Proposal: 2024 Polkadot Decoded Asia (Singapore) on September 16-17 (during the Singapore Token 2049 week)
Proponent: 12Qn81nJ9DAPxQ6iz2jPxLcrbcpveWFbAAyvDLwnAGL6nPjG
Beneficiary: 12Qn81nJ9DAPxQ6iz2jPxLcrbcpveWFbAAyvDLwnAGL6nPjG
Date of proposal: Jan 24th, 2024
Requested: $328,053.04 (54,121DOT)
Short description:
Polkadot Decoded is back for its fifth edition in July 2024 at Brussels Belgium, with a fully hybrid experience of online and in-person events. Attending the live flagship conference in-person in Brussels Belgium is cool but it may be difficult for the Polkadot Asian community given the logistic cost, visa issues and language barrier. The simultaneous Decoded Asia event hosted regionally in Asia two weeks after the flagship Decoded is a good plus for the Polkadot ecosystem. This proposal is for the 2024 Decoded Asia, aiming to be regionally focused with local team speaking opportunities, exhibitions, social gatherings and lots of fun!
[Please note according to the feedback from many voters, we are rebranding the Decoded China Satellite to Decoded Asia. Please note it is not a watch party. It is a region-centered event in Asia alligned with the Flagship Decoded.]
Polkadot Decoded’s Flagship event will be held in the summer of 2024 in Brussels Belgium overlapping with EthCC on July 11th and 12th . This is the largest annual conference focused on all things in Polkadot. It brings together the Polkadot community, web3 enthusiasts, new/curious DOT holders, and builders to hear about developments in the Polkadot ecosystem. To align with the global Flagship event and continue the excitement with the regional focus at the strategic local markets of the Polkadot community, Decoded Asia event covering the Asian region ( China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and the rest of SEA) will be held two weeks after the Flagship Decoded in Europe so that the folks participant in the Flagship Decoded will have time to travel to Asia.
The 2024 Decoded Asia event will therefore create pivotal experience to the fast growing Polkadot China community and the nearby markets such as Korea, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam and the rest of SEA. The Decoded Asia is not a watch party. It is the region-centered event with featuring presentations, panels, workshops, demos and aligned regional events (i.e. APAC hackathon), delivered in the language of Chinese and English. The latest update and news of the Polkadot ecosystem teams, Parity, the Web3 Foundation and the community KOLs from Asia will be shared. The event is focusing on the content curated for a broader audience, as well as for decision makers, investors, entrepreneurs and Web3 Medias.
The target audience will be crossing over all six of our target personas: Business Decision Maker, Technical Decision Maker, both from startups and Enterprises interested in Polkadot, Builders from teams in the Polkadot ecosystem, DOT Holders, Developer, Polkadot enthusiasts and supporters. Polkadot Decoded Asia aims to be a general assembly for all things Polkadot/Kusama happening in Asia.
Along with one main stage with the presentations, demos, panels and flagship event (Decoded Brussels) highlight playbacks, 2024 Decoded Asia event will have networking areas, private meeting areas, exhibition areas (for parachain and ecosystem teams) and one after-party to celebrate with the community. The Decoded Asia event aims to have between 400 attendees, 30 speaking slots (presentations, demos, panels and Flagship Decoded highlight session playbacks are all included), 20 exhibition booths (for selected parachain teams and the Polkadot 2.0 dApps), and one Substrate job fair.
The 2024 Polkadot Decoded Asia event will be facilitated and hosted by Aitijia’er, an event agency based in Asia, who produced the 2020 Web3 Forum at Shanghai (Rebranded from Web3 Summit) and 2022 Decoded China at Hangzhou and 2023 Decoded China at Shanghai. More details of these three events can be provided upon request.
2. Problem Statement
The Polkadot/Kusama community is fast growing globally. For the community members and projects who couldn’t personally travel to Europe (i.e travel restrictions from Visa applications, logistics cost, language barriers), a regional-focused satellite event is necessary for the important regions such as the Asia market. The Decoded Asia event will align with the global flagship event, carry out the excitement with regional focus, and create an opportunity to allow the Polkadot community and the ecosystem projects in Asia to gather together and celebrate another good year of the ecosystem building and growing.
For this edition of Polkadot Decoded Asia, we want to broaden the audience and expand the coverage outside of mainland China. A certain number of speaking slots and attendees are offered to guests from Korea, Japan, HongKong, Taiwan, VietNam, Singapore and the rest of SEA. (Please note the Visa of PRC is required and the guests are responsible for acquiring the visas on their own costs and efforts.)
The 2024 Decoded Asia has the primary goals aligned with the Polkadot Decoded 2024 Flagship event in Europe.
With a regional focus on the China market and the markets nearby, the Polkadot Decoded 2024 Asia will bring out more regional festival spirit for the ecosystem and the community in Asia.
Polkadot Decoded Asia is free to all Polkadot community members, ecosystem projects and the general crypto audience who are interested in knowing Polkadot (Kusama and Substrate included). It will require the registration of attendee’s name, contact details (emails & phone numbers) and other required information for the purposes of the security and regulation of public gathering per China’s policy. The registration numbers and registrant profile will also be used for the post-event recap analyses for the purpose of the improvement for the future events.
There will also be free NFTs as proof of attendance post events. Whether and how to receive NFTs from attending the regional events will be finalized later. Possibly it will be through a Polkadot ecosystem NFT parachain project such as Unique Network.
Marketing
The marketing effort of regional satellite events will go with the global marketing plan such as the Polkadot official social medias. Besides the global marketing effort of call-for-papers through the various marketing channels, Asia event will go with the local Chinese channels including but not limited to
The agenda and speaker selection of regional Decoded will be aligned with the flagship Decode, though a regionally independent content and focus will be added as needed. All Flagship Decoded speaker applicants are welcome to apply for the regional Decoded for the regional efforts of marketing and community development. Decoded Asia is two weeks after the Flagship one so people who commit to Decoded Brussels still have plenty of time to travel from Europe to Asia. Please read the speaking agenda of the 2023 Decoded China Satellite.
Hong Kong is a very central and accessible city in China hence it is always a top option for Decoded conferences in Asia. A public vote in the Polkadot community will decide the city of the 2024 Decoded Asia event. Please note the final city and location is TBD pending on the contract finalization with the desired venues. So the change of the city and the location may be possible.
The 2024 Decoded Asia is planned for the same size of 2023 Decoded China Satellite, estimating for 400 attendees, 30 speaking slots, 20 exhibition booths and along with one Polkadot hackathon (APAC). The Hackathon will have a separate budget. Hence the budget request for 2024 is based on the numbers of 2023.
See the categorized numbers in the table below.
| Item Description | Amount in USD | Note |
| 1. Venue costs | $55,455.00 | - Includes 4 days venue rental for i) pre-event construction, ii) 2 day event and iii) post-event dismantling, electricity, cleaning, venue security, venue staff, permit filing and license obtaining, and etc. - This amount is based on the average cost of the previous Polkadot conference in China (2020 Web3 Forum, 2022 Decoded China and 2023 Decoded China) - See the budget proposal of 2023 Decoded China Satellite - More details to see below section Category 1 |
| 2. Tech equipment and construction | $46,581.00 | - Audio, video equipment, staging, lighting, recording, temporary walls, and tech staff cost for these categories - More details to see below section Category 2 |
| 3. Food and beverages | $61,200.00 | - Budget is based on 400 attendee headcount and 75USD/person/day. - 400 attendees are estimated based on the registration numbers and attending rate of previous Polkadot major conference in China ( 2020 Web3 Forum, 2022 Decoded China and 2023 Decoded China) - Registration numbers and attending rate can be found in the recap article here - More details to see below section Category 3 |
| 4. Entertainment /Closing party | $10,000.00 | - The amount is based on the average of the actual spending of the after parties of Decoded China 2022 and 2023. - See the afterparty events of 2022 and 2023. - More details to see below section Category 4 |
| 5. Marketing cost | $15,000.00 | - The global marketing alignment will be through Distrative (the spined off marketing arm) - The local marketing effort will go through i) Polkadot China community KOLs and Parity Asia’s marketing channels) - Free - The top-tier local crypto medias and tech medias - Ads purchase - China local social medias - Ads purchase, SEO purchase - More details to see below section Category 5 |
| 6. Staff costs, agency fees, mark-ups, production travel, etc. | $52,136.40 | - More details to see below section Category 6 |
| 7. Swag, printed material, branding, misc | $64,395.00 | - More details to see below section Category 7 |
| 8. VAT Tax - 6% China Tax (Category Applied) | $18,286.04 | - More details to see below section Category 8 |
| TOTAL | $328,053.44 | The 2024 budget request is 5% higher than 2023. The extra cost is in the marketing category. Please note 2023 Decoded China’s marketing budget was zero. It was through the global marketing pool and free partnering channels. 2024 Decoded China request 15,000USD for the social media ads purchase, SEO purchase and promotions. |
Payment Schedule
We request one lump sum payout. The critical milestones are planned to be delivered in the below schedule, upon the recipient of the requested DOTs.
How does this amount cover the work of the proposal?
Below are the more itemized details and descriptions of each category in the budget table.
Category 1 - Venue
Category 2 - Tech equipment and construction
The number includes below items
Category 3 - Food and beverages
Category 4 - Entertainment & After- Party
Category 5 - Marketing Cost
Category 6 - Staff costs, agency fees, mark-ups, production travel, etc.
Category 7 - Swag, printed material, branding, misc
Category 8 - Tax
What is the address of the fund recipient?
Beneficiary DOT address (12Qn81nJ9DAPxQ6iz2jPxLcrbcpveWFbAAyvDLwnAGL6nPjG) and proposer address belong to Aitijia'er, a Ltd entity under China law, based in Hangzhou China. Please note Aitijia'er is a agency for event operation, commercial ads, visual design and etc. We facliatated and operated three major Polkadot conference in China 1)2020 Shanghai Web3 Forum , 2)2022 Hangzhou Decoded China, and 3) 2023 Shanghai Decoded China Statellite
How can we contact the manager of the funds?
Email: aitijiaer.info@gmail.com
What exchange rates are you considering and why?
All costs budgeted are in USD.
How do you submit the reports with comprehensive deliverables?
We will submit the comprehensive delivery report and publish it to the Polkassembly for the community review as soon as the milestones are hit. This report will include but not limited to below items
Polkadot Decoded Asia is a big event happening on September 16-17, 2024, in Singapore. It is a part of the Singapore Token 2049 week. The event is for people who are interested in Polkadot, a big network for blockchain projects. It will have many activities like talks, exhibitions, and fun gatherings. The event will be in Chinese and English and will share the latest news about Polkadot.
The main goals of the event are to bring people together, show successful projects, and update everyone on the latest developments in Polkadot. It will also help grow the community and make people more excited about Polkadot.
The event is free for everyone who wants to join. They will need to register with their name and contact information. There will also be special NFTs given out as proof of attendance.
The event will be organized by Aitijia'er, a company in Asia that has organized big Polkadot events before. They will spend money on things like the venue, food, marketing, and other event needs. They are asking for $328,053.04 (54,121 DOT) to help pay for the event.
After the event, they will share a report with details about how many people attended, how many talks there were, and other important information. This will help them improve future events.