Let’s kick off SX ‘25 with a classic ATX DAO event. This year in particular - with a new Membership Round open, it’s crucial that we stand out at the center of Austin’s blockchain community.

Edge City is an ambitious, crypto-aligned Society Incubator. (https://www.edgecity.live/austin)

We learned that their team is hosting a week-long activation in Austin, during the lead-up to SXSW (3/2-3/7). Over the last ~2 weeks, we’ve built strong relationships with the Edge City team leadership and event organizers.

We have pitched Edge City on partnering to jointly deliver:

1. A Co-Hosted Closing/Opening Party at the end of the Edge City activation, as an equal joint-venture between Edge City and ATX DAO. This event would take place on Thurs, March 6, at Hotel Magdalena on S Congress. We will have access to the full event space, including the indoor conference area and the expansive outdoor lawn. They share our vision for an event including networking, arts experiences, and musical performances. This event would be open to EC conference attendees, members of ATX DAO and +1s, and potentially to the public through event-specific tickets.

2. An ATX DAO Workshop at Edge City’s Activation, contributed by a group of DAO members, to engage the Edge City audience in our DAO’s work as a novel Network Community. This workshop will give us space to invite members of blockchain adjacent communities - in AI, philosophy, network state circles, health and biotechnology, hard tech, and cypherpunk, to explore the uses of blockchain technology to advance their own industries. Some of the thinkers joining our team at the conference will be: Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum and Balaji Srinivasan of The Network State.

To make this partnership possible, we’ve negotiated an equal exchange of effort and value between Edge City and the DAO.

Edge City will provide: venue access at no cost, full production support from their team and the team at Hotel Magdalena, joint partnership on event marketing and efforts to secure additional sponsorship, as well as on booking for musical talent, run of show, etc. In return, they have asked us to cover the F&B minimum for the Magdalena event space at $10k USD. Our teams will work together closely to organize the event. Because their team will cover venue booking and production costs, we believe this is a fair arrangement.

We intend to secure sponsor revenue to cover this F&B minimum cost, and ideally to exceed it. Though EC will assist us, we will own an ATX DAO sponsorship pipeline. This is an ambitious goal. Because this event offers a unique, high-value form of visibility for potential sponsors, we believe it will be feasible to cover the majority or all of the event cost via sponsorship.

In order to proceed with a partnership commitment w/ the EC team, I am requesting advance approval of this funding amount from the DAO treasury. This will allow us to immediately go forward with sponsorship fundraising and other event planning tasks.

Request: Authorization of 10k in funding from the DAO treasury.

Team: John McDonald, Christopher Walsh, Jenaro Diaz. [+ you?] (Please contact us on TG or Discord if you would like to contribute.)

Summary of brief points in favor of the proposal:

• This partnership allows us to support the Membership Round with a robust event.
• In absence of this partnership, the DAO will not have a significant presence at SXSW.
• The cost for this event is competitive for a large-scale function held around SX, especially considering the scale and the quality of the venue.
• Edge City is uniquely aligned with our DAO values - decentralization & democratic governance. A stronger relationship with this community is in both of our interests.
• An Edge City collaboration gives us the chance to form valuable relationships with crypto adjacent industries - AI, philosophy, network states, hard tech, and health & biotech.