ESG Masters - a tech for sustainability conference format

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

ESG Masters - a tech for sustainability conference format

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

58000

[Proposal Summary] Time

Please specify how many months you expect your project to last

6

[Proposal Summary] Translation Information

Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated

No

Original Language

en

[Proposal Summary] Problem Statement

What is the problem you want to solve?

Even in Europe, the Green New Deal movement is receeding, and is being challenged from all sides. Even technical superior solutions don't make it to the surface of mainstream discussions anymore.

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://www.esg-masters.com/

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

No dependencies

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

License and Additional Information

All results will be published and information will be open sourced.

[Theme Selection] Theme

Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal

Events

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Who you’re targeting, how you’ll reach them, and why this matters for Cardano.

With the ESG Masters conference and ecosystem, we will target corporate decision-makers, politicians as well as thought leaders and solution providers. While Cardano is already heavily engaged in sustainability solutions and policies, there is still a lack of cross-industry conferences and an open exchange between blockchain proponents and sustainability practitioners that do not know a lot about blockchains. With ESG Masters, we want to ensure that ALL relevant tech tools & approaches are being discussed, regardless of the tech disciplines they come from - leading to lasting influence.

Provide a list of key activities of your project?

• Organizing a two-day conference, in Germany's economic powerhouse Munich, where Siemens, BMW, Infineon, Munich Re, Allianz and other global players are headquartered
• Aggregate a list of proven tech solution for specific industrial process problems, ranging from supply chains to energy production and sector coupling - with links to the relevant solution providers
• Initiating a call to action for the Cardano ecosystem to report all projects and solutions that can - directly or indirectly - contribute to advance the ESG targets

What are your success metrics?

• Organize a high-level conference with 40+ speakers and 150-200 participants
• Grow the followership of ESG Masters on platforms such as LinkedIn by 10x
• Have at least 30 organizations to support the conference and community, with Cardano being the main partner and ecosystem supporter
• Distribute the list of ESG-advancing tech solutions (with their best area of use) internatioally

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

ESG Masters aims to establish an international community and convene (parts of) it in Munich, Germany's most relevant economic industrial center, to bring together corporate managers, domain experts, opinion leaders as well as politicians and tech solutions providers to assess the tech landscape and discuss the best tools and approaches for various problems to make our economies more sustainable.

The conference will cover the impact of blockchain, AI, cryptography and potentially quantum computing as well as the role of corporates, politicians, and communities as well as governance structureo / local authorities to accelerate the adoption of superior technologies if it comes to the ESG output.

Additionally, the ESG Masters project will create a collection of tech tools that are proven and can hel to advance sustainability projects significantly. This should lead to a better way for strategists and project managers to tap into resources in the public domain that provides information about specific tech solutions's capabilities, related KPIs and information about vendors and project references.

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

A project such as ESG Masters will not only (publicly) raise the profile of Cardano and its ecosystem's activities in and tooling for the sustainability space, but also have an educational effect about participants' opinions about and understanding of blockchain's capabilities.

And it will contribute to foster new industry contacts, establish links to opinion leader and contribute to the discussion and collaboration between technical disciplines such as blockchain and AI.

[Your Project and Solution] Capabilities & Feasibility

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Sebastian Becker and the trebrainbehind GmbH (the organizer of ESG Masters) have organized high quality conferences more than a dozen times in the past. ESG Masters as a community was already established in 2023, but the economic downturn in Germany prevented us from hosting a 2day physical conference, instead we were organizing webinars and a community meeting in Munich with approx. 40 participants and a panel discussion.

By using close ties to the German Blockchain Association (where Sebastian Becker acts as Managing Director), INATBA (where Sebastian Becker is a Board Member) and other connections to policy makers, industry associations, universities (such as TU Munich) and large corporations, we are very well-positioned to deliver the high impact event and community output that is described in this proposal.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

Agenda-Setting and Speaker Acquisition

Milestone Outputs

• Selecting the main topics of the Conference (planned for Q2 / 2026) with Cardano's sustainability experts as well as the Cardano Community
• Create a list of suitable speakers, also by accepting suggestions from the Cardano ecosystem (and video-interviewing them) and collecting speaker confirmations. Up to 20% of speakers will be reserved for Cardano Ecosystem nominees
• Nominate a number of ESG Masters Ambassadors

Acceptance Criteria

• Get confirmations for 30% of the speaker slots quickly
• Finalize the main conference subjects and a draft agenda
• Nominate and publish at least 10 ESG Master ambassadors
• Project progress calls with the nominated counterpart from the Cardano ecosystem for the ESG Masters conference & community

Evidence of Completion

• Published Draft Agenda on the website
• Published group of ESG Masters Ambassadors on the website and via Social Media
• Consultations with the Cardano ecosystem done and collection of speaker recommendations

Delivery Month

2

Cost

20000

Progress

30 %

Milestone Title

Conference Marketing and ESG tech tooling list created

Milestone Outputs

• Starting the marketing & ticket sales for the conference (30 free tickets will be reserved for the Cardano Community)
• Continuing speaker acquisition
• Approaching additional segment sponsors for the Conference
• Organizing at least 1 preparatory webinar to generate additional attention to the conference

Acceptance Criteria

• Updated agenda on the website and ticket sales live
• Topical posts on LinkedIn every 2nd day
• Webinar with at least 60 live participants and recording published on social media
• Publication of ESG tooling tech list with clear definition for project entries and public call to contribute to populating it

Evidence of Completion

• Published conference website with ticket sales live
• Publishing at least 10 LinkedIn posts per month, with input from Cardano community projects being integrated
• Preparatory webinar held and recording published
• Acquiring at least 20 supporting organizations for ESG Masters

Delivery Month

4

Cost

15000

Progress

60 %

Milestone Title

Successful physical Conference and publish Proceedings

Milestone Outputs

• At least 150 conference participants
• Published list with more than 30 ESG Tech Tools listed and described
• More than 20 ESG Ambassadors nominated
• Concluding the high quality two day conference without making a loss (cost estimate is approx. 120k EUR)
• Collect donations at the conference and from the community for a cause agreed upon with the Cardano community

Acceptance Criteria

• Successfull conclusion of the ESG Masters main conference
• Review call with the Cardano community to assess the impact at the contact & ideation level and to discuss next step
• Successful presentation of the

Evidence of Completion

• Successfull conclusion of the ESG Masters main conference
• Collect feedback from Cardano community members participating in ESG Masters via a survey
• Successful presentation of the main Cardano sustainability projects at the ESG Masters conference

Delivery Month

6

Cost

23000

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

• Personnel: 25.000 ADA (thebrainbehind GmbH internal resources as the organizing entity; 2 freelance and part-time conference managers; 1 freelance and part-time or agency PR specialist; 2 agency event project managers, on-site staff at the Conference)
• Marketing Cost: 10.000 ADA
• Location: 8.000 ADA (in the City Center of Munich)
• Catering: 15.000 ADA (for two conference days, 1 breakfast, 4 coffee breaks, 2x lunch, drinks for evening receptio)

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?

Many blockchain ecosystems do support projects in the sustainability (and other areas), but real-world adoption will not happen in a sustainable way, unless blockchain (as a new field) and blockchain ecosystem such as Cardano (with their own networks of devs, service suppliers and evangelists) are not managing to convince either the tech community of their superior tech and tooling, or the topic experts in a specific domain, that Cardano's tooling (and blockchain's capabilities in general) should become an indispensable element of their systemic thinking.

The ESG Masters' project with its event and proceedings is designed to help with this second point.

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

Terms and Conditions:

Yes