We already have a lot of experience in organizing and running a successful movement.
If we talk about the NGO “Designing the Future” – the team started in 2011 and at the peak of its development there were more than 60 groups in cities in more than 8 countries, and each group was quite decentralized and had its own initiatives. Our job was to bring opportunities and people together as a team, to support, guide, and of course to set a personal example of how to do things, not just write new rules off the top of our heads every year like The Venus Project did.
In just 3 years of activity, a large PR campaign was launched, efforts were gathered and many offline and online events of various levels were held. Thanks to this we were able to find serious partners from the world of venture capital and IT that are interested in the development of smart cities to the level described by Jacques Fresco.
We have always focused on reputation, official institutions, media, criticism, high-level networking, and professionalism in content creation, subscriber outreach, public education, and so much more.
We had no funding other than our own contributions and voluntary donations. Lack of finances and difficulties with The Venus Project in 2016, when the emerging directors began to shut down the movement – prevented us from growing into a professional organization with all the work we had done.
Next, we focused on translations, media, YouTube and online community development, and personal contacts to lay the groundwork for larger projects. In 2021 we had established work with several top studios and narrators, hired up to 5 people on salary and a few more were freelancing, along the way having a volunteer team and several independent groups. At this time, we started organizing a work hub in Turkey, which was to develop into the construction of a tourist-oriented research center where team members could live and work. We have already moved 3 people to Turkey.
Then there was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That pretty much wiped out our source of funding in the form of revenue from our YouTube channel, which at the time had amassed over 1 million subscribers, and also scattered our team further around the world, became refugees moving to other countries with their families with nothing.
We tried to adapt to these changes as well. But we did not expect The Venus Project’s own program to change dramatically. I (Yevgen Sliuzko) was able to live at The Venus Project research center for 2 weeks a year ago, and during that time I learned about The Venus Project’s new program and noticed a lot of inconsistencies and problems in perception and decision making. There was a strong desire on behalf of the directors to hide all of this from their audience and even the team. And it still is, as a lot of people won’t like it – but they continue to have people’s support, which is looking more and more like deliberate misleading.
By the end of 2023, more details began to be revealed, and all that had been hidden behind non-disclosure agreements and secretly worked out in a tight circle of a few people, based on highly questionable claims and views. Simon Michaux has revealed the secret details, and now we can talk to the public about them. This is where the research “The Death of Jacques Fresco’s The Venus Project” began, which you can read on this site or in document.
Now we need to see what can be done in this situation to at least preserve some of the reputation of Jacque Fresco’s original ideas and proposals, and to clearly distinguish between the Original and New The Venus Project and the concepts of resource-based economics, since they use all the same names.
This is a very crucial period. We will bring together existing and future groups and organizations to achieve a common goal.
Are you with us?
I have been at the center of all TVP’s activities for over 13 years and can tell you a lot of things, from detailed explanation of Jacque Fresco’s original proposals, to experience of working with the movement, to little known and insider information.
I have organized the most successful and effective team of The Venus Project movement, now represented by Designing The Future, as well as the 1.5 million subscriber Jacque Fresco channel, small and large events, radio and TV interviews, working with universities and schools, organizing events, running a network of groups in 60 cities with regular meetings, and much more. Exposed and fought fraudulent companies and initiatives to protect The Venus Project’s reputation. Organized and negotiated the construction of The Venus Project’s smart city, with the then living Jacque Fresco, which was their best chance.
After the new directors of The Venus Project changed course, I strongly opposed it without hesitation, especially knowing the details of the gamble – taking the side of Jacque Fresco’s original ideas. Whatever the outcomes, I will continue what I have started, with the goal of giving humanity a chance to move toward a resource-based economy, or at least to point society in the right direction. I hope you will join us.