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If you were an attendee at Edge City Austin, we’d love it if you filled out the feedback form. Our upcoming gatherings are: Edge City South Africa (April 3rd - 12th) and Edge Esmeralda (May 24th - June 21st). See you soon!
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Thank you to everyone who joined us in Austin! We had a wonderful week bringing together curious minds to explore frontier ideas and build meaningful connections.
While different from our month-long popup village format, this 6-day unconference gathered over 300 people who believe the future can be better and are actively working to make it happen. The week served as a perfect touchpoint for our existing community to reconnect, and for new friends to discover the energy, ideas, and relationships that make Edge City unique—laying the foundation for our upcoming village, Edge Esmeralda.
By the Numbers
- 300+ guests throughout the week
- 6 days of programming across 6 core tracks (Tech for Human Flourishing, Health & Biotech, Embodied AI, Cities of Tomorrow, and Hard Tech)
- Daily wellness activities including yoga, HIIT, and runs along Town Lake
- Dozens of workshops and talks from 30+ leading thinkers and builders
- Multiple community gatherings, including decentralized dinners and a live music jam
Core Tracks
Technology for Human Flourishing
- Vitalik Buterin shared insights on d/acc (decentralized acceleration) and balancing progress with protection
- Balaji Srinivasan explored the path forward for building new institutions and Network States
- Drew Van der Werff broke down why Ethereum matters in the real world
Health & Biotech
- Justin Mares discussed health policies that could change the state of the US
- Josie Zayner led a hands-on plant genetic engineering workshop
- Miki Agrawal shared her journey "From Diapers to Dirt"
- Andy and Alexa Bromberg taught participants how to measure and create healthier homes
Embodied AI
- Brendan McCord's Truth-seeking AI workshop examined classical texts like "On Liberty" and "Theaetetus" to inform AI system design
- Peter Voss led discussions on AGI beyond LLMs
- Sina Habibian & Yondon Fu explored "Becoming Cyborgs: Taking Control"
Cities of Tomorrow
- Patri Friedman shared his journey from Ephemerisle to new cities
- Jon Hillis presented a taxonomy of network societies
- Ian Singer connected flying cars and ancient cities
- Kevin Fishner explored Georgism and future towns
- Elaine Wang introduced the Digital Nation Alliance for island nations
- David Kirby discussed the critical value of schools in building strong towns
- Joshua Farahzad and Merle Nye shared insights on building environments for prototyping hardtech
Hard Tech
- Matt Loszak delivered an eye-opening talk on the new generation of nuclear energy
- Juan Benet explored the frontier of neurotech
- Whurley & Jay Boisseau discussed making quantum computing available to everyone
Human Connection
- Julia Winston led workshops on designing for personal, communal, and global connection
- Gray Garmon facilitated a workshop on designing movements with social impact
- Sam Horn shared insights on "Tick Talk: What to Say When Every Second Counts"
- Andrew Horn hosted discussions on social flow and meaningful connections
Community Life
Some of our favorite moments outside of programming:
- Diana Wilcox leading HIIT yoga sessions
- Daily run clubs along Town Lake
- A live band jam on Hotel Magdalena lawn
- Community-organized decentralized dinners across Austin
- Community paddle organized using Ante.xyz’s crypto crowdfunding platform
- Wyatt Rogers’ epic ShiftWave chairs
- Paper discussions on community currencies on the lawn
- "Night at The Edge" party with ATX DAO, Stand With Crypto & QUAI Network
- Coworking :)
Looking Forward
We're excited to continue building on the momentum from Austin as we look ahead to our upcoming gatherings:
- Edge City South Africa (April 3-12) — Our first "Edge Expedition," a 10-day journey through Cape Town and the Western Cape, exploring Africa's growing tech scene with local founders.
- Edge Esmeralda 2025 (May 24-June 21) — Returning to beautiful Healdsburg, California, for our month-long popup village, in partnership with the new town project Esmeralda.
We also announced three Edge City grant programs during Austin:
- d/acc Grants — Supporting projects in cyber defense, information resilience, infrastructure resilience, neurotech, and new social technology & governance models
- Inflection Grants — Quick grants for unusual ideas from builders age 18-25
- Edge City Fellowship 2025 — For builders age 18-25 to spend a month with us at our popup villages
If you have memories or highlights from Edge City Austin you'd like to share, please send them our way or post about your experience—we'd love to hear from you!
With love,
The Edge City team ☀️