This week, over 600 people from around the world will arrive in Chiang Mai to attend the one month Edge City Pop Up Village for, “people working on the frontiers of tech, science and society”. This event, locally hosted by Alt_ChiangMai Co-Living Space and funded by the Ehtherium Foundation, “aspires to be a ‘society and culture incubator’—in IRL lab of experimentation for new ideas, tech, culture and organisations, all dedicated to accelerating human flourishing.”
“This is a lifestyle event, not a conference,” explained John Ho, founder of Alt_ChiangMai and Alt_PingRiver, two co-living spaces here in Chiang Mai which have both gained local and international attention for their successful model in creating community spaces for digital nomads, remote workers and travellers looking for more than a hotel accommodation.
“I think the notion that there is a community of people traveling and working online and Chiang Mai being THE hotspot in Asia was so interesting to me that I wanted to explore the concept of this new approach to running a lodge facility,” explained John, 45, who gave up his career in hospitality in Hong Kong to move to the home of his wife in Chiang Mai seven years ago.
John and his wife Sompor have since opened one coliving space, Alt_ChiangMai, before successfully crowdfunding the opening of their second space, recently opened Alt_ChiangMai, both of which will be home bases for much of the upcoming Edge City.
“Coliving spaces are more community-focused than more traditional lodge accommodations,” explains John. “You create that community through intention. Intention is very important to the coliving world where there are a lot of tag lines and key words that people use. In practice, you need to put in resources, you need to care about the people in that space and to cultivate that. You have to know the people, to have a relationship with them you are no longer a service provider, to are a connector. You are building a facilitating relationships and providing conflict resolutions when needed. It is about facilitating collaboration, whether it is in terms of work opportunities or lifestyle interests.”
Edge City Pop Up Village, which will be based mainly in the Wat Kate area, will echo much of John’s Alt_ philosophy, aiming to provide ample opportunities for its attendees to connect, learn, experience, join and live together with like minded people, for one whole month.
“It all began five months ago when some crypto people came to use our space for an event. Following some great conversations, we were then approached by Edge City, which this year has already been held in Denver and California as well as Argentina. We expect a diverse attndance including people in crypto, AI, biotech and longevity, philosophy, culture, hard tech, governance and more. With 300-600 people attending for an entire month, we will be providing, talks, work shops, seminars, collaborations, experimentations and events which go beyond the boardroom and which will include yoga, ice baths, trekking and fun nights out.”
However, John does say that the event’s attendees will be vetted, as the event aims to curate only those who are able to contribute to the dialogue and experience into the village. Though he did say that there may be channels for non ‘High Agent’ luddites like the rest of us to explore and learn. For those attending, there are such lofty and cryptic experiences as Deshittification Technology, Cryptography-Powered Social Networking, AI artist and brain-interfaces, etc.
John has already been working with relevant government and university authorities, and the lineup of speakers and activities is most impressive.
Please visit www.EdgeCity.live for all updates and information.