Bankless Nation Enters The Meatspace
Authors: baez#0540, johnlikes__#8268
Squad: OpenFi#1157, Airbayer#0052, alexdw5#7827, RedVan#0611, adamanz#0668, jack#2222, garcon#7974, adityataday#8632, frogmonkee#6855
Date Posted: Monday, October 25, 2021
SUMMARY
- We want to sponsor & host IRL events.
- Three buckets: educational, networking, and casual.
- These events will bring more people into the community & grow our brand.
- We want to host our first event on the Friday of NFT NYC, in hopes that more members will be around and more of us will meet each other IRL.
BACKGROUND
Why are you making this proposal?
- We believe there’s a massive opportunity to host IRL events to not only facilitate onboarding and bring new members into the community but also to grow Bankless brand equity.
What problem or opportunity does this proposal target?
- As a media node, offering onboarding workshops, networking events, or simply just hosting an open bar will not only facilitate better coordination at the local chapter level but will also provide leverageable content and brand discovery.
What are the driving factors behind why you think this is a good idea?
- People want membership perks, this is just another one.
- If AV is executed correctly, this would be a highly leverageable media machine.
MISSION & VALUES ALIGNMENT
Mission
We will help the world go Bankless by hosting education and onboarding events, building localized hubs of long-term friendships that may lead to new ideas, and introducing members to new people that may open up new doors—all of which, will benefit not only Bankless but the entire web3 space at-large.
Education:
Event possibilities include hosting guest speakers, organizing launch parties & live demos, hackathon-style events, NFT educational panels, live onboarding, and so on.
Networking:
Event possibilities include cocktail hours with VC firms, or other crypto communities and DAOs, etc.
Culture & Casual:
For someone with no technical skills, entering the world of web3 can be a bit daunting. Providing a localized community can offer a welcoming first experience and facilitate further interest in Bankless & web3 as a whole.
Note: Other event ideas can be found in the forum post HERE, including longer-term ideas and routes the future roadmap could potentially take.
Vision
The impact of cryptocurrency and blockchain on society is clear, and DeFi is broadly where the technology will seem to have the most tangible and long-lasting impact. With our help, the future is a place where anyone with an internet connection has access to the financial tools needed to achieve financial independence.
Bankless is leading the way as the most trusted brand in DeFi, but we see a URL-only existence as a barrier to onboarding/developing new user adoption as well as encouraging engagement and evangelism (which would further accelerate adoption). By hosting IRL events, we are creating an avenue to establish relationships and develop trust in the real world, which is where many people are still most comfortable.
SCOPE OF WORK & IMMEDIATE NEED
We intend to host a Bankless-gated event—the week of NFT NYC—on Friday, November 5th, whereby NYC natives and inbound BANK-holders, can gather, have some drinks, and get to know each other. Holders of 30k+ BANK will be able to RSVP and invite a guest (i.e., a +1).
This is the very first official Bankless IRL meeting, which will serve somewhat as a “proof of concept,” showing the community that Bankless is, in fact, moving into the meatspace. 
OBJECTIVE
We see the first event as an opportunity for many of us to meet fellow Bankless members and giving the timing around NFT NYC, to meet members in the community that are traveling into NYC for the week. For this first event, we will gate attendance to only BANK holders and permit members to invite a plus one.
Further down the line, these events will eventually extend to all people and go beyond socializing to feature educational content, such as potentially holding onboarding events with current Bankless partners, such as Index Coop, where we could host large-scale events to onboard college students.
Other event possibilities include hosting guest speakers, organizing launch parties & co-sponsored events, creating pop-up NFT galleries, swag drops, conferences, hackathons, and so on.
A forum post was made about 4 months ago on June 30th, that had 49 votes with 41% of them agreeing that Bankless sponsored IRL events would be beneficial to the long-term mission of Bankless. That post can be found HERE.
IMMEDIATE EVENT SPECIFICATION
The event will take place on the Friday, November 5th, following NFT.NYC 2021. We believe many Bankless members will be in NYC that week and will be interested in attending.
- We’ll have a three-hour open bar in a private room at the Velvet Lounge in Brooklyn with a max 60 person capacity. It’s about a 30-minute subway ride via the M train from Times Square.
- We’ll have a 120-inch screen with the Bankless logo and affiliated NFTs rotating over the course of the night.
- The event will run from 8 PM to 11 PM, and we’ll have live music, mixed by our very own BANK GANG, aka Jack & Garcon. Praise to thee: jack#2222, garcon#7974.
- Additionally, we’ll have a professional photographer on the scene, providing us with plenty of photos and videos we can feature across our socials.
Application
We’ll leverage a password-protected Eventbrite to manage the RSVP list, and, of course, all attendees will receive a POAP.
Marketing
To get the word out for the event, we will mainly leverage the Bankless DAO Discord and Twitter.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
We will require funding of approximately $5500 which is roughly comprised of:
- Venue: $1800 total
- Base: $1500
- Gratuity: $300
- Open Bar:
- Base: $2880 (max capacity @ $48/head)
- Gratuity: $570
- Photo/videographer :
- $200
At current BANK prices, this equates to roughly 61K BANK. Given the time constraints, a few members of this squad are willing to split the cost and front it until we can figure out a better solution.
It’s also worth noting that we believe there are significant opportunities to leverage our relationships and partners, such as Index, Pool, FWB, and various teams within MetaCartel, to offset some of these costs in the future as we explore co-sponsorships and co-hosted events.
(For this proposal we will include the “Request Season 2 Funding” tag on the DAO project page prior to the snapshot vote for the seasonal projects.)
BRAND USAGE
A professional photographer will be on the scene, providing leverageable content for our socials.
Additionally, we’ll have a 120-inch projector rotating Bankless logos and affiliated NFTs throughout the event.
SUCCESS METRICS OR KPIS
We’ve had 2 unofficial Bankless events in NYC, each of which brought new members into Bankless Nation. Based on previous event attendance and recent discussions, we expect 30 Bankless members plus roughly 30 guests to attend this event.
SQUAD BACKGROUND
Basil The Usurper - Organizer of first couple non-official Bankless IRL events in NYC & Chapter Telegram group; NYC partnerships lead for Friends With Benefits (FWB).
JohnLikes DAOs - Former TradFi, currently running regional expansion of a B2B PropTech start-up; crypto meetup enthusiast, and strong believer in the power of communities and IRL evangelism.
One small anecdote of the value here