Points through Bogotá, as well as its precursor Sustain web3 in 2020.

The original ethos of SP Denver '22 was- If you believe public goods are good, fund this free to attend event for the public good it produces. Sponsors got logo placement and mention but specifically no guaranteed speaker slots. The content curation and community vibe was very different from typical conferences where sponsors parade across the stage shilling. It was model designed for open access and purity of content, focused on public goods challenges.

Since then, external factors like market prices have created a more challenging design space. Its the season to get scrappy with the budgets. Personally I think thats a good thing- Keeps us sharp, focused on why were doing things and looking for creative solutions that could be more impactful. Could this be an evolution, an extension of the community curation and vibe- with a clear call to action. What if this is an opportunity for the community to step up and that participation them more passion and ownership?

Assuming sponsorship participation at a lower level covering 1/3, DAO covers 1/3, could the Community could cover a 1/3?

How might we raise funds without charging tickets? with an NFT project? Gitcoin has used these mechanisms before with Moonshot Bots and could explore them and other crypto native mechanisms again. I think we have all the tools to dogfood a better more sustainable event without compromising the community values. Love to explore this further.

Media, Access and ROI
In this climate another component to emphasize is the importance of live streaming events. The global nature of web3 has always warranted quality livestreams and video, that only increases with less people traveling. And beyond fly on the wall video- could we engage in meaning full virtual engagements?

Caution- the following may contain marketing speak which may be offensive to some

Brandawareness
For Gitcoin, I cant understate importance of Schelling Points for brand awareness- with Ethereum developer/ builder communities and the larger trad world. Thats always hard to quantify but anecdotally I heard about Schelling Point and Gitcoin together a lot.

Artifacts
These events are also important for the media artifacts they create. During the shift to web2 every organization became a publishing company. In web3 that only more true and there is no more cost effective way than event to generate this quantity of high quality raw material to fuel social. Also, in this space you cant just throw PPC ads at growth- everything has to be generated organically. This event partnership with the speakers and their communities cross pollinates organically and grows reach organically.

Excited to continue discussing this incredible community event!

[atris]

Thank you for the proposal Gloria. I especially applaud the push for events outside of the US / Western Europe. Public goods are often most needed in countries outside of our Western bubble, so it makes sense to me to increase our presence there.

Some thoughts:

1. We already have a very strong brand in the web3 community, and while we should strive to maintain and improve it, I don’t think throwing big events is the best way to use our funds and effort here. I would say our best bet to further improve our brand recognition is to ship quality products and protocols that continue to shape people’s image of Gitcoin as a Protocol DAO.

2. With this said, I think it would still be beneficial to host/sponsor smaller events, but focus on attracting an audience of developers, potential partners and stakeholders in the space, not just general attendees. In this case, 3 thousand people seems way too much for me. I don’t know the estimates for Devconnect Instanbul attendance, but I think finding 3 thousand developers/stakeholders and key partners at a single event would be a hard task even at DevCon - but I might be completely off-base here, so I would appreciate some actual numbers from previous events on this. I have personally attended ~12 crypto conferences and events, from the smallest meetups in Prague, Berlin and the like to the biggest events like DevCon, EthDenver etc. If the intent behind this event is to further our mission, then small, focused and highly curated events are the way to go in my opinion. Think EthGlobal hackathons - free to attend, but have to go through a simple application process to filter for the best participants. I’m not directly suggesting an application process, but I think a way to select for relevant people is in order here. I would therefore suggest scaling down the event to about 500 people, a thousand at most, and focus on quality of attendees over quantity of people reached.

3. Scaling down the event would also reduce a lot of the costs proportionally. Points on budget:

• swag: I’ve collected an enormous amount of swag from crypto events, and the best response I’ve seen were to two basic things: tshirts and POAPs. POAPs are free, and tshirts should be about 10 USD at most per piece in Turkey with this order size, but likely much lower even. Stickers are also fine, because they are so cheap.
• food & beverage: I think rallying people around lunch is great, but wouldn’t provide breakfast or dinner, and only light refreshments and snacks during the morning and afternoon. Since it isn’t a hackathon, I don’t think there’s an expectation from us to provide food for the whole time of the event, but lunch on-site is a good way to make sure people don’t spill from the event for lunch elsewhere and then don’t come back.
• team costs: does this include any extra compensation for the event outside of normal contributor compensation? does this include travel costs/housing? how many DAO members do we need to attend?

Again thank you for taking on the task of continuing the Schelling Point legacy.

[jengajojo]

Thank you for the proposal @gloria and glad to see GitcoinDAO venturing out of western markets. I would like to echo some of the concerns shared by commenters above when it comes to sustainability of this event.

I would suggest starting off with 1/3 of the ask to kickoff the process as @ThePeregrineCo suggested and try to raise funds from other partners and sources for the rest of the expenses. I understand that the external funding environment is tough as @azeem points out, so maybe you can come back to the DAO in a few months with some updates on the efforts you have made and ask for the remaining funds then.

We have a good contributor base in Turkey as BanklessDAO and we’d be happy to help you all with local contacts, prices and logistics to reduce your costs, feel free to reach out in DMs

[kyle]

Hey Gloria - Thanks for proposing this! We have been chatting some about slowing down our physical presence until the market comes back, and instead trying to rally more digitally. We have actually started to ask - what does a digital schelling point for public goods projects and supporters look like… I would love to explore that space more with you, instead of doing another event at DevConnect.

I am likely a no on this one, but lets chat more on how to transition the attendees some an online activation of sorts perhaps?