Hello folks! Anna here from the Community Development team at the Celo Foundation and I have an exciting announcement 
Togetherness and belonging have always been at the heart of Celo and today we are introducing another way to support our community around the world to gather meaningfully.
Welcome to Celo Gather, a grassroots lead meet up program supported by the Celo Foundation through micro grants, guides, and other resources to host independent events for peer learning and growing the Celo Community.
What is a Celo Gather Meet Up:
- A gathering of community for the purpose of general awareness or technical education about Celo and real world use cases. We encourage both technical and non-technical meet up hosts to apply! We hope that this creates many opportunities to learn in a peer environment about Celo and Web 3.
Who can apply? What does it mean to be a host:
- Hosts are the heart of Celo Gather
Anyone who is interested in holding a community meet up is welcome to apply. - First time hosts are welcome and encouraged! We hope that this program provides an easy way for newer folks to contribute to the ecosystem. Hosting a meet up is a great way to learn more about the ecosystem, begin contributing in a meaningful way, and build your reputation.
- As a host you are responsible for planning and executing the event and communicating with us for any support you may need. You could be a developer enthusiast who is interested in holding a developer education meet up and teaching a workshop about how to get started building on Celo. Or you might be looking to host a more general event to talk about Celo overall and the real world use cases or applications including DeFi, Social Impact, or NFT’s on Celo, as an example.
- Hosts are asked to submit a post event recap form with a few pictures from the event. This helps us gather feedback and understand our community’s needs and how we can improve the program and further support you. It’s also a great way to show off your event with some fun pictures from your Gathering!
- Hosts who submit an event recap can become repeat hosts and potentially establish event series in their local region.
How to apply:
- Fill out an application and tell us about what event you are looking to host as well as what kind of support you are looking for.
- We will reach out via email to confirm that your application has been received.
- Once you receive a confirmation that your event was accepted, we’ll work together to plan the best event for your community.
We are now accepting applications for 2023! If you are planning to host your meet up in January, February, or March, you are welcome to apply here. We are excited to open up the application early so that we can hit the ground running in January. We will also be releasing a lot more support and features in the new year including brand kits, guides, hosts networking groups where you can connect and learn from each other, and global events calendar for locations of all meet ups. We are looking forward to the Gatherings you will host and how we can continue to grow 
Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season and excited to kick off the new year with Celo Gather.
Anna, Community Development Team
to invite people to learn about Celo Ecosystem and onboard some of them.
