Thanks Guido!
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IMHO this makes perfect sense and is the right direction. Polkadot is externally still not perceived well (dead etc) and we would loose many possible visitors by putting it into the event name. Sad but true - maybe marketing can find out why that is and how to change it.
I feel like we are just not yet in a position where we can say Polkadot and people will come instead of run. But once that is, we can start branding our events with it.
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100% agree. We shouldn’t expect people to care about Polkadot just because we do. The sad reality is that most people outside of our Polkadot bubble have a lot of misconceptions about it. We should be strategic and try to bring people in by being more open and having events next to big events from other ecosystems.
Excited to see Sub0 in Buenos Aires 
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I love the idea, the community in Argentina is huge.
Is this event already confirmed? Or is it still subject to the proposal approval?
Could you share the treasury proposal link with us if there’s already one?
Hello,
we definitively need the name Polkadot in the event name, nobody knows what’s decoded or sub0 stand for. I dont understand why the name would detract people from coming to a Polkadot event. If it is that bad and you have data to back off your claim, then we should rebrand.
I would love to understand more about the impact you expect to have.
For example, sub0 reset had 2100 guests. How many of them are now working on Polkadot?
What i would love to see is a proposal with:
- a fix cost (organisation cost)
- a variable cost that depends on the impact of the event 1 month after
We want to have an impact outside the ecosystem. If it is mostly an event for Polkadot people, 0.5m$ is still a lot of money. Can you please details the part with “other ecosystems”? who is invited?
What do you want people outside of the ecosystem to remember from Polkadot?
P.
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Speaking from my personal experience, I think that an event with any specific brand in its name is quite the turnoff to establishing a diverse space across many builders.
For example, this last week had a really high quality event: Protocol Berg:
Protocol Berg v2 was a conference focusing on protocol research, decentralized infrastructure, and core-developer experience.
They have strict content guidelines:
We’d also like to use this opportunity to remind you of the Protocol Berg content guidelines:
- Marketing-focused talks or product presentations are out of scope for Protocol Berg.
- We do not accept any token shilling, consulting/services or other product-related content on stage.
- Presenting a particular technology as part of a technical discussion is fine and welcome.
- Ask yourself: If you were in the audience, would you find your talk/workshop interesting, helpful, informational and relevant?
I think this kind of approach leads to really good outcomes.
I think, unfortunately, the reality is that the brand is that bad for many people in the blockchain industry.
I have a lot of confidence in the way the @WebZero team does their marketing.
They are super Polkadot aligned, but in many ways, they convince people to think Polkadot is cool, and change their attitude.
For example, at this last event, the main brand is “BlockSpati”, but “Powered by Polkadot”.
And there was no lack of Polkadot “shilling” throughout the event:
I think actually this is quite a wrong approach. One of the ways that Polkadot has failed, imo, has been being so Europe focused. The number one way to achieve success from events, imo, is to create the events where the people are. Large events like Devconnect bring lots of people together from many ecosystems, and our goal should be to bring those people into our ecosystem.
I think we should be able to make a really simple measure of this kind of hypothesis:
Protocol Berg and Web3 Summit are very similar in “vibe” (chain agnostic, no shilling, etc…).
They also both take place in Berlin.
But Protocol Berg takes place during blockchain week, which is bringing lots of people from many ecosystems together, while Web3 Summit is the only event happening in Berlin at that time (as far as I know).
The impact of hosting a Polkadot event at Protocol Berg will be much higher than at Web3 Summit, imo, as a result.
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I agree with @shawntabrizi on many of the statements and want to add some further thoughts.
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The success of the next “decoded” will depend on how well we piggyback on the momentum other conferences and meetups create simultaneously, but outshine them. It worked with Protocolberg (Eth-centric target group), Berlin Blockchain Week (Meetups & Side events), and Blockspäti (the Webzero hackerhouse).
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WebZero represents the authentic spirit and fun meme culture of Web3. I’ve been at their events in Denver, Toronto, and Berlin, and their quality of work has been consistently good, as well as their fiscal responsibility, with creative ingenuity of creating FOMO for their events which ad-budget wouldn’t achieve.
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We won’t likely find consensus on the name here, but I’d leave the responsibility up to the team that has to make the call. And they’ve hit the Zeitgeist pretty well with their last naming. For example, “Blockspäti” in Berlin refers to corner shops that are open 24/7. “The Mansion” in Denver was truly a countryside mansion when Denver was still the wild west. The “BlockSpace Queen/west” in Toronto is in the popular nightlife district, with its pink Polkadot bus being another highlight.
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So if the event is like ProtocolBerg (which I agree is a great format) why should the treasury pay for it?
I think there are two answers.
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It’s the same reason for every event organizer when ticket sales aren’t enough to cover the expenses. In the Protocolberg example, €100k came from the JUST Open Source Foundation, and just $4k from donations for the free tickets. Either the event becomes very commercial (and soulless), like Consensus or Token2049. Or we let people with passion run it. But passion alone doesn’t pay the bills.
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Networks can be decentralized and trustless, but not humans. It is incredibly important for folks to come together in person, vibe, and talk P2P without any medium. Conferences are the place for that connection, with which much more can get done. So, I’d say the proposal offers enough “common good” to justify that the treasury funds it.
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Hi everyone!
We’re really excited to see all the flurry of activity here and know there are several teams eagerly awaiting the proposal.
While we wanted to answer the above questions as thoroughly as possible and include a comprehensive budget overview in the final proposal, we know people need to work out flights and make plans. Therefore, putting the proposal on-chain is of utmost importance, and we’ve decided the publication date will be Friday, July 4th.
We just want to add:
Last year, for the sub0 reset conference, the Polkadot ecosystem accounted for 16% of all attendees, with the most signups coming from Avail, Chainsafe, Solana, Cosmos, Arweave, Cardano, Stellar, NEAR, Aptos, GalaChain, Filecoin, Berachain, Sui, Celo, Tezos, and Mantra Chain.
We aim to have a similar percentage this time. This shows how we were able to successfully onboard cross-chain initiatives, as well as local students with our scholarship initiatives - something that we are going to bring back for this year. Devconnect is the ideal conference to achieve true synergy between the Polkadot community and the broader Web3 and Web2 ecosystems.
Where’s your financial breakdown?
The full proposal will include a more precise budget breakdown. While we could have released the proposal several months ago, collecting quotes and establishing local initiatives to get the best possible negotiated price is of utmost importance so that we can execute as accurately to the budget as possible.
What’s your builder retention?
- We funnel developers from the event to business development, grants, and support pipelines such as Fast Grants, PBA, and W3F grants. Former Parity engineer Sacha Lansky is leading these initiatives, and we’re refining retention at every hackathon we execute.
- The Hackathon(s) at sub0 will be a tool to identify builders who want to continue developing their ideas after the event, something we’ve been executing successfully for more than a year.
- People attending the conference for the first time will be invited to future dev or business development events using our custom CRM integration, which will enable us to better capture the journey. We expect this tool to be market-ready by the time sub0 occurs. Data is completely at our fingertips, with every guest being part of the bigger picture. We’d love to jump on a call to show you everything we can now achieve with the dashboards.
Why are we funding something that isn’t Polkadot in the name?
We’ve had a lot of time to experiment with event branding, and we feel we’ve achieved a great medium to attract the public without deterring them by blasting “Polkadot” everywhere without much thought. Similar to the 100+ events we’ve hosted for Polkadot over the past three years, we believe it will be clear that this is a Polkadot event. From the moment someone accesses the event page or steps out of their Uber at the venue, they will be presented with heavy Polkadot branding. The unofficial name is “sub0 symbiosis - The Polkadot Flagship Conference.” (Still a working title) While the hackerspace will be called after our signature Blockspace, this will be visibly powered by Polkadot.
Each room of the conference will be designed to reflect the Polkadot narrative with branding nuance, with various rooms potentially representing a parachain (e.g., a “swimming pool” for hydration, JAM code projection-mapped on the walls in an interactive display in the main room).
Last year’s sub0 was a great example of how branding may look: (taken from Twitter profile)
Thank you for your patience and feedback and looking forward to your comments on the proposal.
WebZero team
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Hi everyone, quick update: We are still awaiting some very critical quotes for equipment rentals (good money saving opportunity) and don’t feel comfortable posting just yet. Please have a little more patience with us, we are working hard to make this event an absolute banger.
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