Thank you!

Edge Esmeralda 2024 was more wonderful than we could have hoped. Our deepest gratitude goes to everyone who trusted us and participated in this weird and wonderful experiment. Check out the recap below.

Mark you calendars for Edge Esmeralda 2025, which will be May 24 - June 21!

What was Edge Esmeralda?

Edge Esmeralda was a month-long popup village that brought together ~1,300 folks who believe the future can be better and are actively working to make it happen.

We gathered for a month of living, learning, and collaborating in Healdsburg, CA. Our design principles focused on emergence and co-creation so we didn’t actually know precisely what would happen — we created the container and then watched it unfold.

“Edge Esmeralda was one of the weirdest, wildest, most ambitious, most unexpected — and most fun — things I’ve ever watched unfold in Healdsburg.”

Simone Wilson, Healdsburg Tribune

By the numbers:

1,300 people

joined us through the month of June, including 80 kids! Some folks stayed the whole time, while others came for just a weekend.

167 unique session hosts

from the community who decided to run workshops and sessions.

25 expert-led program tracks

throughout the month (more info below).

3x increase in Bird Bike usage

in the town during the event.

6 weeks old & 86 years old

The ages of the youngest and oldest attendees.

551 sessions

throughout the month! 93% were organized by attendees, with just 7% planned directly by the Edge Esmeralda organizing team.

Programming

Each of the 25 initial program tracks at Edge Esmeralda was organized by experts in their fields. These programs provided a solid structure to the month, but the bulk of the programming emerged organically from the community that joined us at Edge Esmeralda.

The community self-organized hundreds of activities, including AI-wearable soldering sessions, daily running clubs, sharing circles, impromptu lightning talks, night markets, and many others. If you’re curious, we left the full calendar up online so you can see what took place.

Track Highlights

Crypto Academic Workshop
We brought together the world’s leading academics in cryptography, systems design and game theory for a week of deep-dives on crypto problems, in partnership with Uniswap Foundation and with support from the Ethereum Foundation.
Longevity Summer Camp
Organized by Laura Deming, this program brought together longevity leaders for a weekend of brainstorming the future of this industry.
Solar A-Frame Build
Nick Foley and Anson Yu led a group to build an A-frame made out of solar panels up in a formerly burned redwood forest close to town, which ended up hosting the spectacular Golden Future Night Market and the memorable Closing Ceremony.
Neurotech Workshop
Marley Xiong and Mackenzie Dion hosted a gathering of scientists for a day of neurotech innovation. Talks ranged from spatial resolution limits to advances in silicon photonics. The workshop, featuring both rising stars and seasoned experts, resulted in several new collaborations. A group dinner with Edge Esmeraldans, hosted by Protocol Labs, closed the event.
Hard Tech Weekend
Eli Dourado from the Abundance Institute teamed up with Ben Reinhardt from Speculative Technologies to organize a multi-day unconference. They invited leaders in sectors like energy, transportation, aerospace, defense, and manufacturing to share ideas on topics such as R&D, regulatory reform, financing capital-intensive projects, and beyond.
Living Better, Living Longer
Organized by Justin Mares and Julia Lipton, this track had daily workouts, blood testing and health assessments, with evening salons with leading health experts. The week culminated in an all-day unconference focusing on ways to improve your health span and the latest research on mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
Cities of Tomorrow
This track, organized by Devon Zuegel, and Ian Singer focused on urban planning, city management, and future city innovations.
Labweek Field Building
Organized by Protocol Labs and Foresight Institute, this program looked at the future of frontier tech including Neurotech, AI, VR/XR, and Biotech/Longevity.
Summer of Protocols
A week of focusing on futures and world-building with protocols, led by Tim Beiko and Venkatesh Rao.
Network Nations
A weeklong workshop and two-day conference on the concept of Network Nations, led by Primavera De Filippi.
Edge Esmeralda Hackathon
Our hackathon program lasted the whole month and culminated in a hackathon with judges including Ivan Zhao (CEO & Founder of Notionjudges including Ivan Zhao (CEO & Founder of Notion) and Yasmin Razavi (board member of Anthropic). Huge thanks to Optimism and Prime Intellect as our main supporters.
Art at the Edges
We hosted an art program at Edge Esmeralda with the exhibit Imagined Realities: Perspectives on Change, curated by earthbits. Thank you to Optimism W❤️TA for the support!

Community Highlights

Community Highlights

Interview with City Managers of Healdsburg & Cloverdale

Jeff Kay and David Kelley, the City Managers of Healdsburg & Cloverdale, came to talk about what it’s like day-to-day to run a city in Sonoma County. The conversation was part of Cities week at Edge Esmeralda which was facilitated by Devon Zuegel, one of EE’s lead organizers. Half of the audience included Sonoma County locals, who contributed great questions to the conversation.

Party at Jendala's Studio

The first weekend, some of the EE attendees collaborated with longtime Healdsburg local artist Jendala to throw a party for the community in her beautiful studio space.

History tour by Eric Drew

Local historian Eric Drew teamed up with an EE attendee to host a walking tour of Healdsburg, with a focus on the Lost Buildings of Healdsburg.

Walking & cycling

Edge Esmeralda strongly encourages attendees to walk or bike as much as possible. The EE gathering is all about healthy living, protecting the environment, community connection, and reducing impacts on local communities; walking & biking enable all of these things by keeping us moving, not using fossil fuels, creating moments of connection as we cross paths with people we know, and minimizing parking and car traffic that could impact Healdsburg residents.

Community Dinners

Sunday through Thursday each evening, EE hosts community dinners designed to be family-friendly. The cost of dinner is included in the ticket price for out-of-town attendees, and locals are welcome to join if they purchase a meal ticket.

Build your own AI wearables

One of the sessions that an attendee hosted was a workshop to learn how to make your own AI wearable.

Open house for locals to come ask questions

Before EE began, the organizing team made a point of meeting with as many locals as possible to share what they were doing about EE, get their feedback, and welcome them to join in. One of the community outreach events was an open house where locals were invited to ask questions, and EE provided wine for everyone to enjoy together.

Speakers & Attendees

Laura Deming
The Longevity Fund
Juan Benet
Protocol Labs
Devon Zuegel
Esmeralda
Wynne
Allison and Ryan's daughter
Tamara Winter
Stripe Press
Primavera De Filippi
Harvard, CNRS
Zaven
Liz & Edgar's son
Tim Beiko
Summer of Protocols
Venkatesh Rao
Summer of Protocols
Joscha Bach
LiquidAI
Justin Mares
TrueMed
Eli Dourado
Abundance Institute
Vaughn McKenzie-Landell
Butter
Serene
Katherine & Oz's daughter
Julia Lipton
Awesome People Ventures
Grace
Katherine & Oz's daughter
Molly Mackinlay
Protocol Labs
Mike Johnson
Symmetry Institute
Nadia Asparouhova
Author
Philip Rosedale
Second Life
Eric Dawson
Nvidia
Cyan Banister
Long Journey Ventures
Frankie
Aleksandra and Antoni's daughter
Ore Ogundipe
NeuroFusion
Allison Duettmann
Foresight Institute
Sophia Jade Mewn
Yalor's daughter
Toby Shorin
Other Internet, Care Culture
Milan Cvitkovic
Integral Neurotechnologies
Kenneth Ng
Uniswap Foundation
Mark Tyneway
Optimism
Janine Leger
Edge City
Meltem Demirors
Investor
Sina Habibian
Into the Bytecode
Matt Prewitt
RadicalxChange
Jun Axup
E11
Erik Torenberg
Turpentine
David Perell
Write of Passage
Aleksandra Smilek
Foresight Institute
Lou de Kerhuelvez
Foresight Institute
Deger Turan
Metaculus
Dean Tribble
Agoric
Evan Miyazono
Atlas Computing
Colleen McKenzie
AI Objectives Institute
Danielle Andrzejewski
Protocol Labs
Adam Marbelstone
Convergent Research
Sumner L Norman
Forest Neurotech
Xochitl Cazador
Celo Foundation
David Vorick
Glow Labs
Martin Borch-Jensen
Gordian Biotech
Jean Hebert
BE Therapeutics
Yuri Degin
YouthBio Therapeutics
Wes Louis
PropheticAI
Keolu Fox
UCSD, Indigenous Futures Institute
Eva You
AuraSci, Paramita
Jeffrey Koury
ResearchHub Foundation
Michael Heinrich
0G
Timour Kosters
Edge City
And many many more!

Thank you!

Thank you to our Patrons

Hiroshi Nakamura
Fatima Al-Hussaini
Rajesh Patel
Xiuying Chen
Hiroshi Nakamura
Fatima Al-Hussaini
Rajesh Patel
Xiuying Chen
Hiroshi Nakamura
Fatima Al-Hussaini
Rajesh Patel
Xiuying Chen