The Power of IRL | TCE - DevConnect Buenos Aires

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Okay. Ready? >> Yeah. Hey everyone. I know we have a huge crowd over here. >> Yeah. >> So lovely to see everyone today. >> I hope there's enough room for everyone. >> Yeah. >> No worries. >> It's okay. We're good. >> Yeah. >> Maybe we can start with quick intros. Maybe Malcolm, you want to go first? >> Absolutely. Um Malcolm Levy from Refraction. been involved in the space for the last six years building out refraction but also as a member of FWB um and a number of other Dows focusing on the art, music and technology space.

I've done events globally for the last 20 years and it's really great to be here to talk about the power of IRL. Uh my name is Greg, current uh CEO of FWB. started out as a member and now here uh been in the space for about five six years really focused on the intersection of culture and technology and we are a community of 5,500 international members we throw events around the world uh we do incubators uh we do protocol support and we also do a lot of writing in the space about the intersection of uh culture creativity and technology >> hi everyone I'm Jules I'm leading marketing at zero Zion, if you haven't

heard of Zerion before, we're not just an events company, which it's quite hilarious. I think our CEO, he always enjoys that, but we're actually a crypto wallet and we power a lot of other wallets in the space. So, around 30% EVM, mostly wallets. So, anyone with token data, portfolio data, um, yeah, and I've been actually hosting events, I think, ever since I was like 10 years old. I don't know why. I just became slowly addicted to it. >> I mean there I remember someone once asked me how to become an event planner and I never thought about it and I was like do you have any interests? They said yes. Do you have 10 friends? Said yes. Get them together. You're you are an event planner. It's just in the

blood. You I think for people who are drawn to events and the power of events and the power of community, you just naturally start doing it. >> Yeah. I was thinking maybe we can talk a little bit on why even do events in general and how can we kind of connect it to either a token model um or any tokenization and maybe Malcolm you can go first and and talk a little bit about um IRL and then >> absolutely um this photo here is from when we did our first event at Art Basel Miami. >> Um so a couple things about refraction.

So, Refraction has over 3,000 members globally artists technologists but also event producers, different locations and venues around the world. And I think the thing that everyone shares is this idea of a new collective purpose around how events can actually happen, how people can meet and come together. And one of the most interesting things that we found is as we started to build out refraction, there were a lot of people who had never been involved in crypto before that became involved. At the same time, we saw a lot of people globally come and join refraction for different aspects and areas and things. Um, in terms of

the onchain aspect, and I think it's really important kind of talk about it. It's it's like how do you think about this collectively, you know? So, we've done creative glance globally. I think Neutro was actually part of one of our creative grants with Sky Goodman a few years ago here in Buenoseres. Um, and that's what I like love to see is these different places globally getting involved and being part of the larger premise, the larger way of collectively organizing. We're in a current state of being within events that so much of it is becoming so homogeneous. there's a lack of independence and I think doing things on chain having collectives having ways of new forms of ownership, new forms of governance and really

independence is essential at this point. And so, you know, doing events on chain, it allows for a completely new way of thinking through how ideas of access, ideas of being involved and what people can bring to the table, not just in one place in the world, but globally can really come together. >> Yeah, I think back to was that in 2022, this one? >> Yeah, that was the end of 2022. >> Okay. I think uh I was actually there. Um >> same. And are any of you guys in the music space, art space? No. Okay, no takers. It's okay. Um, actually when I went to um Art Baso in 2022, um I was building a different company at that

time and I was building something called Enzone. I was trying to connect the fashion space with social. So I was trying to build a social commerce like a digital closet and connect digital and physical. So, I remember we did something together with Boys Club and Miha, if you ever remember. There were like these black and green shirts and each each of the shirt had um an NFC chip and you can basically connect it to your digital one in your digital closet. And I became obsessed with this idea of like how we can bring artifacts that normally aren't on chain. Like there are things that we see in the real world like your outfit, your shoes, like anything and connect it to the digital

self. So I feel like at FWB you guys have such a strong culture around that. Um like how do you bring things that you're normally seeing the art, music on chain and the the relationships you actually build? Because I remember the first thing I remember with FWB was just entering into your Discord and people would share their outfits >> and I became obsessed. >> I became obsessed with that because I was like, "Oh, great." Like a community that I could actually like feel connected to and I in 2022 was like the first initial crypto project that I actually started on my own. and I thought, okay, like how can I connect to

a new subset of community um through FWB? >> Yeah. Um in our Discord, we I mean it's ballooned over time, but I think we've had over 200 different channels, you know, we'll sometimes call it, but each member has their own interest and it's really easy for them to circulate like around other find other people. You no one controls it and if someone puts their hands up and say we want to discuss this, they absolutely can. And I think when you see our events, it's pretty much these little like micro towns or cities come to life. And we do an annual festival. That first photo was actually from it. Uh and we thought like, you know, we've got these little hamlets around, but like what if we built like a a digital city where there's different streets, um there's different alleyways, communities, things like that. And so the channel you're

talking about is selfies and fits and it's people who just do fit checks all the time anywhere in the world. And it's still one of our most popular channels because it is such a great sense of self-expression. But sometimes you just want people to check it out or you got something and you don't know who to share it with, but you just have people who are super appreciative of it. And um it brings a community to life. There's like a general excitement when you see um someone post something new or know that they've been hunting a holy grail uh and they finally got it and they want to share with us after, you know, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine months of searching. And I think bringing it back uh to FWB Fest and the uh it's actually the only one I've been to is the very

first one and something that I think is so extremely powerful about this ecosystem here and where we get to connect in person. But imagine doing it where you all live more or less in the same place. It's almost like a camp like a camp that you're there for a whole weekend. You connect with so many individuals that are maybe not even in crypto. I think a lot of the people were actually not in crypto and it was actually so refreshing to see a new perspective. Um because I do think sometimes we live in this bubble. Um >> yeah, I mean we we have always straddled the line of culture and crypto and I I think what separates us from a lot of other communities is that we were

artists in search of technological solutions to support creative practices. So originally FWB was just a token that was launched uh by Trevor McFrederries and he sends it out to his friends and we were a group chat with a bank account and we've always pursued you know how does this technology make it more equitable, fair, transparent uh where value is actually captured by the people who create it. That's always been the case. So we've been able to straddle the line from people who are deeply technical and we have a really strong builder of dgens and builders. Uh but we also have people who are maybe less technical and understand maybe a more novel application of it. And so when you get to something like FEST, people who are cryptocurious or even tech curious, they're going to come and check it out

and maybe be there for the music, the DJs, and they're going to blend with the people that are there for the workshops and the technical discussions. But I feel we've done a really good job of having a well-rounded community that that comes to both. And when people get really curious about how the technology can serve them, uh they've got a really understanding community that's able to say, "Hey, this helped my practice. This helped my creative process. Here's how you integrate it and really how you can use it to further your own your own set of ideals." >> Yeah, maybe Malcolm, you can go a little bit on how you're thinking about IRL, connecting with community first at the very early stages. I think um most fans or even creators uh it's still a huge problem today that you can actually

connect with some of your earliest fans today and how do you provide that social proof? >> Totally. That's a great question. So, I mean, one of the things that we've always tried to do with refraction, and we've actually had a very similar sort of um thing as FWB in the sense that we have a lot of people who come to our events that aren't necessarily in web 3 and then a huge amount of like what we would almost call our creative community internally that have been there almost from the beginning till now with new people that have continuously come all the time. I think there's a few really important things. One of the biggest things that we heard early on with refraction is please send us emails.

Don't just talk in the Discord. Please communicate with all of us. Artist updates, creative program updates. Please like continue to talk to us like normal people really like thinking about that authentically. And what's been really interesting is like in our creative programs now and we continue to do all of these different creative programs outside of the events. What we constantly find is that people who were involved quite early on till now will all get involved in different ways. The second thing is we've always told members that came on early on, please invite other people to the DAO. Please get other people involved in refraction.

We find this to be hugely exciting and important to like what we're building as a whole. The third thing I would say around that is making sure that there's still one-on-one engagement with people. So, a lot of our early members were founding members of the DAO. A lot of them contribute in a lot of different ways. And as we're building out IRL now, we're spending a lot of time speaking to a lot of the locations, a lot of the different creators, a lot of different artists that were from like the inception of Refraction till now. This is kind of incredibly important and people really appreciate it a lot more than you even think. They're really happy to just hear from you or hear what's going on. And

what you also find out is people are following along with the narrative the whole time as long as they hear it. So I'll talk to someone I haven't talked to in maybe 6 months to a year and they'll know everything we've done from that point till I've talked to them since like the last time we chatted. And they're always very like happy about it and like you know excited. sometimes they get involved. And I guess the last thing that I'd add is like being open, like always being open to feedback, to different opinions that people come with around how to change, what to improve, how they're feeling about it, what others might be telling them, and really hearing that with an open heart. At the end of the day, any DAO that is dealing with IRL experiences and dealing with IRL experiences globally has to be able

to really listen to what people want because at the end of the day, actually meeting and being in IRL spaces is probably the most authentic way that people can actually interact, intersect, really network and grow together in ways that, you know, just have these huge like impact zones. And it can be big or smaller like like I remember that year of our bows of Miami there was also the DAO therapy session that Alex Zang did at the time. You were there too, right? And it was one of the most interesting thing. It was the first time I heard about Enzo and it was it was like this very interesting moment where you have this group of you know 20 or 30 people that are members of FWB from around the world. They might have their own Dows.

They might have their own different practices and things that they're doing, but it gives you a chance to really talk and come together and be part of something and you feel part of something larger all of a sudden. You don't feel isolated or alone. I think on the internet we can often feel quite alone and being an IRL especially bring these micro communities together in new and interesting ways is it's really important right now. >> Yeah, I I totally agree with all of that. I think being a builder in this space. Um having this strong community whether or however big the community is is extremely important. For one um constant feedback, they're your ambassadors um and they're the people

that are going to refer other people into the ecosystem as well. And that relationship is so strong. And if that whole relationship can be tracked on chain and you can showcase, you know, when you got in, how you did it, and what the impact has been, I think that's an incredible thing for um building any strong business or community in general. And I think FWB did an excellent job at that. I remember to get into FWB, you actually had to refer someone, right? What was it? >> Uh you have to apply and you have to have a and have a referral. Yeah. Yeah, >> and I think about that all the time today because when we are even just thinking about any new product releases and launches, um we always release to our community first because that is a

direct feedback that we constantly need and um for only our product to get better and better. Um but maybe we can go through uh I know we we tal we talked a little bit around community events. Um I would love to understand some maybe findings or learnings from the first FWB and what is something that kind of has stuck to you um that has been like a strong takeaway for every other event that you you host? >> The first FWB fest was for members only. Um very bull market vibes. Uh you had to buy you had to be a member and you had to buy an NFT ticket. Uh it was great for members but pretty bad for business.

Uh and it also ended up being um it felt like a bit small in that way. I mean the festivals in Idaw Wild California it's uh it's really it's kind of difficult to get there and so we ended up closing ourselves off to a larger opportunity and also we missed out on the larger mission of like expanding the membership. So from the year 2, three and and year four uh we opened it up. DAO members always had first access and they would get discounts, but we really wanted to make it more comprehensive. And um we also it was just for us in year one. It was just FWB. It was just about us. And then in year two and really actually in year three, we turned it into a platform. So the first year is actually called FWBFest. And now it's just called FEST. And the big learning

was build a big enough tent, build a big enough city, but then make room for everyone else. And then you can have your own, you know, refraction has been part of it. Boys Club has been part of it. All of our partners base stellar um uh world etc. We just gave them their own identities in there. So it's like you build the white space, you let them fill it with their own. We don't say too much unless we think it's not going to hit. And it really transformed it for something just for us versus something for for everybody and something for the industry. And I think that's where the real power came in because people entered through their own entry point of, oh, I'm coming because they're activating, but then they got really deep access to other worlds and they got really well-rounded experiences that

maybe there was a pause in the programming or a break and they went to go check something else and it really like spoke to the curiosity. So I would say the biggest lesson for for these IRL is like not to be so myopic in the viewpoints and to make sure that you have a clear vision and it's there but then to make room for other people and make sure like their vision is equally as strong and if you need to help them be integrated a bit but the more people um that you have there especially in the space because we do we can be isolated um the more engaging it's going to be and the more engaging it's going to be for the people that come to the the events.

>> Yeah. I think even like on the second um fest uh you guys partnering with bass was such an incredible thing. I think that's where bass actually like blew up, right? >> B actually bass launched. >> Yeah, Bass launched they launched mainet from a cabin in the woods on a Starlink. Uh and then they gave a keynote on that Friday. So it's like very it's we've been very intertwined. And then they did base camp last year ahead of Fest. So we have a really long relationship with them. But yeah, it was it was really great to have them be part of it and to have Jesse out there and and no one really knew what base was going to become or even what L2s are really going to be to become. And uh but that was always what we loved about FEST is that you could have something super

experimental one year that becomes part of the industry the the following year. And then Malcolm, maybe you can also um extend on that on how like the power of very strong partnerships that you've had and that have helped Refraction and IRL um go where they are today. >> Absolutely. Like we love to collaborate. I mean the way that refraction was built, it was really built in a collaborative sense. You know, you had all these spaces around the world coming together. You have all these different DJs and artists and you know new media artists and visual artists, internet artists, NFT artists, etc. all coming together in and around it. And then you have all these different organizations,

you know, like we've worked with FWB so many times. We've worked with Xerion so many times. We've worked with a ton of different partners. Just last night at our party, I think we had 10 partners. And what we find is that when you're building a community in this space, the community goes beyond just your specific community, but who are the other communities that can help make it a full space? Who else is like-minded? What else are we thinking about around places and ideas that can really be shared and grown together? And it also becomes a lot of fun. Like I think often in the space you can feel isolated if you're just on your own, but by coming together

with different groups, you all of a sudden create these like really interesting ideas and ways of installations taking form, dinners taking form, events taking form, creative programs taking form that you wouldn't have otherwise. And so I think like the beauty of collaboration, especially in this space more than any space I've ever seen, is like you start to find all these little villages coming together to create a hole. And not just like in one place around the world, but globally. And I think that's probably been one of the coolest things that I've seen in the space and something that in anything I've ever done before, it's the first time that that can actually really happen. And the power of the blockchain, the power of identity is huge to that.

and being able to actually like have that as a way of you know putting everything together. >> We we had a program called event keys uh that was decentralized events. We wrote essentially like a permissionless structure. Um we published like a a bunch of uh SOPs around it and then any member worldwide could apply to it. Um we just had a few rules. Uh if you didn't complete the event and you took the money uh you would be kicked out of the DAO. It was like pretty binary on that. Uh and if you didn't like do report or things like that, you also be kicked out of the DAO from that. And then you could do whatever you want. Uh it was very localized. We did 40 events sorry 40 countries, 200 plus events, all member led which were incredible. But

similar to Malcolm's point, it's like we built a platform for them. Um we we took money from our treasury. We made it sure that like people, you know, were good stewards of the community and brand and then let it rip. And it was it was pretty incredible. And they'll be coming back next year um as well. But it's just I was really surprised by the quality and everything felt like an FWB event but it was at a very localized level. >> I actually remember now um I did apply for this uh for it was NFT Lisbon and I hosted this like fashion uh panels. We also did like a little popup shop and I remember I applied uh and I got it.

>> Good. I thought you were going to say and I didn't get it. I didn't get it. [laughter] >> That made me like and that's why I'm here Greg. But I remember and I think I I think back to this like types of partnerships, it almost I and when I think about when I'm partnering with certain people for events is like how are we elevating the brand and creating a strong um uh brand for everyone to see that we're not just in it alone, but we're in it together and we're really pushing our boundaries of how to be complimentary. Um, I'm hosting even like a a dinner tonight and we've been talking about privacy so much and how it could connect to the creator economy, social um, and I've been thinking a lot about this um, us being

like also a consumer application around how do we push the boundaries in in privacy and how do we actually promote it and educate in the right way. Um, so when I'm thinking about events, I'm like, how can I tie it to the questions that I don't know, but the questions that I would like to ask and figure out and get answered to. Uh, yeah. So, thank you. >> I love that. >> Um, cool. I don't know. Did Did we want to leave it to any questions or >> Yeah, we can take some questions. >> Yeah. Did anyone have any ideas, questions thoughts?

>> Yes. Hi, how are you? >> Good. >> Sorry. Um, so we do IRL um events since 2022 and it's it's really hard, you know, to do everything by our own and all that. Um, how how you start managing everything because in the the ecosystem usually things are free, the events are free because we things are are sponsors, but you just you you did it like that just you you you ask for a fee for the creators. How how

did you do it to start working like because >> I mean we we sell a lot of sponsorships and so we bring in a lot of partners for that way. Um I think our audiences are pretty desirable. Um, when you're doing that, it's really good to understand what your who your audience is and what you're bringing and how they differentiate from who partners might be able to get in front of or who partners want to get in front of. Uh, that's that's how we've generally done it. We also um have a token that we've been able to apply to costs as as well. >> Well, so it's a great question. Um and actually so we do get a lot of sponsorship as well but we've also sold a lot of tickets as well as you know things like alcohol and merch and other

things in and around our events. Um and we found this to be quite um interesting as like a larger way that you can build an ecosystem. And actually this year I spent the last basically year and a half touring around the world talking to different members of the DAO about how we would launch our token so that the token could give back to the community but also bring new people in. And um so right now what we're actually launching with our token is called IRL. And the token will be open to people who are in the DAO but also new members. And one of our first initiatives is actually a call out called the IRL tour. and it's open to people all around the world, anyone watching on the stream, etc. And the purpose of it is for people to create

events that are actually sustainable. So, one of the things we want to do is work with these different groups all around the world because we understand that it's quite different in different places. What happens in Argentina is very different than what happens in Berlin or happens in Paris or happens in New York. So what we want to do is actually work together about how you can actually create creative flywheels to have independent culture grow and thrive and actually be sustainable. So the answer for us is really working with communities around the world to build that. >> Oh thank you. We have another question to well which one?

>> Hi thank you Gabby. Uh I have a question uh for Greg. uh you mentioned this keys program uh you mentioned 40 countries more than 40 countries more than 200 events uh this way of producing events in a decentralized way uh I I can figure it's quite complicated so I was wondering what what did you learn from that experience >> it actually was not that complicated um we had an app we're really good at having application process and because a number of us have advanced background some of the questions were just like hey show us what events you've you've done and if no one had a no one had a events experience we're like you can do this we'll co-brand it but we're not going to

give you any budget for this and if you do a successful one we'll give you budget for the next one. The other one was if you do this and you don't do it well, uh we had like a good reporting with like uh guest list and photos, you get kicked out of the DAO. And so we made a pretty we friction there that it self- selected people who were just like, "Oh, I don't want to this. It seems like they're going to have eyes on us or we have no or like I don't have any background on it." Um and yeah, it it actually was the hard part was coming up with the framework. The easy part was actually it just went really well. So I would say in that process like if you want to have permissionless events think about what it takes for people to have

access and to earn that trust. Um we also you know just trusted our members and we we knew that some people would make mistakes and there was only two keys that after we awarded them we took them back because we just kind of knew that it was not going to go well. We didn't want to kick them out. We were just like it's just probably better if you don't do this and we you know avoided that uh in the future. And and this is all published on our editorial page about Ben key. So you can actually see the framework on how we did this. >> Amazing. >> I'll send it to you. >> Hey guys.

>> Um I I think it's not a question. It's more of a thought, but I just wanted to comment and bring it into the table that I think it's really insightful like the this that you're talking about because recently I've heard that um generally speaking when we invest in something um in culture in general there is a counterculture like the opposite side of the investment for example and I think that is really interesting that you've nailed it merging both worlds like in real life and digital we are all struggling with digital social life and

we are all needing in real life connection and I just wanted to point out that it's really interesting to me that there's a merge occurring there and not necessarily an opposition so yeah I just wanted to comment that >> I mean absolutely I think you're dead on you know we're in a post-platform society as a full and one of those platforms that we're moving back into is 100% IRL and how that responds to digital culture and how they speak together. Well, thanks both of you for saying yes to doing this. Thank you.

>> Okay. Thanks, Bulls. Thanks, everyone.