@nearlove.near [Posted on DevHub](https://near.social/#/devgovgigs.near/widget/Post?id=1446) ## Idea: Developer Event / Hackathon in Greater China **Executive Summary** Creative Pro Asia, a NEAR-focused developer studio, is seeking funding of $7.5K USD per month from Dev Hub to support developer event / hackathon planning and organization in Greater China (including online communities in covered timezones). The requested funding period is from September 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023 (Q4 2023). **About Creative Pro Asia** Creative Pro Asia is a NEAR-focused developer hub based in Hong Kong. Our primary focus is to support a wide range of DevRel initiatives for NEAR Protocol and its thriving ecosystem in the Greater China region. The team consists of previous NEAR Foundation employees and early contributors of the NEAR ecosystem who have extensive knowledge and experience in DevRel, Rust, and community building. The NEAR Chinese community is one of the largest communities in the NEAR ecosystem and consistently ranks as the top region on Binance in terms of the number of NEAR holders. Currently, we have approximately 27K+ NEAR community members across various social platforms and 1,000+ NEAR developers. **Our Team** Creative Pro Asia consists of 4 team members who are specialized in developer tooling, ecosystem project support, developer education and community building. *Robert Yan,* the first NEAR Engineer in Asia, has been involved in dev tooling, ecosystem project support, and dev education and community building since January 2021. Robert has handled various toolings, including contract SDK, API, CLI, explorer, wallet, and wallet selector. He aided the launch and development of the NEAR Certified Developer program in China and Vietnam. He is also a core organizer and judge of MetaBUILD I, II, and III hackathons. Actively building a NEAR Chinese dev community with around 2K developers, Robert is a significant and consistent technical supporter of core ecosystem projects in NEAR, including Ref Finance, Octopus Network, Sender, Orderly Network, etc. Robert graduated from Chu Kochen Honors College, Zhejiang University, with a major in Computer Science. With over 11 years of experience as a full-stack developer prior to joining NEAR, he served as an Engineering Director at MicroStrategy and contributed to open-source projects such as Ethereum and Steem. *Daniel Wang* has over 2 years of experience within the NEAR ecosystem. He has notably contributed to major NEAR protocols like LiNEAR and held an advisory role at Ref.finance. Concurrently, he has played a key role in expanding NEAR's developer community. This entails contributions to open-source projects like the NEAR wallet, alongside the organization of both online and offline developer meetups for the NEAR community. He is also very active in developer education in giving lectures for the NCD program and guiding NEAR hackathon participants. Daniel graduated with a B.S in Computer Science from Fudan University and M.Sc in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to NEAR, Daniel has over 5 years of experience developing big data and distributed systems. He co-founded a VC backed startup as the CTO, and worked as an engineer at Salesforce and Gilt. *Coffee* has 5 years of experience working as a developer. He has been actively participating in the NEAR Chinese Community for 2 years and has been a moderator for both the user communities and the dev communities. He has worked on various developer education programs about building NEAR smart contracts, offering dev rel support online and offline to people building on NEAR. Coffee graduated with a B.S from East China Normal University. *Murphy* has been serving as the Chinese community manager for NEAR since July 2022., focusing on the development and building of both user and developer communities, promoting developer education, and organizing developer events in China. She had amplified NEAR MetaBUIDL Hackathons and the NEAR Certified Developer program in China. As well as helped NEAR participate in various well-known Chinese developer events, Additionally, Murphy has assisted NEAR in establishing partnerships with top universities in China, such as Peking University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, and has organized over 5 developer education events for university students. Murphy graduated with a M.Sc from Zhejiang University. **About Greater China** China is the second-most populous country with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, 80% of which are internet users. As a result, China has a rather large developer base, with some of the largest tech giants, such as Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Bytedance, etc., headquartered in China. Similarly, China has always been at the forefront of crypto and blockchain development, especially on the application levels. While operating a crypto exchange or issuing an ICO are strictly banned in mainland China, the use of cryptocurrencies are allowed. In fact, President Xi has publicly endorsed blockchain technology on multiple occasions. Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has been leading the efforts of promoting blockchain technology. has been attracting a great number of Web3 builders (NEAR in HK Web3 Festival). In short, it’s very important to continue supporting the NEAR’s Chinese community given the potential impact due to the large user and developer base. *In the context of our work for NEAR, Greater China includes mainland and various regions of China, as well as all Chinese speaking communities, despite where the community members are physically located at.* **Objective** The objective of this proposal is to secure funding for developer relations activities, specifically focused on event and hackathon planning and organization. These activities aim to increase NEAR's visibility and engagement within the developer community, foster collaboration, and attract new developers to the NEAR platform. 1. Co-hosting and Participating in Dev Events and Conferences To ensure NEAR's presence and representation in large third-party events, both physical and virtual, we propose co-hosting and participating in developer-focused events and conferences. These events provide valuable opportunities to showcase NEAR's technology, network with industry experts, and attract developers to the NEAR ecosystem. We propose hosting 1 to 2 developer-focused events per quarter to engage with developers, provide educational resources, and facilitate hands-on learning experiences. China Open Source Annual Conference (COSCon'23) We have secured our sponsorship with COSCon'23. In October, Creative Pro Asia will represent NEAR as a sponsor for the China Open Source Annual Conference (COSCon'23), alongside reputable tech companies such as Baidu, Amazon Cloud, and Ant Group. A separate budget proposal will be submitted for this event. 2. Hackathons We propose to co-host/participate in 1-2 hackathon event per quarter to bring together developers, designers, and blockchain enthusiasts to explore the vast potential of the NEAR ecosystem. The event will be conducted both online and offline, allowing participants from different locations to collaborate and showcase their innovative solutions. Our team members will also participate in the event as mentors and judges. **Previous Events Organized and Coordinated (May - August 2023) - Done and Delivered** During the previous term, we successfully organized and coordinated the following events: 1. Rust Conf China 2023 (June 17-18) - Preparation Work: 48 hours - Onsite Support: 20 hours (All members from Creative Pro attended) - Approved Proposal on NEAR Social: https://near.social/#/devgovgigs.near/widget/gigs-board.pages.Post?id=690 *Deliverables and Key Metrics:* - Workshop planning and preparation: slides & recording - 300+ attended participants in the Rust China Conference - Wechat official account followers: 1100 → 1217(+10.6%) - Onboarding 97 Chinese developers to NEAR-Rust Discussion WeChat group for developers who are interested in the DevHub Paid Contributor program. - Around 30 participants attended the NEAR Developer workshop (Full house) - 5 speakers were presented at the NEAR Developer workshop including Bo Yao from Pagoda, Marco from Ref Finance, and leaders from NEAR China dev community 2. ETH Shanghai (June 25-30) We were able to secure a keynote speaking opportunity for NEAR for free at ETH Shanghai. - Event coordination with ETH Shanghai Organizer (4 hours) - Video arrangement and transcript translation (6 hours) - Deliverables and Metrics - Illia's Speech: Illia presented on Building Composable Decentralized Frontends. - Video Arrangement and Transcript Translation: 6 hours - 4,830 views Streamed live - 100+ guests attended the event offline (Invite only) **Funding Request** As suggested by Dev Hub, we will submit individual event proposals on NEAR Social that will focus primarily on the sponsorship package and essential expenses such as venue booking and team member travel. However, to ensure the success of the event(s), we also require funding for crucial aspects such as event preparation, effective organizer outreach and management, event promotion, marketing, logistics, speaker coordination, attendee engagement, and overall event execution. **Budget Amount** Budget: 7.5K USD (Individual event budget will be submitted separately) Personnel: Around 50% Partnerships and Collaborations: Around 20% Marketing: Around 30% **Conclusion** By securing funding for developer relations activities on event and hackathon planning and organization, we aim to maximize the impact of the event and effectively engage with developers, while showcasing NEAR's technology and attracting developers to our platform.