2024 is a wrap!
It's been +4 weeks. Funny how time works sometimes.
For me, it still feels like we all just met a couple days ago.
It's been a big honor and pleasure working with all of you and hosting the inaugural Nouns Town event series.
3 key take aways:
- We successfully seeded the event concept "Nouns Town".
- When hosting events, focus on cultivating spaces for visitors to make memories and "do stuff" - focus on "money can't buy experiences". Memories that live in people's minds rent free for as long as possible.
- The more every pocket in our subcultures champion and bring forward what they do best, the closer we get to connect and expand our ecosystem at the same time. Prime examples are the intersections created by bringing together e.g. Nouns Amigo's Piñatas x Nouns Esports x Art Gallery x Live Painting.
I intentionally kept this a written recap and report with no shiny visuals.
Photos, videos and clips are linked where appropriate.
If you have more detailed questions, please reach out on Warpcast or Discord.
Starting with some stats from the events
- 75 ticket NFTs were minted through the website
- 140 RSVPs through lu.ma for day 1 at Secret Walls as a second tiered ticket.
Insights not based on primary data
- Visitors from +6 countries:
- Canada
- Brazil
- Mexico
- Portugal
- Sweden
- USA
- more than five nounish Communities activated at Nouns Town alongside Nouns DAO:
- Builder DAO
- Lil Nouns
- Nouns Amigos
- Nouns Esports
- Yellow Collective
Day 1
We scanned 140 tickets in total: 82 NFT linked tickets (minted tickets + Nouner claims), 58 luma tickets.
+25-30 people who I granted access to the event because they didn't have a ticket but were clearly part of the community
Day 2
74 people signed the guestlist for the brunch. There might has been some slipage of 3-5 people.
Day 3
71 people attended the dinner
Budget
The good news is, we didn't overspend. And, there's budget left.
What's left?
- 15k USDC for speakers. No speaker was compensated.
- 6k USDC for editorials / advertorials (Marketing).
Things we did with the budget that wasn't outlined in the proposal.
- We sponsored an artist contest with the "nounish" team on IG and flew in the winner, Jess, to live paint alongside Vinnie Hager, Sloppy, Bob, Yon and Brett.
- The Precious Plastic Noggles station
- Co-funded Lakyn with Nouns Deli to cook and perform at Secret Walls - he's a chef at Nouns Deli, Singer and Songwriter and Skateboarder.
- Dinner for +71 people on Friday evening.
- Break dance performance
- Kendama activation
Things that went well
It's safe to say it was all smiles. Four weeks later, people are still posting about their experiences and memories they made.
As a whole, reflecting on the 4 days it's safe to say 2024 was a success.
A few highlights that went particularly well:
- Smash Melee Tournament by Nouns Esports
- Merch Station by nouns.supply
- Piñata by Nouns Amigos
- Brunch at Perch on Thursday
Not part of this proposal but key cornerstones that made Nouns Town 2024 special:
- Nouns Fest Animation Festival on Thursday
- Surf Session with Sunny & Ricky on Friday
- Nouns can dream at Dreamland by Bob Burnquist on Saturday
I'm personally also proud of the fact that the entire planning process happened remotely on my end.
Things that didn't go well
- Running Rounds. One would think that earning money is the most difficult. It turns out, it's even more difficult to simply give it away in a compliant way. I didn't expect this. Due to regulations I wasn't able to simply give away funds in rounds as intended. Which I also raised during the planning phase in a propdate. Instead I distributed the funds compliant to creators in the community. All calls for creators are documented below in recent propdates.
- Commuting and transportation. I'm mainly refering to the general sentiment and my personal experience: on day 1 + 2, it wasn't that much of a big deal. But on Friday it was quite fragmented which required extensive communiting and for Saturday we could have planned for 1 or 2 buses to drive down to Vista.
- Day 1 - Catering. My general impression was that nobody left hungry or thirsty and that the quality of food and beverages was solid. However it has been raised that the 2 food stands in the afternoon and evening could have been better coordinated time wise.
Misses
- The biggest miss was on day 1: we had so much programming so that I felt like all the live performances didn't get the spotlight they deserved - namely Lakyn, The Park and Nouns Breakers. It was mainly because the stage was too far away from the the rest of the happenings.
- And, on day 1: we did not get to host the lightning talks because the attention was mainly in the front of the yard and venue.
- Another miss was not to coordinate busses for commuting on Friday and Saturday.
Do more
- One thing that people kept positively raising to me during the first day was: "There's so much to do!". Which is why I believe that we should cultivate more environments and spaces for visitors to make memories and connect – "Money can't buy experiences".
- While I was working through the budgets and line items after the event, I realized that some of the funds could've have worked harder and more for us as a community. Nevertheless we stayed in budget, which is a good thing. However if Nouns Town 2025 happens, I want to spend more time on optimizing spending and not just "make it happen".
What's next?
This year the goal was to seed Nouns Town as an event concept. And I believe we hit the goal. Which is the reason why I'd like to start planning Nouns Town 2025.
Is Nouns Town 2025 a rinse and repeat of this year, just in a different city? I don't believe that's desirable.
So these are the next steps:
- Let's get this out of the way first: I'm planning to bring a proposal forward for 2025. It's likely going to be a 2 phased approach – 1 proposal for concept + planning + partner bd + marketing working budget (MWB) and the second for the actual production of the event; all tbd and tbc.
- Media. You might have noticed that we haven't published a lot of the captured media, yet. This was an intentional decision at the time when I saw a lot of event attendees doing a fantastic job reporting through their own lenses. We will strategically release media from this year to promote 2025 which will feel fresh and original since the world hasn't seen our version yet. Specifically 2D and 3D assets, as well as some written editorials from community members.
- Advertorials. We still have the budget for Advertorials. I'd like to use that budget to release an editorial with a media partner at the end of the year, and if the budget allows: as part of the promotion for 2025.
- Remaining budget. The budget we haven't spent on speakers (15k), I'd like to re-allocate to MWB in 2025. But if the proposal for Nouns Town 2025 doesn't pass, I'll return the funds accordingly.
If you have more detailed questions, please reach out on Warpcast or Discord.
And here's an incomplete list of Thank You's - ordered alphabetically not by weight :)
- ...
- 40
- 4156
- Anaroth
- Andrea
- Becco
- Bix
- Bob
- Bones
- Bower
- Brennen
- Brett
- Chan
- Cole
- Derek
- Emma
- Goldy
- Gossamer
- Gui
- Jack
- Jade
- Jess
- Jesse
- Joshua
- Humpty
- iSpeakNerd
- Klim
- Krel
- Lakyn
- Leo
- Lex
- Mari
- Mike
- Mono
- Pat
- Peter
- Ohan
- Ricky
- Prof
- Sasquatch
- Satori
- Seneca
- Sloppy
- Spencer
- Terry
- The Park
- Toady
- Tom
- Towner
- Vinnie
- Yon
- ...
Appendix
Here are all activations in case someone wants to read it up and it's not on the website anymore.
Tuesday, 08 Oct 2024
Welcome to Nouns Town Happy Hour at Rooftop at Hotel Erwin; Sponsored by BuilderDAO and LilNouns
Wednesday, 09 Oct 2024
- Brunch Opening
- Tattoo Station by Gossamer Rozen
- Nounish Drawn Apart - LIVE
- The Archive Experience by Bigshottoyworks
- Community Gallery by Lil Nouns
- Merch Maker Space by nouns.supply
- Precious Plastic DIY Station
- Tabletop Games by /tabletop
- Speaker Series
- 40
- 4156 + Seneca
- Bob Burnquist
- Eric Towner
- Jesse Pollak
- Terry Guy
- Live Painting
- Sloppy Pencil
- Bob Burnquist
- BrettDrawsStuff
- Gossamer Rozen
- Vinnie Hager
- Jess Wiseman
- Yon
- Smash Melee Tournament by Nouns Esports
- Live Concert by The Park
- Breaking performance by Nouns Breakers
- Live Concert by Lakyn Heperi
- Yard Games by Lil Nouns
- Premieres
- Nogglers – Mavericks of Time
- The Rise of Blus – Nouns Movie
- Sunny in Nicaragua
- Benbodhi Decoded
- Nounish Piñata by Nouns Amigos
- Lil Hoedown by lil Nouns
Thursday
- Brunch in the Clouds at Perch LA
- A Nounish Photo Walk by humpty
- Park Day with nounspace and Public Nouns
- Nouns Fest Animation Festival
Friday
- Surf Experience with Sunny Pires
- Bagels & Builders by BuilderDAO
- Break Dance Performance, lead by Andrea
- A Session at the Studio with The Park
- Dinner
Saturday
Nouns Can Dream at Dreamland by Bob Burnquist
- Exploring Dreamland
- Live Painting
- Best Trick on the Noggle Rail
- Best Trick on the Mega Ramp
- Sunset Bowl Session
- Awards & Sunset celebration
- HBO Docuseries Screening
GET YOUR NOUNS TOWN PASS NOW!
T-6! This is important for everyone:
If you're a Nouner or minted a NFT ticket on the website - there's one last step to get ready for Nouns Town LA!
go through the steps in this form:
https://nounstown.deform.cc/claim2024pass/
If you're a last minute decision maker, don't own a Noun and didn't mint the NFT - please sign up here: https://nounstown.deform.cc/signupnow/
we might release another small batch of tickets!
Nouns Town through YOUR Lense
For the editorial series "Through the lens of [your name]", I'm searching for three individuals who will spend at least October 9 - 11 in LA attending all major Nouns Town events - namely:
Oct 9 - at Secret Walls
Oct 10 - Brunch + Nouns Fest Animation Festival
Oct 11 - Surf with Sunny OR Bagels & Builders and visiting The Park's studio
The editorial will be exclusively published on nounstown.wtf with all your credentials.
Headline example: October 9 - Nouns Town through the lens of Jess
You don't have to be a photographer.
You don't have to be a journalist.
But, you'll have to take photos and write a blog post :)
If this is something you'd like to do, please reach out via discord (benjamin_____) or warpcast (@latsko.eth).
Briefing
- Write 1 blogpost with minimum 600 words per day capturing your personal highlights, general vibes and gems that otherwise would go unnoticed. Include a "note to self" about what to do more next time.
- Minimum of 15 photos per day that are exclusively published in the blogpost. You will receive a special camera for the event to capture moments through your lense. Once you transferred all photos, the camera is yours.
We expect the blogpost to be truthful, self written and uplifting.
Use a LLM only to parse for any grammar or spelling errors.
Deadlines
Every blogpost and photo selection must be handed in by 12pm PST the day after.
Blogpost from 10/9: 12pm PST on 10/10
Blogpost from 10/10: 12pm PST on 10/11
Blogpost from 10/11: 12pm PST on 10/12
Blogpost from 10/12: 12pm PST on 10/13
Budget
1000 USDC for the outlined deliverables.
And, you can keep the camera to capture future ⌐◨-◨ moments :)
Payment
In order to get paid, you'll have to issue a formal invoice.
Payment in USDC on Base after all photos and blogposts have been delivered.
Tickets for Nouns Town
Reiterating the ticket claims, since I'm seeing people signing up 2-3 times.
There are 3 ticket levels:
Level 1 - You're a Nouner
Level 2 - Same perks as level 1 from October 9 - 11
Level 3 - That's the luma link. It's a one day pass only.
If you're a Nouner, you don't HAVE to claim a ticket. You'll be able to claim the wallet pass with your Noun prior to the event.
If you're NOT a Nouner, please claim your ticket here: https://www.tickets.nounstown.wtf/2024
If you want to bring your friends & family on day 1 only to the inaugural event at Secret Walls, sign up here: https://lu.ma/9lb8t14g
Call for artists!
At the maker space on October 9, everyone will be able to customize their own merch with a selection from 3 screen prints and multiple graphics to heat press onto the garments.
If you're an artist and would like to work on this project, please reach out via discord (benjamin_____) or warpcast (@latsko.eth) and share a preliminary idea or sketch.
I'm looking to commission up to 2 artists by tomorrow EOD.
Please share this with your artist friends too!
Briefing
1x large graphic for the screenprinter which will be a large print on the back of the t-shirts. Mono color.
3-5 smaller graphics that we can get produced as vinyls for the heatpress. max 10x10cm in size. Can be your version of ⌐◨-◨, a smaller character or other nounish elements.
Deadline
Monday, Sept 30 - EOD CET
Budget
2k USDC for the outlined deliverables.
Payment
In order to get paid, you'll have to issue a formal invoice.
Payment in USDC on Base.
We’re 19 days out from the event series Nouns Town happening in LA and a lot has happened since the proposal passed on July 26.
TLDR;
Generally things are slowly but surely falling into place - no red flags or road blockers.
If you’re a Nouner, you don’t have to claim your ticket yet.
If you don’t own a Noun, mit your ticket here: https://www.tickets.nounstown.wtf/2024
If you don’t mess with crypto and are fine with a 1-day pass to Secret Walls, sign up here: https://lu.ma/9lb8t14g
Schedule: https://nounstown.wtf/schedule
Here’s the link to subscribe to the calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=c_a5d535d564d17791286ac7f2186bff8716b58080ab09dd2c04318261906a5fc8%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Europe%2FLisbon
And here is a more granular break down:
Major Pivot first
Because of legislative restrictions, unfortunately it’s currently impossible to distribute funds through rounds.wtf anonymously and permissionless. Therefor I decided to pivot away from distributing the 15k USDC through rounds on warpcaster & X to „call for submissions“ in the categories of „art“ and „activities on October 10 + 11“. These will launch towards the weekend!
I will do my very best do keep the distribution fair and sensible. The only requirement for the submissions is for the proposer to issue a formal invoice - it could be compared to a community RFP.
Please also reach out if you have any questions or concerns.
Here’s a list of progress updates from the proposal broken down to the individual event date:
October 9
- Venue has been booked and is locked in
- Artists are all confirmed
- Speaker line-up is confirmed
Add’l schedule items that weren’t on the proposal:
- Live Performances by Lakyn + Leo
- nounish draws apart - LIVE episode
- Nouns Deli Pop-Up
- Community Gallery
- Premiere: Sunny in Nicaragua
- Nounish Piñata by Nouns Amigos
and more surprise and delights planned here and there :)
October 10
- We locked in the venue for the Brunch at Perch LA which will be great for everyone to come together to start the day, hang out and break out into your with your squad to regroup and connect. The venue is 15mins by foot from the United Theater on Broadway where the Nouns Fest Animation Festival is happening.
- More side events were submitted and will be added to the agenda soon.
October 11
- Activities have been added to the schedule. If there’s something you’d like to host, please reach out via discord, warpcast or twitter!
October 12
I’m in close alignment with Bob and we’ve included the event at Dreamland on the schedule. event link for registration will be shared shortly!
That’s it for now!
I’m looking forward to Nouns Town in LA!
If you do have any questions, concerns, or things you’d like to do - please do not hesitate to reach out. I try to attend as many council calls as possible and I’m also available for any ad’hoc sessions.
Cheers,
Benjamin