Proposal “travel-consensus-201705“ (Completed)Back

Title:Consensus / Leadership "Summit"
Owner:babygiraffe
One-time payment: 196 DASH (7658 USD)
Completed payments: 1 totaling in 196 DASH (0 month remaining)
Payment start/end: 2017-04-20 / 2017-05-20 (added on 2017-04-28)
Votes: 673 Yes / 19 No / 4 Abstain

Proposal description

This is a cross-post from the Dash Forum

This proposal funds the attendance of most of the Dash Core Team leadership to attend Consensus 2017 (including additional tickets beyond our package), to hold our first in-person core team leadership meeting, and extends an additional day to allow part of the team to attend Token Summit, an event the day after Consensus.

More information about Token Summit can be found here: https://tokensummit.com/

In a previous proposal, the network approved a sponsorship package at Consensus 2017, including a booth and attendance at the event for Daniel Diaz and myself. As a core team, we've been discussing the value - after years of working together - of meeting in the flesh and holding a strategy session, but we've never had the money, and travel from Europe and Asia to our office in Arizona was a significantly long journey for many team members. We see an opportunity at this year's Consensus conference for nearly the entire team to finally meet, and enabling us to increase our already significant presence at arguably the most important blockchain conference of the year.

We would aim to meet for an all-day in-person strategy session on Sunday prior to Consensus, which I will take the lead to plan to ensure the time is effective. The conference ends on Wednesday, and the team would depart on Thursday except myself and perhaps one other team member to attend Token Summit.

Historically, Dash has always benefited in a significant way when we invest in industry conferences, with increased demand clearly correlated with every event in which we communicate our strategy and what makes us unique. From the LABitConf in 2015 and 2016, to Miami in 2016 and 2017, to d10e last year, we consistently benefit from a rising price and increased budgets in the weeks and months following these events. With a larger presence at Consensus, we would expect to reach a much larger audience of one-on-one conversations, and get even more benefit from the significant investment we've already made into this event.

I roughly priced the flights and hotel for the event. We can access discounted rates for the hotel through the conference at $335 / night plus tax, and current prices on every flight are under $1,000 each (some under $500). Additional tickets to the conference are $1,300 including our sponsor discount, and we would require an additional two tickets beyond what is included in our package for all the planned attendees. Additional attendees would include Robert, Philipp, Holger, Fernando, and possibly moocowmoo and Andy (in addition to Daniel and Ryan, who are already scheduled).

My estimate for total costs including the extra Consensus tickets, flights, hotel rooms (assuming some of us share a room), and ground transportation is about $13,000 based on current prices. It is safe to assume prices may increase slightly by the time we obtain approval, so I'm including a buffer for a total of $15,000. Any leftover funds would be applied toward future travel expenses.

Requested funding is as follows for the May 5th budget cycle:
  • 316.90 Dash for additional travel expenses (~$15,000 USD @ $78.62 per Dash based on current rate at proposal submission)
  • 5.00 Dash proposal reimbursement
Total: 195.79 Dash

Note: Should any funding remain, we will apply it toward future conferences or travel-related expenses.

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Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?

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5 points,7 years ago
Voting 'yes'. However, we got to think of a way for the core team (or any other funded team) to communicate to the MN owners the outcomes of these strategy meetings. And by that I mean reporting back on the consensus achieved, and the current strategic thinking , now, and into the future. It's got to be more than just a get together, some useful information has to come back to the master node operators.
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0 points,7 years ago
Agreed
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5 points,7 years ago
I'm all for in person interaction, but the MNO need to be involved too... Have another open house after the conference later in the year or something..... Don't care for these rough budgets either... "Should any funding remain, we will apply it toward future conferences or travel-related expenses. " This is how corruption, collusion and abuse start. Voting no because it seems excessive and exclusive.
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2 points,7 years ago
An easy yes. Attending conferences is essential
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3 points,7 years ago
OK, but please come talk to us more ;) We miss hearing from ya'all, although we know you're busy. A quick hi is all we need :)
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0 points,7 years ago
- "We see an opportunity at this year's Consensus conference for nearly the entire team to finally meet, and enabling us to increase our already significant presence at arguably the most important blockchain conference of the year."

Yep...
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-1 point,7 years ago
we MNO need to have a summit, im voting for one in floripa, Brazil....
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