Welcome!

This is a cross-post from the Dash Forum

This proposal funds the remaining expenses associated with Dash's participation and sponsorships for Blockchain 360 in Santa Clara and Consensus 2017 in New York City during the month of May. Initial funding was approved for these events in a previous proposal. https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-conferences-travel-march.13346/

In every event we participate, we witness tremendous returns on investment. We typically see significant increases in our price surrounding conferences as we share our message with key participants and investors in the space. This has a direct impact on our budgets in
future periods. For this reason, we plan substantial increases in our presence the remainder of the year at industry events.

Blockchain 360 is an event at Internet of Things World being held May 16-18 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California. This conference will give us the opportunity to highlight Dash as a potential solution for machine-to-machine payments, which we are particularly well-suited to provide once the DAPI capabilities are deployed to the network. This will help extend Dash's sphere of influence into areas underserved by existing cryptocurrency networks. Daniel Diaz will represent Dash at the conference, where he will be joined by BlockCypher, which is participating in the conference as well. This is a great opportunity to highlight the value that partnership can bring to the IoT.

The second conference is Consensus 2017, which is the most influential blockchain technology conference. The conference is organized by CoinDesk and is hosted at the Marriott Marquis in New York on May 22-24. This conference is attended by more than 2,000 people from large enterprises, academia, investor groups, financial institutions, government, and policy groups. This event is a means for securing Dash's status as a top cryptocurrency, and getting our message to this conference's attendees could open many new doors for Dash. I will be the primary representative for Dash at the event. BlockCypher will be joining Dash at this event also, to co-market our capabilities to the conference participants.

For Blockchain 360, we have executed a contract at the Silver sponsorship level. This includes:
- 20 minute presentation - solo speaking slot with BlockCypher / Dash presenting together: "Use Case: IoT Payments and Cryptocurrencies"
- Logo in all marketing from the project sponsor including brochures, website, event signage, and program pass
- 3 passes to the event (and 30% discount on additional)
- A 10 ft x 10 ft exhibit space
- Hosted press releases

For Consensus 2017, we have executed a contract for a "Block 3 sponsorship" which includes:
- Website, pre-conference material, and onsite conference marketing
- 10 ft exhibit space
- 60 minute roundtable session with Dash-currated curriculum (will act as a "Dash 101")
- There are also a series of private events surrounding Consensus that Dash will participate in, potentially with speaking slots. These details are still being negotiated and we will post an update when final.

For each of these events, we will be contracting external support surrounding the events. Wachsman PR leads the planning, negotiation, coordination, and appropriate execution of event marketing for the period around Consensus 2017. This includes researching and negotiating the sponsorship packages, creating marketing material such as handouts specifically for the event, coordinating the speaking topics and content, on-site support for everything from booth setup to working the booth, coordinating press interactions with team members, arranging travel for all team members attending, securing invitations to relevant Consensus related events, social media support during the event, and coordination of Token Summit on May 24th (a related event).

Requested costs are as follows for these events:
- Blockchain 360 - sponsorship already paid by previous proposal
- Blockchain 360 travel and lodging for 3 team members - ~$6,000
- Consensus 2017 sponsorship package - $30,000
- Consensus 2017 travel and lodging for 3 team members - ~$6,000
- Wachsman PR support package - $9,000
- Tickets for Wachsman PR staff - $1,998
Total: $52,998

However, due to portions of these expenses previously funded, we will only require $46,372 during this cycle.

Requested funding is as follows for the April 5th budget cycle:

• 498.48 Dash for conference expenses ($46,372 USD @ $93.027 per Dash based on March 26th average rate at https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/price-dash.html)
• 5.00 Dash proposal reimbursement

Total: 503.48 Dash

Note: Should any funding remain, we will apply it toward future conference expenses.