Final Report - bringing Arbitrum to over 500 students, developers and researchers
In Q1 2024, the web3 Warri team under my leadership, received a grant from the Arbitrum Foundation via the QuestBook platform. Thanks to the @SEEDGov team for reviewing our application and approving our proposal.
In our proposal, we set the audacious goal of hosting Arbitrum-focused events across three select higher institutions (universities and colleges) across Delta State, South of Nigeria.
This is a report of how we were able to host, spread the message of blockchain, Ethereum, and Arbitrum as a layer 2 solution, and inspire over 500 students and developers combined, across the three select institutions.
Our Predefined Goals
We shared our goals for this series of events in our earlier reports. You can find them here
It is worth repeating however that some of the goals included:
- Having a minimum attendance of 150 people in each institution with a cap at 200.
- Introducing the attendees to blockchain technology, Ethereum, and layer 2 with STRICT focus on Arbitrum
- Inspiring the students to take up research on Arbitrum leading to the growth of the ecosystem.
The strategy - penetrating each institution
To achieve the goal of hosting the Arbitrum event, we had to be strategic in our campaign per institution. To reach an attendee number of at least 150 people, we had to be proactive both online and onsite across each institution.
Here’s a summary of the strategy we employed in achieving the goal
Onsite Campaigns on campus
onsite campaign at one of the classroom of the Federal University Petroleum Resources, Nigeria
- Working closely with the student union body as partners, enabling us to reach a large number of students on campus.
- Working closely with the school authorities - the various departmental heads like the department of Computer Science, the dean of the student affairs.
- Working with the different tech communities on the various campuses.
- Working with the school authority and student body to pick a date that is most feasible and won’t disrupt the school’s academic calendar. For example, in one of the institution, we had to host the event on a Friday as recommended by the school.
- Securing a venue for the event inside the institution. Why? Because we wanted the attendees to be most comfortable in their environment without the need for them to travel outside of campus for the event.
- Classroom campaigns - where we went with handbill invitational fliers specifically printed for the event.
- Bill board at strategic locations in the schools, informing the student community of the Arbitrum event.
- Volunteers and teams were also set up in each school. These volunteers helped us tremendously in achieving our goals since they are members of the institutions.
onsite campaign at one of the classroom of the Federal University Petroleum Resources, Nigeria
Online campaigns
We were also strategic in our online campaign for the events - like running Twitter campaigns, blog posts like this, including LinkedIn.
The Numbers - A breakdown for each school
We had a total of 513 people combined from the three institutions and here is the breakdown in the numbers.
Institution one event - the Federal University of Petroleum Resources - FURPE, Nigeria
Event date: Saturday February 10, 2024.
We had 170 people in attendance. Male attendees were 125, while female attendees were 45.
Institution two event - the Delta State University Abraka - DELSU, Nigeria
Event date: Friday February 16, 2024.
We had 210 people in attendance. Male attendees were 185, while female attendees were 85. We also had the honor of the presence of the head of the department of Computer Science and some lecturers of the Delta State University at the Arbitrum event. It is also interesting to note that this was the very first Web3 event in the institution.
Institution three event - the Petroleum Training Institute - PTI, Nigeria
Event date: Saturday March 23, 2024.
We had 133 people in attendance. Male attendees were 97, while female attendees were 36.
How we Grew the Arbitrum Ecosystem
A look at the Sessions at the Event
One of the major goals for us in hosting this series of events was to grow the Arbitrum ecosystem. With carefully crafted sessions, we achieved this goal.
Here is a look at the sessions/topics we covered
- Introduction to blockchain technology
- A look at layer 2 - Case study Arbitrum
- Building DApps on Arbitrum - a technical deep dive
- Getting started and Contributing to Arbitrum.
- Arbitrum Research
- Arbitrum Ambassador Program
- Building Open Source Tools on the Arbitrum Chain
Attendees Feedbacks and Going Forward
We were blown away not just by the number of attendees we recorded at each event, but also by the enthusiasm, the willingness to learn more about Arbitrum and the shared common theme among each institution.
All schools asked that we come again - this time, hosting technical workshops on how to build DApps on the Arbittum chain.
It is also worth noting that we saw tremendous growth in the number of the web3 Warri community. As at the time we applied for the grant we were less than 150 members. Today, we are over 350 members who have signed up to join the community.
Going forward, we will be organizing technical deep dives and hackathons for members of the community.
Acknowledgement
We are most thankful to the @Arbitrum DAO, the Arbitrum Foundation, Questbook for this initiative. Special thanks also to @SEEDGov team - @cattin @Manugotsuka @axlvaz_SEEDLATAM.eth for reviewing and approving our proposal at Questbook.