Financial Proposal: The Future is Now Gathering
TLDR
We request 5500 USDC (5000 EUR or equivalent) funding support for the interdisciplinary “The Future is Now” (FIN) gathering (website). The funding will support the attendance of individuals from minorities and disadvantaged groups with few financial means who could otherwise not attend.
Additionally, we invite the Aragon community to participate in the gathering - we believe it is crucial for web3 communities, such as the Aragon Network and DAO to also interact with “living communities” and people who bring impact and change in the world in projects outside of the current web3 world. It is so important to continue building bridges across disciplines.
This proposal got migrated from an ESD proposal, where the suggestion was to reach out to the broader community.
Background
“The Future is Now” is an interdisciplinary, intimate gathering on August 25-28th in Chorin, just north of Berlin.
It’s a co-created four-day immersion & inquiry into “How do we dream of AND manifest the vision of a world that’s worth living for?! How do we do this best across disciplines and with different backgrounds?”
It is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural group of people working toward this shared vision of a “better future”. Folks who are initiators, leaders, and manifestors in their own fields - social justice, art, web3, entrepreneurs, spiritual guides, community builders, climate, permaculture, land-based communities, and more.
It’s all about building bridges between the different bubbles and communities - knowing that each of them holds a piece of the collective puzzle.
I will call this shared vision we share a “game-b” environment for the sake of this proposal.
1. Rationale
We believe it is crucial for web3 communities, such as the Aragon Network and DAO to continue building bridges with other “living communities” and people who bring impact and change in the world toward a future worth living for outside the web3 ecosystem. The Future is Now is a place and time to bring those different communities and their leaders/initiators together.
With (or without) this funding we also invite representatives of the Aragon Network and DAO to join us as we believe the shared experience at FIN will feed back into how the DAO thinks and acts about building “real-world applications” that can be used by land-based community projects, artistic endeavors, social justice projects, permaculture communities, and other projects.
Being part of The Future is Now (as sponsor or participant) benefits Aragon
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Get exposure to a wide range of real-world projects working toward a future worth living for - where decentralization is a key part of this future at large
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Get connected with leaders and initiators in the fields of social justice, permaculture, land-based communities, spiritual communities, and more → strengthening the web outside of pure web3
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Ultimately support the existing communities in their web3 adoption and strategies leading to new and different DAOs than what exists today on Aragon
FIN already received a 5000 EUR matching grant from an individual supporter - any EUR donated will be matched by that grant 1 to 1 up to 5000 EUR matched. The funding proposal will allow us to make attendance for FIN more affordable for those with fewer financial means.
2. Objectives
The aim of this funding is to support The Future is Now gathering - bringing forth a strong network of projects and people building a “better world” and making web3 & DAOs a crucial part of that.
3. Deliverables / Milestones
The Future is Now gathering will happen August 25-28th regardless of this funding request.
However, this additional funding will allow us to
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Invite and financially support 7-10 participants from minorities and disadvantaged groups with few financial means, who otherwise could not join the gathering.
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Include their important voices in the creation and manifestation of future projects working toward this “game-b”/“better future”.
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We will have a slot for a Aragon representative to present or hold a workshop/session at FIN
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Additionally, invite one or two representatives of Aragon as part of the gathering to have the voice of Aragon and DAO wisdom in the room
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If desired: Post-event, we will offer to all participants to join a call with the Aragon product/research/UX team to have a conversation/interview about how the participants envision DAOs/web3 to be part of what they are building today.
Routine
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We would love to have one pre-call with representatives from Aragon ahead of FIN to make sure the participants and the DAO will get the most out of this gathering.
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Participants, who now get their costs funded, join for the event on August 25-28
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Participants from Aragon join the event on August 25-28
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Post-event (within one month) we will offer the participants of FIN to join a call with the Aragon team (hosted and run by Aragon) - if desired by Aragon
4. Team
The core orga team of FIN is
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Philip Stehlik (@pstehlik) - Founder of multiple software companies (US, EU), co-founder of Centrifuge, ETHBerlin 1+2 core-team, community builder, co-living researcher, facilitator
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Lena Bumke - Artist, psychologist, community builder, facilitator, bodyworker
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Dana Mara - social justice activist, artist, facilitator
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Matthias Holzman - Serial entrepreneur (APAC, US), community builder
We organized events, gatherings, communal inquiries, and workshops before.
We don’t hold official roles within Aragon at this point but used Aragon for some projects and interactions with DAOs.
5. Strategic Alignment
If Aragon is truly building tools, community, and a network that is to last long into the future and have an impact on how people live, interact, behave, and organize then a connection with communities outside web3 is crucial.
With this gathering, we bring a group of changemakers, makers, and doers from varying backgrounds together who built things and continue building wonderful impactful projects - what better place for Aragon to connect to?
4. Limitations & Risks
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There are no existential risks
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We do want to connect Aragon - if desired - with our participants and their projects. If that post-event connection point is not managed well, the generated energy might not be used optimally.
5. Funding Information
Ideally, funding is sent pre-event so we can extend the invitations to the respective participants while having financial security.
If funding is confirmed but not sent pre-event, we could also self-fund the expenses and receive the funds after the event but that would put financial insecurity on the event orga.
