Whatever nounish means today - 2026/2027 edition
TLDR
I'm done with booking booths or venues to host side-events.
In 2026 and 2027 I want to focus on applying all learnings from 2025 by building out an on-going programming to facilitate REAL permissionless ⌐◨-◨ pop-ups at relevant industry events.
I want to lean into creating experiences in territories clearly owned by Nouns where new partners are intrigued to co-fund.
Proof that it has worked so far:
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adidas x Nouns Esports Product-Sponsorship
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Event Sponsorships: Octant, EF, aave, ens, POAP, Network L2, POAP
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Event Product Sponsorships: adidas Originals, moonpay, Sunset
It's also helpful to cross reference the exchange between 0xjanedoe.eth and myself with the results from 2025 listed above here.
The goals of this proposal are:
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Drive Partner Acquisition for Yield Streaming
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Nouner Retention
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Drive real UGC moments where people actually made memories
Referring to "partners" above: Partners like Octant, who is offering to stake 1000ETH with us and donate all yield to Nouns to fund community projects - credit to Dusk for making the introduction and co-shaping the opportunity.
I have a set of ideas of what this could look like.
Not as boxed, as we ended up with the App Town Hall. A lot more creative exploration. Permissionless in its nature. Stuntier. Weirder. More fun.
More ⌐◨-◨ WTF energy.
Budget ask: 80k USDC + 1 Noun (to give-away as part of an Art Stunt); for a 2 year run time to host 6-8 (3-4 annual) pop ups in Europe.
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The Concept
The central piece is a Nouns Coffee Pop-Up at relevant conferences and events.
A truly permissionless pop up.
No rental costs.
A little more grey area.
A little stunty.
A little weird.
More ⌐◨-◨ WTF energy.
Iconic.
⌐◨-◨
This Nouns Coffee Pop-Up is it's own project and is not affiliated with Proposal 450.
The Pop-Up idea is the results of learnings from 2024/2025. I summarized learnings and opportunities for Nouns in this essay: Nouns in 2026 and beyond.
Apart from that, I hosted coffee tasting events for my micro-cold-brew-coffee brand in 2018 and 2019 with Lacoste, Hugo Boss and other fashion retailers in Germany. All to say that this is trialed and tested:
Coffee works.
To bring people together.
To connect.
To make people stay.
We're creating a space for people to meet and connect, discuss, align on topics that are better discussed with face time instead of FaceTime.
The Pop-Up will offer to be the recurring and trusted meeting point, always very well located: in close proximity to the venue's main entrance, good to spot, always serving the best coffee beverages and the city's best pastries, sandwiches and apples.
And, always with something fun happening.
The Pop-Up can either be a stand alone Nouns Coffee activation, a stunt as mentioned below or Nouns Coffee paired with some version of the following concepts:
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...
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Art Stunts
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Public Screening of Nouns Animations, Films, Clips
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Field Trips
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Giant Picnic Happenings
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Skateboarding is Golf
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Goat Yoga
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Un-ice the frozen Noun! (ref image ice cube below)
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...
Here's a moodboard for some visual references:
Goals
In business and membership terms, the main goal is to drive
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Partner Acquisition for Yield Streaming
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Nouner (member) Retention
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Drive UGC that isn't a (incredibly boring and staged) conference photo or clip
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How does the concept cater to these goals?
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Nouns Coffee Pop-Up: Coffee is the universal attractor and connector for people to come and stay.
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The Stunts are for creating new or reinstating existing memory structures about Nouns -> Drive brand love and desire
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Real UGC where people made memories by creating experiences that offer opportunities for media series outside of the (incredibly boring) traditional conference photos and clips.
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Deliverables
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6-8 pop-up stunts in Europe within 2 years; 3-4 annual pop-up happenings at relevant industry events/conferences across Europe in 2026+2027
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Book of Nouns; from concept-to-consumer production and distribution to Nouns' IRL venues across the globe.
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A themed media documentary from each happening
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Budget
Total budget ask: 80k USDC + 1 Noun (as give-away for Frozen Noun Art Stunt)
2/3 Multisig: indexcard.eth, sign.0xsatori.eth, benjamin.latsko.eth
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Here are the budget categories:
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Nouns Coffee Pop Up (40k USDC)
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Coffee Machine
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...
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Watertank
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Ecoflow batteries
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...
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Iconic vehicle for permissionless Nouns Coffee Pop Up across Europe. Not a foodtruck!
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...
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Whatever it takes to make a permissionless Nouns Coffee pop up happen
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Marketing Working Budget for Stunts (20k USDC)
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"Book of Nouns" production
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Art Stunts
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Field Trips
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Goat Yoga
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...
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Giant Picnic Happenings
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Skateboarding is Golf
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...
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3. Compensation (20k USDC) for myself to work on:
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Branding
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Website, Marketing Materials
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Develop Partner Integration Concepts for the Events
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A version of "The Book of Nouns" which will also be placed with teams that have physical locations.
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...
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Whatever it takes to make this proposal happen
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How does the budget work to cover 3-4 annual pop-ups?
The proposed budget let's me get the main setup to run these events and work on a longterm plan with other sponsors. And, also work on more things that benefit other proposers, like the Book of Nouns - which I will make sure to get into the hands of project leads who run permanent Nouns installations, e.g. Nouns Coffee LA, Art City, HOPE Outdoor Gallery and many more.
I will work with other sponsoring partners to contribute budget for more stunts and any other expenses like artist compensations, media production, travel expenses, compensate myself, etc.
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Considerations
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Given my geographical location, I will focus on a strong presence on Europe. While it was exciting to being trusted and enabled by you to produce events across LA, NYC and BA, my focus in 2026+2027 will be more on Europe.
Why not NAM? Something worth mentioning is that I organized all events with Nouns from Europe for the US. With the implication that it's spanning across multiple timezones which causes a not insignificant extra workload and obviously: travel commitment.
That said, efficiency wise, I think it makes most sense for me to build out our presence in Europe and craft pop-up concepts that can travel and scale easier to other continents and cities further away. I will also use some of the events in Europe to test pop-up stunts that are independent of a (specific) vehicle to validate concepts that can scale across continents with low friction and budget commitments. Always iterating ⌐◨-◨
However(!), depending on demand from the community and additional sponsoring partners, there might also be the opportunity to activate in more parts of the world.
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Apart from the pop up happenings at events listed below, you can expect a steady flow of content series coming with coastal, surf, skateboarding, golf, artsy and padel energy.
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Events
Here's a shortlist of relevant events I'm considering. This list might change as I see fit if e.g. Nouners or potential partners are at those events too.
Europe
June 4-6, NFC Lisbon (PT)
June 15-21, Blockchain Festival Berlin (GER)
June 18-21, Art Basel (CH)
July 2-3, ETHis Munich (GER)
July 23-26, Pragma + ETHGlobal Lisbon (PT)
I'm sure that there are other events coming up too in the second half of 2026.
considered events in 2027 will be similar in spirit, ETHCC, ETHGlobal events, Blockchain/NFT focused happenings + art/creative hub
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Appendix
Previous proposals:
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The reference "skateboarding is golf" is a saying that is taking over the golfing experience as many (pro) skateboarders find their ways onto the golf courses.
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The title of this proposal is inspired by one of my favorite acid magazine edition #6 "Whatever surfing means"