First, we’d like to thank @Rafalovic and the RWA Paris team for reaching out to the Arbitrum DAO with this opportunity. The speaker and sponsor lineup for the event looks quite strong and it is exciting to hear that Steven will be there speaking!
However, as we communicated in our rationale in voting for the ETH Bucharest proposal, Entropy strongly advises the DAO to carefully consider if it wants to further the precedent of smaller sponsorships being funded via the 2025 Events Budget. RWA Paris is not the only conference to reach out to Entropy expressing interest, and we anticipate that several similar requests will follow if this event is funded. While these may be well-run events that provide value to Arbitrum, slowly draining the ~$1.1m available with one-off sponsorships may not be the best course of action. At a certain point there will be insignificant funds to propose for example a cohesive and synergistic set of Arbitrum dedicated events.
When evaluating RWA Paris’ proposal specifically, we will echo several of the concerns raised by other delegates. First, the timeline between the funds being approved and the actual event is insufficient. With just a few weeks, we’re not sure if Arbitrum will get the proper marketing value from the sponsorship.
Secondly, we are concerned that aspects of this proposal require several key representatives from both the Arbitrum Foundation and OCL to be worth the cost. For example, the following KPI is likely unachievable if the only Arbitrum representation is an Ambassador.
The same can be said for the Private Breakfast sponsorship which will, in our opinion, likely have little value without representation from OCL or Foundation team members that have high-context into Arbitrum’s current needs/strategy.
Lastly, we’d like to also respond to this comment from Karpatkey by again clarifying that Entropy, ADPC, and Disruption Joe were not given a mandate to determine event strategy as part of the DAO Events Budget proposal.
The group is only responsible for coordinating communications between the Arbitrum Foundation and OCL event teams for the listed events in the proposal (ETHDenver, Bitcoin 2025, EthCC) and procuring event organizers when necessary. The decision to fund other events/sponsorships via the budget is determined by a Snapshot vote with quorum set at 3% of the votable token supply with a simple majority of votes in favor/abstain. The RWA Paris 2025 team has followed the correct procedure to request funds via the DAO’s 2025 Event budget.
We encourage delegates to complete the public market consultation created by the ADPC to help the DAO begin aligning on event strategy. This will help inform the DAO which type of events have the most appetite for funding via the established 2025 Events Budget.