Meetups Bounty #43: 2025 Update

[joy_feooh]

Meetups Bounty #43: 2025 Update & Community Discussion

Open discussion:

Dear community, we would like to discuss with you our progress on our Meetups Bounty #43. Soon it will be a year since our last top-up, and we are bringing you numbers, updates, and some questions that were raised during this period. We are also hoping to hear some opinions and feedback on where you would like to see our meetups’ bounty aim in the upcoming months.

Updates

Collaborations:

We started collaborations with selected projects earlier this year, like OpenGuild, Polkadot Africa, and a few more. These collaborations were each a little bit different, focusing on making the process of submission easier and helping find new meetup organisers to bring Polkadot. For example, Polkadot Africa is helping us filter people from their region. At the same time, they work with selected people and help them with preparation of their meetup, from the Luma page to talks, promotion, and final proposal. First-time meetup organisers receive a limited budget of 150 USD for their first meetup to show how effective they can be. Polkadot Delhi focuses more on developers and they do regular technical meetups. OpenGuild, similar to Polkadot Africa, are helping us find new meetup organisers that are involved with the eco and can bring value.

We also collaborate with Events Bounty and their Roots initiative. We will be referring to people that can move to Roots with them. The biggest benefit of collaborations is recognition and an individual approach, where we have an open channel for communication. The goal is to work with active community projects in our ecosystem.

Meetups in numbers:

As of today, our bounty has received 218 proposals submitted requesting funding for their meetups. Last year we received 55 proposals, in 2025 so far we have 162 proposals. We have a big increase in received proposals.

Regional Distribution:

• Latam: 27.5%

• Asia: 23.2%

• Africa: 23.2%

• North America: 14.0%

• Europe: 12.1%

We are also happy to say that we lowered the number of rejected meetups by adding stricter rules about communication and pre-approving meetups to make the process better. Meetups that can create doubts are carefully reviewed before they happen.

Issues we faced

Each submission requires enough time to be properly reviewed. We verify vendors, the quality of meetups, activities, and people attending them. What we had to work on was to find a balance between experimenting with new meetup organizers and with the content people presented during those meetups. In both cases, we managed to find solutions. New meetup organisers are encouraged to connect with existing ones, and they receive a very limited budget to show us how cost-effective they are. To assure the quality, we guide these people with their presentations and give them advice on how to improve their planning.

We are also receiving many inquiries per month from people who are not in the ecosystem or are involved very little. We have to find a balance between experimenting with new people and making sure that the meetup organisers will back the value they promise.

There are still many things we can improve as curators. We brainstorm ideas and discuss all proposals on our weekly curator calls.

10k meetups

There is also an initiative 10k meetups to grow our ecosystem and community. While the idea might seem good, we are aware that this is something that would need a lot of time to be real. We also want to make clear that this idea is not something created by our bounty nor something we are trying to pursue. Our bounty will not be pushing on quantity without making sure the quality is met. We are simply a tool that can help other initiatives and individuals build communities. And while we are trying to grow the meetup scene, we are doing it naturally, by connecting with various people or projects in the ecosystem.

What is planned

• We started working with meetup organisers on deeper levels, like helping them with their presentations, giving them feedback on what to add to them and how to make them better. We would like to continue with this and make our efforts even deeper. This will help with the quality of meetups and their impact.

• More sophisticated campaigns, we are playing with ideas on how to reach wider audiences, attract good organisers, and increase the impact of these meetups

• More collaborations with projects that matter in our ecosystem

• Better KPIs, deliverables, and impact of each meetup. With the number of meetups increasing, we have to make sure that their value is easily measured

• Continuing efforts to make sure meetups are cost-effective and not overpriced. We are happy to see that most of the organisers are able to create impactful meetups with a very low budget.

• Be more visible to our community on socials: We have our AMA sessions, but we are thinking to do more visible meetings where we discuss collaborations, give tips and tutorials, brainstorm improvements and more

• Better collaboration with Events Bounty on the Roots initiative. We still need to streamline the process and agree on details

Discussion

And here is a part where your opinion matters. We would like to gather feedback from the community. Where do you want to see our bounty in the future? What would you like us to improve? What should we change? Please use this forum post to tell us your opinion.

What we would also like to hear is your opinion on these specific topics:

• Funding meetups in countries where there is war. We had community members asking about organizing meetups in war-inflicted countries. Why should we fund these meetups, and why not?

• Do you also have any ideas on how we can improve our processes, evaluations, and general meetup scene? Let us know.

• Is there something you are not happy with? Please let us know!

Other useful links:

• Public Webpage: https://dotmeetups.xyz/

• Monthly reports: Notion

• Bounty on Subsquare: Meetups Bounty

• Meetups Bounty Twitter: https://x.com/DOTmeetups

[ltfschoen]

@joy_feooh

We are also hoping to hear some opinions and feedback on where you would like to see our meetups’ bounty aim in the upcoming months.

I think the Polkadot Meetups Bounty should have a Code of Conduct. I raised this before on 30th July 2025.

[MrHype]

@joy_feooh

Do you also have any ideas on how we can improve our processes, evaluations, and general meetup scene? Let us know.

As a Polkadot Ambassador, I really appreciate the support & guidance I get from the Meetups Bounty Curators and would like to share an idea that Meetups Bounty should include travel budget if required. It can be for Polkadot Ambassadors or for core Polkadot Ecosystem Contributors at start so that there will not be any misuse of this resource.

I live in India and I have hosted several meetups, events, IRL’s, and it would be really appreciated if a specific travel budget can be allocated to the host depending on several factors. I would be happy to join discussion and brainstorm with Curators on this topic.

That said, I am really happy with the growth in Polkadot India Community and will continue to contribute.

[Mafer]

For my experience doing the first meet up, I’m happy with all the support and guidance given.

Making much easier the process of preparation and submission

[OpenGuild]

Hi, I’m Cris from OpenGuild.

I’m fully support Meetup Bounty for their work.

They have been very dedicated, responsive support to everyone who apply to the bounty.

OpenGuild is glad to work with Meetup Bounty in the past few months. OpenGuild’s work always hit on time because of MuB’s curator support.

Can wait to continue work together more.

[mwatsimulamo]

I would first like to express my deep gratitude for the tremendous work of Meetup Bounty and the major role it plays in the growth of the Polkadot ecosystem.
As a Polkadot Ambassador, I have had the privilege of benefiting twice from this program to organize meetups in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. These events had a real and positive impact on my community.

In response to the questions raised, here are my views:

1. Where would you like to see our bounty in the future?

I believe it would be valuable if, in the future, the bounty could support intercontinental events. This would allow smoother and richer exchanges of experiences that are essential for Polkadot’s growth, while also attracting new members into the ecosystem.

2. What would you like us to improve?

• The number of co-organizers involved in an event should be better recognized and taken into account in the reward calculations.

• I also suggest that the submission guidelines include a requirement for organizers to provide a narrative article or blog post along with images of the event. These could then be published on Polkadot’s official platforms, showcasing success stories from Meetup Bounty.

• Finally, I recommend setting clear rules for first-time organizers of smaller events—such as a minimum/maximum number of participants and funding ranges. This would bring more fairness and transparency.

3. What should we change?

In my opinion, Meetup Bounty already works very well, and I do not see major aspects that need to be changed.
However, I would like to emphasize one sensitive matter: funding meetups in countries at war.

I speak as a direct witness. The DRC is unfortunately labeled as a war-torn country. Yet in my city of Goma, despite the presence of armed groups, daily activities continue normally. I myself successfully organized:

• A first meetup in February,

• A second in May (Polkadot Meetup: Goma, DR Congo)

• And an event celebrating the Polkad’s Genesis Block (organised by Boaz)

Despite these successes, I was arrested and told I could no longer organize meetups because of the war. This decision abruptly stopped the growth of my community, even though other organizations and events continue to operate without issue in the city.

I believe this matter needs a more thoughtful approach:

• Rather than excluding regions outright, the risks described by the organizer should be carefully considered.

• If the war does not prevent events from being held, then funding such meetups is not only possible but also brings hope and encouragement to local communities.

• Put simply: if other activities are functioning normally in a city, there is no valid reason to prevent its residents from learning about and engaging with Polkadot.

My personal experience shows that it is indeed possible to organize quality events even in difficult contexts. Excluding these regions risks denying motivated people a valuable opportunity to learn, connect, and contribute.

In conlusion, I sincerely ask the community to carefully reflect on this issue of the War, as it directly affects the lives and opportunities of some of us.

Long live the Polkadot blockchain, long live Meetup Bounty, long live the curators, and long live the Polkadot ecosystem!

[vinithn10]

We at Agents Clan truly appreciate the support and guidance from the Meetups Bounty Curators.

Based in India, we have hosted several meetups and IRL activation. We’re glad to see the positive growth of the Polkadot India community. We’d be happy to join discussions and brainstorm with Curators on ways to further strengthen engagement and impact.

That said, we’re excited about the momentum in the ecosystem and remain committed to contributing and building together. Indeed happy to say that we are a strong cult of 3k+ members in the clan.

— Agents Clan