NEAR PARTICIPATION @ CONSENSUS FOUNDATIONS TRACK 5/24-5/27
Foundations is a program within Consensus (organized by CoinDesk) designed to put the spotlight on thriving blockchain ecosystems. It’s a chance for protocols and projects to design a series of conference sessions specifically aimed at their community: which means developers and other technical contributors as well as the investors, customers and founders.
Consensus debuted Foundations at Consensus: Distributed in 2020 with over 20 projects and ecosystems involved.
Examples of other chains participating within this track: Solana, PolkaDot, Celo, Chainlink
Distribution and platform
Each 60 minute program will be hosted on Bevy, the virtual event platform for c21. The livestream will be behind the paywall, though they will air 20 minutes of the program on CoinDesk TV, which will serve as the “freemium” version of the conference outside of the paywall. Content can be live, pre-recorded or a combination of the two.
Required Programming
Each participating foundation receives one hour of programming broken into multiple segments, using the following structure:
Changelog, 15 minutes - The popular Changelog format debuted at Consensus 2019. The time is spent giving the audience a presentation on technical progress over the last 12 months and roadmap over the next 12. In addition, an update on project finances and treasury (especially in the case of an ICO) is included.
- Speakers should prepare a presentation over five to seven slides.
- The goal is to capture the feel of a corporate quarterly earnings call that provides analysts, shareholders and the community with timely updates.
@illia and @erik.near would be great here. I will work with you (and @Maggie 
) to coordinate. @illia - let’s work with @mallynear on possibly writing something that matches the presentation materials. @jake - will you please help design a ‘beautiful eye-catching, maybe infographics, and maybe comparison charts in there too’ deck? 
@illia - you will present for 10 minutes on providing the 12 month technical progress and 12 month technical roadmap updates. @erik.near you will present for 5 minutes on project finances and other related news to be highlighted.
Changelog Q&A, 10 minutes Project will host a Q&A period with a gallery of two to three analysts
- Analysts TBD but will be invited by CoinDesk (ie. CoinGecko, Delphi, Messari, CoinDesk Research)
- Foundation can suggest analysts that are knowledgeable and familiar with the subject matter, but CoinDesk reserves the right to choose and make the invitations
- This segment will have the feel of the analyst Q&A portion of a corporate earnings call, i.e. clarifying questions rather than “gotcha” questions.
@illia and @erik.near we should assume these will be tough questions - lot’s of prep to look forward to. @illia to field technical q’s and @erik.near to field biz oriented q’s.
@AlexTinsman and @Laura - let’s loop in Wachsman on this to recommend a couple of analysts. We aren’t guaranteed promises but a good idea to suggest a few to CoinDesk. We’ll need to get the speakers media trained in advance of this event.
Unlocked, 20 minutes Project will work with CoinDesk programming team to create a 20 minute hands-on segment. This should instruct attendees on how to use or build something on your protocol, thus expanding their crypto talent stack.
- Session can be aimed at educating newer users, existing power users, or a combination thereof.
- Ideally think of ways to incorporate giveaways so that attendees are more engaged and walk away with something tangible.
@mattlockyer 
I will ping you with dates for coordination. @waverlymaven had great ideas RE “Mint your NFTs on NEAR” and do an NFT giveaway (maybe from a woman or POC artist ) 
Optional Programming
Projects must choose ONE of the following formats to fill the remaining 15 minutes of the program.
Trade Secrets - This is a popular format debuted at Consensus: Invest in 2019. It consists of a solo talk or presentation by an analyst, trader, investor or market observer around a specific metric associated with your project or token. [NOT INTERESTED IN THIS SESSION]
- Speaker can be affiliated or unaffiliated with the project.
Power User Spotlight - Who’s the DeFi Dad of your platform? This is a chance to showcase a user or trader who has benefited from and embraced your platform and can explain its value proposition in layman’s terms to the broader crypto community. [SECOND CHOICE]
- Format can be a presentation, 1:1 interview, tutorial.
Construct - The project can convene a focused panel discussion or solo talk about the most relevant trends or issues appealing to the developer and technical audience. Select the most important and interesting figures in the ecosystem for this. [TOP CHOICE]
@potatodepaulo - since you are a major advocate of inclusivity, how do you feel about leading/moderating a panel on NFTs? We can invite the NFT Giveaway Artist (refer to the above “Unlocked” session for details), @caromintbase or @chloe from Mintbase, and @waverlymaven to participate as panelists. We can ask questions that are on the pulse with trends and anything else we might want to highlight.
Optional Virtual World Reception
Consensus invites participating foundations to host a virtual world meet-up on their platform after the conclusion of our program. This should have an afterparty feel whereby community members have a chance to directly mingle with project leaders and community managers in a setting that approximates a meatspace networking event.
- Ideally, this will be hosted in a desktop-accessible virtual world called Nowhere that is still being experimented with. Details to follow as they continue testing
- We can schedule a demo to familiarize the team with the platform
- The meetup can be open to the public or gated and restricted to qualifying attendees.
- Custom-designed virtual worlds are an option for this, though there will be a cost involved and we will need sufficient advance notice.
@waverlymaven and @jlwaugh - open to collaborating on this?
Some photos of the Nowhere virtual world platform that Consensus plans on using👇
