@sommerfeld.near [Posted on DevHub](https://near.social/#/devgovgigs.near/widget/Post?id=1737) ## Idea: NEARCON Hacker Travel Stipend - Martin Sommerfeld Hey hey, DevHub & Near community! My name is Martin Sommerfeld, and I am responsible for Business Development and Marketing at Pollum, a Venture Studio based in Florianópolis, South Brazil. Here's a quick recap of our involvement in the Near Ecosystem and our plans for NEARCON this year! Since 2021, our team has been deeply engaged with the Near Protocol. It began when we first attended Nearcon, where we were introduced to Near Protocol's technology and the teams behind it. Since then, we've been actively contributing to the ecosystem: one of our significant contributions has been the development of Fluxus, a DeFi primitive. We proudly state that Fluxus was recognized and awarded at both the Metabuild Hackathon 2021-2022 and the Encode Club NEAR Hackathon 2022. You can learn more about Fluxus [here](https://devpost.com/software/fluxus). Additionally, we've organized various educational events in Brazil to promote Near and foster its adoption in our local community. You can get a glimpse of these events through the photos shared [here](https://gov.near.org/t/near-floripa-around-the-world/29884), and find additional information about our initiatives [here](https://gov.near.org/t/introduction-near-floripa-regional-hub-on-the-brazilian-silicon-island/26666). For this year's NEARCON, our entire Pollum team, made up of Near OGs and AI experts, is excited to attend. We want to enhance the portability and usability of BOS components by integrating them with Large Language Models (LLMs) and autonomous agents. In terms of logistics, I'll be traveling from Florianópolis, Brazil, and have estimated the following costs: Flights: $1,200 Accommodation: $300 Miscellaneous expenses: $300 As the total estimated cost for my attendance is $1,800, I kindly request a stipend of $1,000 to help offset these expenses. Your support would be immensely valuable to me and the Pollum team, and greatly appreciated. Thank you for considering this request, and we look forward to potentially meeting and collaborating with you at NEARCON 2023! Let's do it! Warm regards, Martin Sommerfeld.