Updated Hub Description & Agenda
Name change: Collective Intelligence Governance Hub → Governance Hub Governance Geeks Hub
Summary of the Governance Geeks Hub
This Hub offers “governance geeks” a chance to tap into the collective intelligence of Governance Leads and Facilitators from major DAOs who will be facilitating the Hub. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the current governance structures, the tools and infrastructure supporting DAOs, and the legal, financial, operational considerations critical to their success. We’ll explore both past and future trends, and discuss the developments in DAO governance that excite us most.
Motivation & Rationale
Creating spaces that bring together diverse perspectives and stakeholders to share experiences and ideas is essential for developing sustainable solutions that enhance the governance experience. Whether someone is interested in working on governance design or participating in governance as a stakeholder or contributor, this hub will be relevant for them.
The team facilitating the Governance Geeks Hub will be a group of DAO operators who are focused on governance design and coordinating for various major DAOs (Celo, ZK Nation, EigenLayer, Uniswap, Optimism and more). Participants will be able to tap into the knowledge and experience of these folks, as well as that of other participants.
To ensure these discussions and learnings do not stay with those who participate, we want to produce a summary of the discussions in the form of a blog or forum post for each day of the Hub.
Implementation
To guide the conversation and allow everyone to get the most value from the governance hub we will shape the discussions through a past-present-future lens. We’ll spend the first day on history and lessons learned from the recent governance experiments. The bulk of the next two days will focus on what’s happening in DAOs and governance today and share current innovations and allow operators to present some of their work. The last day will focus on the future of governance and give us a chance to collectively imagine what kinds of systems we want to build and participate in.
Our goal with the programming of this hub is to give some structure while offering flexibility for varied discussions guided by attendees interests and expertise. During all four days we will have ongoing activities where anyone can express a topic of interest and organize a discussion around it during the open mic part of the day. We know the huge value that peer learning environments provide are excited to offer a space where the agenda can be co-created by the participants.
Governance Geeks Hub Agenda
The space will be active between 10:00am and 3:00pm each day between November 12th and 15th. Active means organizers will be present and helping facilitate the hub.
Outside of the planned agenda, we invite governance geeks to hang out and continue discussions. This can be your governance retreat / safe space all throughout Devcon!
General Daily Format: 10am - 3pm
- 10:00 - 11:00 - Open session
- 11:00 - 12:00 - Facilitated Session 1
- 12:00 - 13:00 - Office Hours / Lunch
- 13:00 - 14:00 - Facilitated Session 2
- 14:00 - 15:00 - Open session
Facilitated Sessions: These are planned and actively facilitate sessions by hub organizers. These session will take place at 11am and 1pm each day, and will be a mix of open discussions, presentations (with discussion), or guided workshops. Each session focuses on a general governance-related topic, but the discussion focus and level of detail will likely evolve based on who’s in the room. Join the sessions that resonate with you and help us co-create the experience and discussion together.
Open Sessions: These are flexible sessions to give time and space for participants to bring topics that they would like to discuss with other folks hanging out at the hub. They will take place at 10 am and 2pm each day. We imagine these sessions being used in one of the following ways:
- “Open Mic”: As there were manay topics or themes that we did not get to include in the final planned agenda, this time can be used by hub participants to host casual talks/discussions.
- Collective Intelligence Round: If there’s interest, the hub coordinators on shift can lead a “Collective Intelligence” session. In this round, participants gather to ask questions about governance topics they’re curious about or find challenging, request recommendations for tools or resources, or seek group feedback on a project or idea. You are tapping into the “collective intelligence” of the group to get answers.
- Just hang out
Please check in with hub coordinators during these sessions to understand !
Please see the NO SHILLING policy at the bottom of this post.
Office Hours: Stop by the hub between 12-1pm each day to speak with governance experts/operators to get advice on your projects, a problem you are trying to solve or to have the basics of governance explained to you!
Daily Themes & Sessions
Each day has a thematic focus with sessions that are coordinated around
Day 1 - Nov 12: Foundations & Lessons Learned 
Reflecting on the past, examining early governance models and major milestones, and sharing insights from challenges and successes.
- Session 1: DAO Survival Awards - Who’s still around? How did they survive? Why did others fail?
- Session 2: DAO/Governance Roast - Bring your hottest takes to roast DAO Governance.
Day 2 - Nov 13: Evolving Practices 
How have we witnessed existing models and practices evolve over the past few years? Delegation models and sustainability, in particular, have been especially challenging areas. What insights can we gain from these struggles?
- Session 1: Delegation / Delegation Programs - Challenges, patterns, solutions
- Session 2: Designing for Sustainability - How have communities approached financial, legal & operational sustainability over the years?
Day 3 - Nov 14: Emerging Trends & Near-Future Challenges 
What new movements or models are inspiring us? What could be the end of us all? This day focuses on novel solutions while being mindful of the challenges that still lie ahead.
- Session 1: Recent DAO / Governance Model Launches: Hear from reps of EigenLayer, ZK Nation and X on their recent or upcoming launches of novel governance mechanisms.
- Session 2: Biggest Threats to DAOs & What Can We Do? - Regulation, information overload & retention - oh my! Join the discussion/light workshop to help make a plan & regain some hope for the future of DAOs.
Day 4 - Nov 15: Future of Governance 
Imagining long-term possibilities and ideas for the evolution of governance, what are some ways to future-proof decentralized governance?
- Session 1: Future of DAO Governance Panel - Listen to reps from Uniswap, ZK Nation, Eigen & Polygon / Lido yap about what they see as critical aspects of the future of governance
- Session 2: Extended Open Session - Join this collective come down after a wild week of Devcon. Rehash memories, meet up with governance geeks friends one last time, or just hang out.
Ongoing Activities
Whether during or outside the active hours of the hub, we a few fun ongoing activities plan to allow folks to interact with the space in a more casual way as well. Some of these activities include:
- “I like, I wish, I wonder” Board: Devcon go-ers can add to this board throughout the week in an attempt to capture how the ecosystem feels about governance at this point in time. We will digitalize this collection the end of the week and share in the summary blog post.
- “No Dumb Questions” Board: There will be A LOT of people who are new to the space attending Devcon this year. To help them get some of their questions answered, we want to organize a board where people can ask questions and others can answer! It’s like a real-life governance Reddit!
- DAOCraft Card Game: If you were at ETHCC Paris in 2023, you might be familiar with this game! Bring your friends and play around with wild DAO concepts. (Instructions will be included!)
- Color-coded nametags/stickers: Each color will represent a different role people have in the ecosystem. This will help Gov Geeks identify each other around the conference!
Communication:
In order to keep everyone up to date on the daily agendas, we will share updates via:
- Governance Geeks @ Devon 7 Telegram group for daily coordination & updates.
- Announcements: Daily schedules/updates
- General: For questions or general comments
- Note: We may add more channels as needed during the week of Devcon
- Daily agenda Tweets from core organizers (find X links to Shelby, Anna and other organizers below)
Organizing Team
Please reach out to the core hub coordinators with any quetions about the Governance Geeks Hub.
Core Hub Coordinators:
- Anna Alexa - Governance and Community at Celo Foundation, formerly community at MakerDAO and part of Meta Gamma Delta grants DAO
- Shelby Steidl - Governance Experience Lead at ZKsync Association, formerly Governance Facilitator at Radworks
Other Contributors Include:
- Trach - Chief Gov Officer at Eigen Foundation, formerly cofounder at Coordinape, contributor to Yearn
- Rafa - Governance Strategy Lead at ZKsync Association
- Erin Koen - Head of Governance at Uniswap Foundation
- Eugene Leventhal - Ecosystem at Scroll
- Juan - Facilitator at Sky (previously Maker)
- Maxwell - Governance Onboarding Lead at Optimism Foundation
- Theo Beutal - Former Governance Lead at Safe
- Maria Gomez - Governance at Interchain Foundation
- Ivan - DeFi Ops & Stategy at karpatkey, Advisor at Aragon, Investor at Hydra Ventures
NO SHILLING POLICY
Devcon has a strict policy around not shilling a specific project or team. The discussions for this Hub are more focused on highlighting general challenges to DAO governance and solution ideation that could be applied more broadly to the space rather than to one specific project. Sharing examples from specific projects is ok, but no session should focus on presenting or shilling one specific project.
In order to ensure that the hub stays free from marketing and avoids promoting specific tokens or projects, we plan to do the following:
- Intention setting: Make sure to open each discussion with a disclaimer and reminder why we are here and what we are not here to discuss (e.g. shill specific projects/tokens)
- Encourage everyone to share their affiliations, interests, etc. to ensure everyone feels represented and included in Hub discussions
- Make sure to pull examples for the presentations and workshops from various projects