Gov Geeks Recap
Hey Gov Geeks! Although long overdue, below is a brief recap of the Governance Geeks Hub from Devcon 2024 in Bangkok.
The Governance Geeks Hub was one of 16 community hubs that were at Devcon 7 this year. The focus of the Governance Geeks Hub was to provide a focused space for all governance-minded folks to come together and discuss the most pressing topics in decentralized governance. We wanted to create a space to bring together diverse perspectives and stakeholders to share experiences and ideas is essential for developing sustainable solutions that enhance the governance experience for everyone.
Each day had a theme (e.g. Lessons Learned, Evolving Practices, Future of Governance) with two facilitated sessions related to that theme, led by governance operators from various ecosystems. The structure of the space also allowed for spontaneous and emergent conversations to take place amongst folks hanging around the hub. See the full agenda under the “Governance Geeks Hub Agenda” section of the official Hub description page and full agenda.
The Governance Geeks Hub was primarily organized by Shelby (Governance Experience Lead at ZKsync Association) & Anna (Governance and Community at Celo Foundation), with the support of numerous DAO governance operators who contributed by running the space and facilitating sessions throughout the week, including:
- 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
- Maxwell - Governance Onboarding Lead at Optimism Foundation
- Theo Beutal - Former Governance Lead at Safe
- Maria Gomez - Governance at Interchain Foundation
- Juan - Facilitator at Sky (previously Maker)
- Ivan - DeFi Ops & Stategy at karpatkey, Advisor at Aragon, Investor at Hydra Ventures
- Butter team - who hosted Resolution: A Futarchy and Prediction Markets Gathering
A few notable outcomes from the Governance Geeks Hub include:
- The Hub became THE SPOT for governance folks to hang out throughout Devcon. Even when there was no planned content, the Hub became the homebase to hang out, have meetings or to meet up with other governance-minded folks.
- We purposefully designed this space in an “unconference” manner to allow for some flexibility in content and conversations. Because of this, we witnessed a lot of great spontaneous and self-organized conversations and workshops popup at the Hub throughout the week.
- The interactive boards (Governance Hot Takes, “I Like, I wish, I wonder”, Jargon Wall) were a hit! It was so fun to watch people engage with them throughout the week!
- For those who are actively working on governance within ecosystems (governance operators/leads/facilitators), it was therapeutic to be able to connect and vent with others who are working on the same problems in person throughout the week during facilitated sessions and otherwise.
- The Governance Geeks TG channel has become a new digital schelling point for governance operators, service providers and participants. We can harness this network to support our ecosystem tap into that collective intelligence!
- We received a lot of feedback throughout the week that having a governance-dedicated space is something that people would like to see at conferences going forward (e.g. ETH Denver, Devconnect 2025). We would love to work with folks going forward to try to keep this up at future events!
This project was a joy to work on and felt truly special. While we can’t speak for everyone, we walked away feeling inspired, excited, and deeply fulfilled. The shared experiences at the Hub made this our favorite Devcon yet, and we sincerely hope to keep creating and/or supporting similar spaces in the future!
Yours truly,
Shelby (ZKsync Association) & Anna (Celo Foundation)!
