COVID-19 had an undeniable impact on life as we know it throughout 2020. Perhaps the most notable effect for the blockchain community was the cancellation of in-person conferences and events. Where 2019 boasted plentiful conferences, workshops, hackathons, and meetups, 2020 showcased the rise of the virtual event.

This year, the Neo DevCon was postponed indefinitely. There was no gaming conference. Ecosystem developers didn’t gather in person for a community assembly to discuss Neo’s most pressing issues. There were no flagship events held by Neo leadership.

Throughout the unrelenting disruption of global shutdowns, 2020 allowed the distributed nature of the blockchain industry to shine. While traditional brick-and-mortar industries were forced to adapt to survive, blockchain developers continued contributing to codebases. Meanwhile, promoters, marketers, and conference hosts adapted to the new normal, resulting in a slew of virtual events.

In April, virtual events and conferences began to take off, as did Neo leadership’s involvement with them. Da Hongfei and Neo Global Development Enterprise lead, John deVadoss, participated in Consensus: Distributed, Road to Metamorphosis, ReImagine 2020, Blockdown 2020, Crypto Asia Summit, BlockConf Digital, and LA Blockchain Summit, among others.

In May, members of the Neo ecosystem began hosting virtual workshops and delivering presentations more broadly. At the ReImagine virtual conference, deVadoss, COZ and Moonlight co-founder Tyler Adams, and NEO-ONE developer Daniel Byrne each hosted a session. At the IEEE virtual conference, neow3j developer Guil Sperb Machado delivered a workshop.

Also, at Consensus: Distributed, Da Hongfei, Neo St. Petersburg Competence Center’s Stanislav Bogatyrev, and NGD Eco Growth director John Wang presented about the Neo ecosystem.

By July, Da Hongfei had begun to attend local and regional events in person throughout China. Over the course of the rest of the year, he delivered keynote speeches or participated in panels in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Xiamen.

Outreach and communication

In addition to the virtual conferences, NGD marketing continued its efforts in reaching out to Neo’s global audience via Neo Live, by joining external Ask Me Anything sessions, and contributing guest articles.

Neo Live is a community question and answer series held in English via the official Neo Telegram channel and in Chinese via official Neo WeChat channels. Most of these events occurred in Q1 2020, with a few interspersed in the second half of the year. Participants included NEXT, NGD Enterprise, Switcheo, Incognito Chain, Suterusu, NeoFish, COZ, Moonlight, Liquefy, Poly Network, and Neo SPCC.

Neo representatives also participated in external AMA’s and contributed articles to publications like CoinTelegraph and CoinDesk.

Neo News Today podcast

In addition to NGD efforts, the Neo News Today Podcast showcased Neo ecosystem contributors throughout 2020, releasing 28 episodes.

Guests included NGD and Neo Foundation employees, local blockchain community founders, developers, project founders, and industry consortia.

A timeline of online events, podcasts, and articles can be found below.

January

  • 6: NeoLogin CTO, Albert Acebron, joined the NNT pod – Episode 21.
  • 9: NEXT participates in Neo Live Telegram event – Transcript.
  • 16: John deVadoss participates in Neo Live Telegram event – Transcript.
  • 20: Cryptorado founder, Dan Shields, joined the NNT pod – Episode 22.
  • 23: Switcheo and NGD Eco Growth participate in Neo Live Telegram event – Transcript.

February

  • 5: Archon CEO and CTO, Kevin Truong, joined the NNT pod – Episode 23.
  • 17: PubNooks co-owner, Malcolm Wright, joined the NNT pod – Episode 24.
  • 20: Incognito Chain and NGD Eco Growth participated in Neo Live Telegram event – Details.
  • 27: Suterusu joined the Chinese community on WeChat for a NeoLive session – Details.

March

  • 2: Neo SPCC principle engineer, Roman Khimov, joined the NNT pod – Episode 25.
  • 5: NeoFish participated in Neo Live webcast event – Transcript.
  • 12: NEXT joined the Chinese community on Neo Live WeChat – Details.
  • 16: Neo News Today editor, Brett Rhodes, joined the NNT pod – Episode 26.
  • 30: COZ and Moonlight co-founder, Tyler Adams, and NGD protocol engineer, Justin Jin, join NeoLive – Details.
  • 30: NGD marketing specialist, Songping Que, joined the NNT pod – Episode 27.

April

  • 13: Da Hongfei delivered feature video on “How have crypto businesses reacted to the outbreak of COVID-19 and how is the pandemic reshaping the industry?” – Details.
  • 13: Liquefy chief product officer, Drey Ng, joined the NNT pod – Episode 28.
  • 16: Da Hongfei spoke at the BlockDown 2020 virtual conference – Details.
  • 23: Luchuan, NGD Proposal Group manager, joined Neo Live on WeChat – Details.
  • 23: John deVadoss, head of NGD Seattle, joined Neo Live to share insider tips about Neo3 Preview2 – Details.
  • 27: Nash co-founder and CBO, Fabio Canesin, joined the NNT pod – Episode 29.
  • 30: Neo SPCC participated in Binance Online Super Meetup – Details.

May

  • 3: AxLabs conducted remote workshop at IEEE blockchain-based virtual conference – Details.
  • 4 – 8: NGD Enterprise lead John deVadoss, and chief architect Harry Pierson delivered a presentation at ReImagine 2020 – Details.
  • 4 – 8: COZ co-founder, Tyler Adams, delivered a presentation at ReImagine 2020 – Details.
  • 4 – 8: NEO-ONE software engineer, Daniel Byrne, delivered a presentation at ReImagine 2020 – Details.
  • 9: John deVadoss spoke at at The Road to Metamorphosis virtual summit – Details.
  • 11: Novem COO, Fouad Soultana, joined the NNT pod – Episode 30.
  • 11 – 15: Da Hongfei delivered a keynote speech at Consensus: Distributed – Details.
  • 11 – 15: Neo SPCC co-founder, Stanislav Bogatyrev, delivered a presentation at Consensus: Distributed – Details.
  • 11 – 15: John Wang delivered a presentation at Consensus: Distributed – Details.
  • 14: Da Hongfei published an article titled “Why is blockchain a remedy of deglobalization?” – Details.
  • 19: Da Hongfei spoke at Crypto Asia Summit virtual event – Details.
  • 25: John deVadoss gave a presentation at BlockConf Digital virtual conference – Details.
  • 25: NGD Enterprise lead, John deVadoss, joined the NNT pod – Episode 31.
  • 26: John deVadoss delivered a speech at BlockConf Digital – Details.

June

  • 2: NGD Enterprise lead, John deVadoss, joined the NNT pod – Episode 32.
  • 5: NGD’s John Wang and Denis Suslov participated in AMA on the Atomic Wallet Telegram channel – Transcript.
  • 15: TranslateMe founder, Ryan Lloyd, joined the NNT pod – Episode 33.
  • 18: John deVadoss hosted a roundtable discussion during the second BlockDown virtual event – Details.
  • 29: InterWork Alliance director, Paul DiMarzio, joined the NNT pod – Episode 34.
  • 30: Da Hongfei published an article titled “USDT: Challenging the USD’s Hegemony, Championing CBDC, and Beyond” – Details.

July

  • 4: Da Hongfei delivered a keynote speech at the 2nd Chain Plus Blockchain New Finance Summit 2020 in Shanghai – Details.
  • 6: Da Hongfei spoke about the five pillars of Next-Generation Internet at Unitize virtual conference – Details.
  • 13: Neo Foundation engineer, Longfei Wang, joined the NNT pod – Episode 35.
  • 14: Da Hongfei and John deVadoss participated in panel discussions at the Binance Off the Charts Virtual Conference – Details.
  • 24: NEXT and Switcheo joined Neo Live on WeChat – Details.
  • 27: Bridge Protocol CTO, Alex Guba, joined the NNT pod – Episode 36.
  • 28: John Wang joined a Crypto.com AMA to promote NEO’s listing and discuss Neo3 development – Transcript.
  • 30: NGD joined Neo Live on WeChat – Details.

August

  • 5: Neo attended the Great Bay Area Blockchain Week in Shenzhen, China hosted by CoinTelegraph CN – Details.
  • 10: Alien Works founder, Peter Lin, joined the NNT pod – Episode 37.
  • 10 – 13: Neo and ChainNews co-host a three month Summer Challenge event via WeChat – Details.
  • 11: Da Hongfei attended the POW’ER Blockchain Technology and Application Summit in Shanghai, China – Details.
  • 11: NGD marketing head, Yuan Gao, joined NNT’s Byzant series – Byzant.
  • 17: John deVadoss published an article on CoinTelegraph – Article.
  • 24: GhostMarket founder, Vincent Geneste, joined the NNT pod – Episode 38.
  • 27 – 28: Neo hosted AMA with BSN on Reddit – Transcript.
  • 28: NGD and Poly Network joined NeoLive on WeChat – Details.
  • 30: John deVadoss attended REIMAGINE 2020 V2.0 virtual conference – Details.

September

  • 7: Moonlight co-founder, Tyler Adams, joined the NNT pod – Episode 39.
  • 14: COZ co-founder, Tyler Adams, joined the NNT pod – Episode 40.
  • 16 – 18: Neo is main sponsor for “The 3rd China (Xiamen) International Blockchain + Future Business Development Summit” hosted by ChainNews in Xiamen, China – Details.
  • 20: Burency Platform co-hosted an AMA session with Neo – Details.
  • 21 – 25: Da Hongfei joined multiple AMAs to discuss the Flamingo project and his opinions on DeFi – Details.
  • 22: NGD marketing director, Yuan Gao, joined the NNT pod – Episode 41.
  • 28 – 29: Da Hongfei attended the POW’ER 2020 DeFi Innovator Summit in Shenzhen, China – Details.

October

  • 6 – 7: Da Hongfei gave a speech at the LA Blockchain Summit virtual conference – Details.
  • 7: Da Hongfei spoke about Flamingo Finance with CoinDesk – Article.
  • 9: John deVadoss contributed to an InterWork Alliance article – Article.
  • 15: NGD Eco Growth director, John Wang, joined the NNT pod – Episode 42.
  • 26 – 30: Neo and ChainNews jointly organized a knowledge contest – Details.
  • 29: Da Hongfei joined Fabio Canesin on Nash’s Beyond the Chain podcast – Episode.

November

  • 2: AxLabs developers, Guil Machado and Claude Müller, joined the NNT pod – Episode 43.
  • 4: O3 Labs and Flamingo Finance co-hosted an AMA – Transcript.
  • 5: Da Hongfei spoke on an online panel at Hong Kong Fintech Week – Details.
  • 14: NGD hosted an AMA on Neo’s Telegram with Neo, Poly Network, and Blockchain-based Service Network – Transcript.
  • 16: NeoResearch co-founder, Vitor Coelho, joined the NNT pod – Episode 44.
  • 19: Da Hongfei participated in an interview with Blockchain.News’ Sarah Tran – Interview.
  • 20: NGD hosted an AMA on Neo’s Telegram channel with Neo SPCC – Transcript.
  • 22: Da Hongfei shared his take on how COVID-19 has affected the crypto space in an article submitted to CoinTelegraph – Article.
  • 30: NeoResearch co-founder, Igor Coelho, joined the NNT pod – Episode 45.

December

  • 9 – 12: Neo SPCC spoked at SmartData data engineering conference – Details.
  • 13: Switcheo co-founder, Ivan Poon, joined the NNT pod – Episode 46.
  • 15: NeoLine hosted a virtual event with Binance – Details.
  • 28: Guardian Circle CEO and co-founder, Mark Jeffrey, joined the NNT pod – Episode 47.
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