Event Retro: ETH CC 2023

In the city of lights, our team - Robbie, Vishal, and Dae - promoted the Universal Impact Pool (UIP) and explored the event scene.

Highlights from the event:

The team attended funding the Common, hosted an NDAO Park Wine Hang, and presented a talk at the Schelling Point Paris House.

Dae met the team behind 'Funding the Commons' at the ReFi Summit, an IRL conference in Paris. Bruxa coordinated the NDAO Park Wine Hang remotely, and Dae assisted with on-site arrangements. Vishal was also present at the Metamask’s breakfast event.

Hypothesis Going into ETH CC:

The ETH CC event allowed us to commemorate the Universal Impact Pool (UIP) and present the launch statistics. We also showed solidarity with our associates at Gitcoin during their Schelling Point activation.

We wanted to observe the attendees, network, and generate hype for the UIP and Global Giving. We kept it simple since our budget was mostly for ETH BCN.

What went well:

We had the opportunity to meet individuals and participate in meaningful discussions about Endaoment's current use cases and its real-world applications.

The conversations we shared about Endaoment were well-received by all. We are confident that these valuable relationships will continue to grow through upcoming events and potential partnerships.

Paris is a great city, ideal for gatherings like the NDAO Park Wine Hang, offering an intimate ambiance and excellent wine. This allowed us to create a genuine experience, which even led to an organic retweet from Glo! Overall, the events were well-organized, warm, and welcoming.

The Wine Hang highlighted our ability to deliver a top-notch event with limited resources and budgeting. This approach can serve as a use case for organizing smaller, laid-back community events in different locations.

Vishal, Robbie, and Dae attended Schelling Point House, engaging in enriching discussions and connecting within the Refi and Public Goods community. They emphasized the positive experience of being part of a shared community with other teams, reinforcing the fact that we are all working for the same objective.

The team also engaged actively in various discussions about Public Goods at the grassroots level and contributed to the network's growth.

What was challenging:

Organizing the NDAO Wine Hang with a tighter budget demanded more than usual internal coordination for supplies and setup. We faced challenges in sponsoring ETH CC and encountered difficulties in reaching out to contacts. We were nervous about not being able to go to every event until we decided to go for a balanced approach, adopting a "divide and conquer" strategy to cover our ground.

The widespread distribution of events posed a logistical hurdle; considering a centralized event hub might be more effective in the future. The informal setup of our meetup spot and our approach to serving caused initial disarray. While providing our food and drinks saved costs, it also brought complexities, and we overestimated attendance.

What did we learn:

It could have been wiser to prioritize sponsoring additional ETH CC activities, considering its high turnout, rather than placing a strong emphasis on ETH BCN. The side events associated with ETH CC appeared to align better with our objectives. Staying flexible while planning was essential due to the changing nature of in-person gatherings.

The general sentiment is that we're in a significant bear market, which presents numerous chances to engage on an infrastructure level this summer. Now is the time to work on L2 solutions and account abstraction. As a team, we are optimistic about the path. We are bullish about the direction we're taking finance.

Vishal suggests that we advance our events strategy by connecting real-world institutions to the .finance and .org domains. We could collaborate with our marketing partners to explore events with relevance beyond crypto, like those organized by the Financial Times, the Economist, and similar platforms.

We need to be cautious about our spending choices and ensure they align with the desired impact and outreach. With increased funding, we can explore ways to amplify what we sought funding for and think about who Robbie and other team members need to connect with as we approach the next funding round.

Our time in Paris let us make important connections, like introducing Alexis to Edilia, who wants to fund Operas through cryptocurrency. Vishal also reconnected with a former professor, gaining expertise in user research. The significance of side events became evident as a valuable lesson, perhaps even more significant than the main ETH CC conference.