Rio Post Mortem - Internal

From now on, the video team needs a rental car straight from the airport for any foreign activation like this. Safety is paramount and we need the ability to move quickly and dynamically when situations change. Even if we park the car for two or three nights and not use it, it is better that the access is there for when we need it. It really becomes a safety issue. One thing we need to start doing is creating a connecting thread between events. What made ETHDenver special was that each activation led to a bigger purpose or celebration. By engaging people to participate early with incentives such as a party or gathering on the final day, we are building a week long narrative as opposed to disconnected events that touch on different things. The entire experience should reward those who “show up” and engage the most. With 1Wallet approaching release, we can use that to activate more people into our ecosystem and incentivize a ramp up in participation as word begins to spread. Additionally we need to see a conference through. I understand it was a special circumstance with SXSW, but if we go to a conference, those that go need to stay until the conference is over, not leave mid-way through. This is how longer term relationships are built.

Guidelines should not be given to projects wanting to get funding for any Project X or Y. Guidelines instead need to be given to the staff similar to ETHDenver (example: no doubling up on investments/grants, etc... those guidelines keep the staff on point). To go into a new territory and impose limitations on grants is not the right spirit, when in fact we really just need to go out there and listen to the people and their needs. Nobody knew what a Social Token was. To have that be a guideline was completely out of touch with the community and made us seem very “1st world” in our approach. The people on the ground were very clear that what mattered to them was education and accessibility. A social token by nature actually limits accessibility. It essentially is a membership. That’s fine in a 1st world country when you are trying to create exclusive experiences as incentives. But in a 3rd world country we have to be more sensitive in how we approach this by creating funding that is entirely inclusive and without barriers to entry.

I think that we need to continue to go to places like Brazil that are in need of Web3 infrastructure. It was very clear to me after going that this is where the opportunity is, this is where we will have the biggest impact. Places like South America, places like Africa... we can really make a world of difference in those parts of the world just by being present and listening to the needs of the people and cultures and communities of those regions. There is massive opportunity to empower people in those regions, and I would argue that it is in Harmony’s best interest to double down on it’s LatAm and African initiatives.

Have guidelines over grants initiatives clearly outlined for team members in an IRL session, more preproduction for shoots so we’re not carrying extra equipment

We should stop imposing our own “guidelines” on project funding in LatAm and other markets because many projects fall outside the scope of our 1st world conception of where the industry is at. This imposes limitations on great projects where Harmony can have an impact. Then we will be their blockchain of choice when more mass adoption happens. We should listen to what builders are already working on for their own communities.

Continue to host regional specific events, such as the soccer tournament, NFT workshop for locals, and boat hangout. We had a great time, the community loved it, and in the end, our efforts resulted in 5 out of 12 hackathon projects deploying on Harmony, including the winner and runner up. Also continue to sponsor scholars: this makes a huge difference because not only do they serve as Harmony ambassadors, they are also talented and may build on Harmony as well, as seen in Rio.

If we are going to keep doing grants/funding á la Harmony X or Y, we should have a specific section for that in notion. Also, we need to fund a community project for the multisig. Blue3 DAO won the hackathon on the premise, perhaps they should keep working on that. We should start giving more power to local organizations, so we can give them more power in organizing the local events. We need to start doing events for local partners like we did in DCentral Miami. Also we need to start sponsoring local small events, what we have named Harmony Hangouts (HHO)

I think we need to improve things in general, I don’t think there’s something we need to stop doing altogether.

We need to keep doing regional events with a regional flavor. As we did this time, we should hire local event organizers, find local contributors, bring local scholars. We need to keep thinking in a scalable way. Bringing projects that are ready to reach larger amounts of people, like we did with Play4Change, Museu de Favelas and AfroGames. These organizations does not have to go and find members, they already have hundreds or thousands of members, affiliates, etc.

It would be amazing to have a QR code to access directly to the grants or some easy form for the booth visitors, so we can point them to it and once we get back to our desktop computers have a list of them, with the content. Having them to search where the grant or proposal in the talk forum isn’t easy for them. Also this time the Project Y wasn’t specific there. I’ve shared my “Hi Hello” app with all my details with my QR code (during the event I’ve added the talk.harmony one to it so they could add the proposal). HAving in this app or similar all the details and all the team with the same details coordinated would be amazing.

More than waiting for project to come, I think that Harmony should search for the best ones and try to attract them. Trust in Harmony work better than in the luck of them coming. (I’m saying this without knowing if already Harmony is doing it, so please forgive me if it’s already happening) Peace

There has always been an atmosphere of respect and good vibes, which defines the people that Harmony wants to attract. This will never change.

Communicate important initiatives such as Project X/Y ahead of time and having someone run a Q&A meeting/group chat to ensure everyone has indeed been notified, the guidelines have been understood, and any pending questions are clarified.

I believe it’s important to keep the event-specific investment figures private. If we announce figures that are extremely high in certain regions, we risk attracting unwanted attention, “cash-grab” projects, and we lose authenticity in the interactions with the builders. A solid idea/project will surface by itself, as it should have that intrinsic motivation to be fulfilled, with or without a grant. These ideas/projects that have authenticity and a focus on themselves are the ones that will bring sustainable value.

Ensuring adequate representation of Harmony core team and contributors given the local context. For example, team members speaking the local language or coming from the region. Empowering attendees that are “in the field” with event-specific investment projects for the purpose of generating greater personalized impact in the ecosystem and in people’s lives.

Host/sponsor LOCAL workshops on how to DAO, how to launch/mint NFT collections, etc as well as host local “Hacker Hubs” to help foster the sustainable adoption of Web3 in these communities. Additionally, encourage/compensate the local communities to translate materials/videos in Spanish and Portuguese to increase access to existing/new materials.

Specific to the LATAM region, I believe we should enter these spaces listening more than talking. There is trust that needs to be built with these communities, which takes time and actions speak loudest. The more we enable local projects/organizations to lead in putting on events, hosting TGIs, etc. and have Harmony play more of a “supportive role” the quicker we can reach the community in an authentic way.

Continue sponsoring scholars who are new to Web3, with an emphasis on bringing women into the space in order to produce a ripple effect within the communities we seek to reach.

Thinking in making a template for the next rounds of Project XYZ That way we can provide the form for grant candidates and they fill in what is expected for us to know Once ready they submit it and makes it easier to track and identify all of them and how many of them This can provide the link for the https://multisig.harmony.one/#/welcome link for https://harmony.supply Our site https://www.harmony.one/ Our metrics(if special for the case)

In a DAO perspective the most common issue i get is 3 months Rotation for a DAO proposal funding. Open to discuss why i believe its wrong in many ways

The collaboration from all members in rio to help each other and figure the best way to do things, specially when need to improvise. I think it’s important to keep this more open minded talk, specially between the team. everyone realize for example the metrics were different and tried to reach consensus to get a accurate answer.

Agree with Gabriel on the fact that communication could be improved. At the first day of the event I was super insecure on talking about grants because I didn’t understand properly what was my role.

I don’t like the fact that we’re trying to fit latam projects into social tokens. I feel like some projects here need a lot more infrastructure before thinking about actually deploying a token or an nft

Team collaboration was great. People are super open minded and open to start conversations with.

Start lining up more slots for Harmony related projects to speak at events. Speaking is a great chance for all of us to bring more attention towards Harmony and these slots should be identified before the event

Agree with comments from Gabriel where we need to be careful with how money is talked about with projects. The mission has to be the first thought every time

Agree with Josh’s points

Communication between partners and the harmony team for targets during the event we can hit together to help the Harmony brand and out individual projects too

Working together effectively on the booth, at interactive events and at hackathons. By helping align new contacts with projects and teams that they would work well with, we are supporting the overall growth of the ecosystem as well as our relationships of cooperation and friendship

Onboarding and clear process for Project Y to ensure all teams and subsequently scholars receive consistent messaging including training and support for minting social tokens prior to releasing grant funding. While writing things on notion is good for ideation and communication, having a 45 minute zoom call to kickoff such a project is critical for everyone to get on the same page prior to a trip.

Requiring scholars to put a $1k deposit for the hotel; while the hotel was AMAZING and we love it, some scholars especially local LATAM had to skip meals due to not having funds to spend.

(1) Collaborating on Blu3 travel scholarships were so powerful in enabling highly engaged and talented scholars with five-star service from onboarding, hotel stays, networking, educational workshops, conference ticket, grants and more! (2) Project Y as immediate real-time opportunities to kickstart passionate projects and enable over 10 new DAOs to launch on Harmony (3) TGI soccer + beach day + dinner + afterparties + conference VIP lounge + JUST INCREDIBLE BONDING moments that we will remember for life. So many scholars have already expressed how this trip has changed their lives and inspired them to build their dreams with harmony. 🙂

1. Training and Communication on giving out the grants: A. Timeline B. Process C. Requirements D. Forms for grantees 2. Institute a clear process to assist and help grantees: A. How to write an effective proposal & where to submit and by when. B. How to start a DAO, create a multi-sig, how to mint social tokens. etc. Basically, if we are funding something and have a requirement, we need to have a proper roll out in terms of education and training. 3. Suggest to start planning earlier so that folks have more time to communicate to attendees and participants. I think the Team is doing the best they can, given the timeline - and the outcome couldn’t have been any better. But the above, would significantly help to smoothen the process and to alleviate burn-out.

Agree with Gabriel and Noura on the points stated above. Also agree on the point about “cash grab” - something we have to be careful about. However, I have realized that some of the local folks require nurturing and support for them to “grow and step into the leadership roles”. Most of them couldn’t believe that this is true or even possible. But with the support and influence of the Blu3 core team and Harmony team, they were able to do what was once thought to be “impossible”. To be successful, we need to provide them with on-going support, training and network. Funding alone is a start but not sufficient to be sustainable. Suggest to have the Harmony event person be alleviated from their “ordinary responsibilities” because it takes A LOT to organize events such as this. The person has to be 100% on ground solving issues and be 100% engaged. It is impossible to do both jobs well at the same time and also to avoid any burn out with amazing core team members.

I love the regional events: The boat ride, the soccer tournaments, the TGIs, visiting the Favelas, etc. I also think that the Blu3 scholarship program was a huge success (totally unbiased lol) - providing real impact to local scholars, obtaining their contribution to the DAO and also support of Harmony’s events. This is a win-win situation for all. It makes me tear up, seeing humanity at a very authentic and real level - with scholars helping each other write proposals and going their way out to “make each others dreams come true”. Blu3 scholars serve as Harmony ambassador and are multi-talented given our rigorous screening process. Many people now hear about Harmony or Blu3 because of the scholar representation.