We like the idea of having long term plans for GovHack events rather than submitting a proposal and budget request for each event. A member of our team was able to attend GovHack at ETHDenver and found it quite valuable to the DAO.
We’d like your opinion on if there’s anyway to reduce costs as $450k in events cost seems like a lot, and the previous ETHcc event cost $261k.
As a young delegation, we truly value the DAO’s efforts to engage newcomers, given the vast potential for onboarding new participants. For this reason, we favor option B:
B) One event per quarter, alternating between GovHack Core and GovHack Open (4 events per year).
Would you consider offering a remote participation option for this event? We believe it would greatly benefit those who face challenges with long-distance travel.
As a delegate, I support the GovHack Core Series proposal, which is actionable and on the ground, with offline meetings that deepen ecological cohesion. A thousand times online is better than one face-to-face chat, before having a beer and talking about something COOL.
Proposals are strategic and long-term, bringing key stakeholders together for in-depth discussion and decision-making helps drive high-impact proposals and improve governance efficiency. By organising regular face-to-face high impact events. I’m glad you’ve come up with this proposal.
Of course I have some suggestions and questions
Hard Work
Hi @PennBlockchain,
From our research the pricing is comparable with industry norms, we are assembling market research on spending for events of various types, hackathons, conferences, workshops, offsites.
It is hard to compare, as each event type has many variables:
Industry information on these kinds of specifics is partial at best, or aggregated up as a total spend on their Forum, Snapshot or Tally posts or hard to determine and get a breakdown when reading various Foundation’s annual reports. I.e. here is the spend by the Filecoin Foundation (annual report):
$17.1M on community building and events, but no ability to get event-by-event breakdown of costs. It is evident however that Arbitrum is comparatively underspending by a large amount in this area compared with our competitors and others ecosystems.
@PennBlockchain to clarify the $450k is for 3 events with a smaller number of attendees (60-80 ppl) + there is $108k base for the year long program, vs $262k a single larger event (~150 ppl).
Here is one comparison from another ecosystem for market pricing:
UniSwap - GovSwap yearly programme of 3 IRL events + online year-round admin, program management and facilitation $885k - proposal this proposal passed and is in effect.
We’ll share more market-wide analysis once this is completed.
@duokongcrypto a practical operational point we want to make is with each GovHack we ask for at least what is required in our estimation to run the event so as not to get caught short, then document actual costs transparently and return unused funds to the DAO. The DAO has trusted us to execute with that model previously and we have upheld that trust and believe this model to be workable.
Here is the actual breakdown of costs for GovHack ETHcc.
Running a GovHack in Bangkok will be cheaper than Brussels or Denver, however it is not known right now how much cheaper without doing significant research and contact with local suppliers. We need the DAO to indicate with voting in the first instance if we want to run an event pre-Devcon before doing that work.
cross-posting my comment from the Brussels Impact report.
A summary of Hack Humanity’s update from the Open Discussion of Proposal(s) - Bi-weekly Governance Call today.
ArbitrumDAO is now 18 months old, in 2024 has rapidly evolved through experimentation with different event types serving different demographics to achieve different outcomes. At the large ETH events these have been provided by Hack Humanity, Arbitrum Foundation and @Entropy so far, as follows:
(full details on Miro)
What events do we want to close out the year with?
In light of feedback since the GovHack Core Series proposal went up this week, and upon reading the ADPC Phase II proposal and speaking with the team on the Events 2025 vertical we think it prudent and in the interest of time (8.5 weeks to Devcon) to focus the next Hack Humanity proposal now on option C - a single Devcon only GovHack.
Relevant ADPC section:
We’d love to hear from other delegates on your preferences on the following options, we’ll produce revised costs for each of these options shortly.
Thanks, @Frisson, for your clear signal to focus on a GovHack Devcon only for now, what you are asking for aligns with the option C we are suggesting.
GovHack is now an updated proposal for Devcon only Nov 8-10.
We believe this to be the best format to fulfil multiple needs of the DAO in a single IRL event + online facilitation before and after.
This proposal starts with a Core/Offsite day, then the Open Hackathon and the Community Day.
This redesign can achieve all outcomes we have received feedback on from delegates and new talent alike.
It also includes a dedicated online programme of 4-weeks OnRamp activity and 4-weeks post-GovHack support programme which addresses a common refrain; how do keep all this amazing energy activated IRL and have people stay with Arbitrum.
Lastly it’s much cheaper, we have just completed real budgeting with suppliers here in Bangkok.
Check it out, Snapshot voting incoming…
The latest version of the proposal is edited in place as the first post of this thread, the focus is on Devcon in Bangkok Nov 8-10 only for now (longer-term plans will be handled in a separate proposal).
Full resolution Miro diagrams: here
cc @JoJo @thedevanshmehta @PennBlockchain @Tekr0x.eth @cp0x @jameskbh @Tane @ostanescu.eth @Bruce @Frisson
Thanks for all your feedback, this is the latest version.
The update is fabulous! 
I am super excited for the next GovHack! See you all in Bangkok. 
This is proposal is something I am really glad came in our forum.
It has several stuff that either we did succesfully in the past (the govhackaton) or stuff that naturally came in during previous govhacks that the dao and delegates ned (core day).
I told this klauss in a call, when people come to govhack, since it is the first event that gathers people in the arbitrum ecosystem, it naturally transforms (also) in a BD event, with delegates jumping between helping teams and tracks vs personal meetings with others; but this latter part happens without a dedicated time and space, thus creating and inefficient situation.
While I understand that some might ask themself why the addition of core, this is the exact reason: satisfy a need that happens naturally cause of the dynamics described above.
Some more details are likely needed to lay down the proper rules of this new part, but these can be decided together in the next 2 months.
Full support to this initiative, especially cause is quite contained in price.
I like how GovHack has iterated over time, becoming better aligned with the needs of the DAO.
Congratulations on that!
We vote FOR the proposal on Snapshot.
Thanks @KlausBrave for the update. As discussed separately, this is a great update at this moment, and you can prepare for the 2025 event planning with other initiatives ahead into 2025. Looking forward to the GovHack Devcon!
I voted FOR in this proposal because Govhack is one of the most innovative initiatives in Ethereum and we should keep funding innovation at Arbitrum DAO. Also, Hack Humanity has shown several times that they have all the skills and the track record to pull off great events for Arbitrum DAO.
I am very happy to see Arbitrum DAO’s emphasis on Government, which shows that Arbitrum DAO is an extraordinary organization with a long-term vision. I would love to see offline events, in fact, I would love to see them in every major country in the world. I fully support this proposal!
The proposal is live for Snapshot voting.
We encourage early voting, we are 7.5 weeks from Devcon, an early strong signal helps a lot to have clarity and confidence in the preparation of this GovHack process and IRL event. 
Hi @KlausBrave , I always love the offline events, and GovHack is one of my favorites! Since I’m based in Bangkok, Thailand, I’d be happy to help with optimizing the costs of the event if you need any assistance. Let me know!
I just voted FOR the proposal.
I have an excellent impression of GovHack, both for bringing new players (such as GrowThePie) into our ecosystem and also for getting the top delegates in one room (which i want to see more of if approved). The latter especially helped with the early STEP proposal, since i could directly ask delegates together whether they wanted to vote on individual providers or have a committee make the selection which they ratify.
While conditions are not optimal for ARB right now, for the sake of continuity we need a GovHack at Devcon. The lifeblood of DAO governance is getting new contributors involved, what are we even doing if we don’t capitalize on events like govhack. Plus the price tag of ~$150k is eminently reasonable.
We are in full support of the GovHack Core Hack Humanity event, particularly with the focused approach on Bangkok. This strategic focus is appropriate for maximizing the event’s impact and ensuring effective use of resources.
Overall, we believe this event has the potential to drive significant contributions to the Arbitrum ecosystem, and we look forward to seeing it succeed with the support of the community and its delegates.
Support the proposal, very happy to see this proposal, as mentioned in it: the iteration addresses the 2 main criticisms that limit GovHack from generating the most value for ArbitrumDAO, complete with target audience and event costs, and I think this event can become arb a series of community events if organised well.
consistently with this, voting a strong FOR on this initiative.
I really appreciated GovHack at ETHcc, and Klauss was able to go around and gather feedbacks on how to improve.
The initial core day i think is quite important because of the timeline dynamic we see, and is perfectly complementary to the event as we know it. Plus, the budget is somehow contained compared to similar initiatives currently in discussion/vote.
