Proposal “london-conf-nov-2016“ (Closed)Back

Title:Blockchain: Money conference in London (6-7 NOV 2016)
Owner:kot
One-time payment: 1160 DASH (44971 USD)
Completed payments: no payments occurred yet (1 month remaining)
Payment start/end: 2016-10-05 / 2016-11-19 (added on 2016-09-21)
Final voting deadline: in passed
Votes: 996 Yes / 446 No / 0 Abstain

Proposal description

Dear Masternode Network and Dash Community,

This is a cross-post from https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/blockchain-money-conference-in-london-6-7-nov-2016.10691/

This proposal seeks funding for Blockchain: Money expenses. Blockchain: Money is a conference dedicated for financial industry companies interested in blockchain technologies. The conference takes place on 6th and 7th of November 2016 in London.

Conference website: https://conference.bitcoin.com/
Sponsorship brochure: https://dashpay.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/43778137/BM_Sponsorship_02-08-16.pdf?api=v2

Dash representation on the conference would be: 
  • Holger Schinzel
  • Robert Wiecko

We would like to ask for a funding for the following expenses (these are estimated expenses - actual numbers might differ - they depnd on the time of reservation of flight and hotel):
  1. Premiere exhibitor package: £8,000 (standard price is £10,000 - we have managed to negotiate 20% discount). Package also includes speaker slot during the conference
  2. Flights, transport and accommodation: c.a. $2,000
  3. Reusable marketing materials (slide graphics, stands, handouts, business cards, stickers) + materials transport: c.a. $1,000
Total: $13,500

Requested funding is as follows for the October budget cycle:
  1. 1155 Dash for the conference expenses (package, transport and marketing materials) - $13,500 USD @ $11.69 per the September 21th average rate at https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/price-dash.html)
  2. 5.00 Dash reimbursement for the proposal cost
Total: 1160 Dash

Note: Any unused funds from this conference and travel budget will be directed toward other future conferences-related expenses.

Manually vote YES on this proposal:
  dash-cli mnbudget vote-many b1800e651b3ff09f323603a89d259d0847e84bdc3e126145cfcf94bcf2882d2c yes
OR from the qt console:
  mnbudget vote-many b1800e651b3ff09f323603a89d259d0847e84bdc3e126145cfcf94bcf2882d2c yes

Manually vote NO on this proposal:
  dash-cli mnbudget vote-many b1800e651b3ff09f323603a89d259d0847e84bdc3e126145cfcf94bcf2882d2c no
OR from the qt console:
  mnbudget vote-many b1800e651b3ff09f323603a89d259d0847e84bdc3e126145cfcf94bcf2882d2c no

Thank you
Robert Wiecko

Show full description ...

Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?

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0 points,7 years ago
I don't mean to be a stickler folks, but I've been at the Blockchain Money conference for the last 2 days and saw no sign of any Dash representatives. Neither exhibiting or walking around.
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0 points,7 years ago
Too expensive. Voting no.
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2 points,7 years ago
I have 6 years professional experience with grass-roots marketing, and I've had campaigns that spend over $10k in a single day. This is a good move when you already know and have quantified your impact on the grass-roots market, which is fundamental item missing from here. It's a complex subject, yet I believe $13,500 would be better spent on vinyl stickers and people littering the financial districts of New York city, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley with DASH propaganda.
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1 point,7 years ago
This is ridiculous; $13,500 to 'hob knob', instead of spending it on a fiat <--> Dash gateway solution that requires no hardware and no legal effort?
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3 points,7 years ago
voted 'No' for this - why? I generally think that 1160 DASH (13529 USD) is way too much money for a conference attendance (in general and true for all these adventures). It will not pay out. If someone goes as a speaker to a conference he should get some money for it. Also forget the exhibitor package - it just cost additional money without roi. Better use that amount of DASH for serious applications which advertise for themselves.
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2 points,7 years ago
Kot, for me, the issue is value for investment. I'm willing to change my vote here, but I'm not convinced that our attendance at these conferences provides us with tangible benefits.

Can you provide specifics about what partnerships and integrations have occurred as a direct result of meeting at a conference? That would not have happened had we not attended? This would help me to feel better about our attendance of future conferences.
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1 point,7 years ago
Since you guys are (hopefully) going to London, any chance you will hit up Max Keiser for a interview? 2 birds in one stone and all that ;)
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1 point,7 years ago
A Max Keiser interview would be amazing.
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0 points,7 years ago
Yes!
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2 points,7 years ago
Hey Guys,
Thank you for your comments.
I understand that price may trigger questions and concerns - I consider this event expensive as well.
There is no obligation for Dash to be there - it is an option proposed by the organizer and we could use it or not. The network should simply consider pros and cons, calculate potential benefits vs. cost and make a decision.
Personally for me and Holger participation in the conference would mean two days of hard work on the field + weeks spent on preparations. Please don't feel like it is a weekend of vacation sponsored by the network - anyone who participated a similar event as a presenter and exhibitor knows what I am talking about.

Let me try to address questions and concerns:
1. First of all, this is a conference to present Dash to big business - both crypto and fintech industry. This is not a work on the grassroots level - other types of events are dedicated for grassroots work (e.g. what I was doing in Warsaw few weeks ago). We enjoy spreading the knowledge about Dash to everyone - big conferences and small meetups are good promotion of Dash. They simply require different approach, different cost and have different results.

2. To me there is no doubt that it is beneficial to be present and visible on such conference. This would be a good promotion of Dash both in crypto and financial industry. If we won't go outside, no one from serious industry players will hear about Dash. Here we all know what is Dash but very little people outside our community have the same knowledge and understanding about the project and superior Dash features. Even majority of Bitcoiners know very little about Dash - fintech industry knows nothing. This is one of very few opportunities to give them this knowledge.

3. Please check a list of speakers: https://conference.bitcoin.com/speakers/ - these are not accidental people from the street. We would not be able to simply meet them on the forum/Twitter/Slack or in cafeteria and attract with Dash. Those are serious businessmen and if we would have a chance to talk to them face to face and convince to integrate Dash, profit would be much bigger than investment.

4. Prices for tickets: https://conference.bitcoin.com/tickets/ - this will be affordable only for institutional clients or serious investors. I think both of these groups are our targets (among the others).

5. Premiere sponsorship package gives us an opportunity to place large banners throughout the building, on the stage & podium, the program, website and all media. This means that Dash logo will be visible everywhere on the conference and also in the materials distributed and published after the conference. Speaking slot as a part of the package is an additional opportunity to present Dash.

6. Contacts taken from other conferences in the past resulted in partnerships and integrations we are currently working on. This is the biggest value I would like to bring from the conference - new partners and companies working with us.

I strongly encourage you to vote (both YES or NO), so we have a clear understanding whether we go there or not. There is not too much time left for preparations :).
Thank you for your votes.
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1 point,7 years ago
7. Last but not least - we were not really visible on big events in Europe so far. Dash was presented to a bigger audience in Americas but we didn't do the same in Europe. London is a perfect place to be from this perspective - this is the heart of finance industry together with Wall Streat.
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0 points,7 years ago
I personally think that Dash should only attend events like these, the grass root events that have maybe 50 people attending the presentation are not the way to go, Dash should be invited free of charge to these events at this point. We need to get to the investors and business people at these expensive events, not the hobbyists.
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2 points,7 years ago
What does Dash stand to gain by sponsoring this conference? I'd like to hear your pitch.
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2 points,7 years ago
voting yes, its time Europe gets some attention again and London is the (financial) place to be
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-2 points,7 years ago
Please do NOT vote yes on this. What a freaking waste of money... $15,000 USD for what? 400 people who MIGHT care about Dash? This is a complete waste of funds and you can do 1000x better thing in terms of ROI.... hell even $15,000 in google ads would bring in more users than this crap.
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0 points,7 years ago
Or maybe get Coinbase to add Dash ... the Scamassu ATMs are going to need a fiat <--> Dash exchange gateway. Where is that proposal?
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0 points,7 years ago
Coinbase wouldn't add Dash any time soon :(
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0 points,7 years ago
Waiting in someones back pocket for when they run out of hot air piggy bank styled proposals maybe? Why do something beneficial? The Dash will be too big to just take money from the piggy bank :[
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2 points,7 years ago
I can't believe you guys are serious. Have you looked at who is attending? https://conference.bitcoin.com/speakers/
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2 points,7 years ago
This proposal is not so much about looking to bring in heaps of new users. It is looking to bring in big ones and potential partners.
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0 points,7 years ago
I don't see anyone here who is not already fully aware of Dash honestly... maybe Deloitte, but we can just take note of these people and reach out via regular methods, I don't see this being worth $15,000 with Kot & Flare alone. Noone even knows who they are... and there is nothing to show off, just a talk. I would be down with a sponsorship package, by itself. But this is just spending much needed funds on things we don't need yet IMO, this is just another bitcoin.com profit engine man.
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1 point,7 years ago
It is very optimistic to assume that everyone will be fully aware of Dash there. We know everything about Dash but when I went to few Bitcoin meetups in the past, maybe 20% of Bitcoiners were aware of Dash.
In case of this conference, I would consider us lucky, if 5% of the participants had knowledge about the project.
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