Final Pre-Proposal: World Crypto Con Sponsorship

[Dashonomics]

The official proposal is now live! Please view the proposal here: https://www.dashcentral.org/p/World-Crypto-Con-Sponsorship

Final pre-proposal for Dash to be the prominent sponsor at World Crypto Con. World Crypto Con is set out to be the largest cryptocurrency conference to date at the Aria Hotel and Casino in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada, from October 31st to November 2nd, 2018. In the case of no substantial objections, the official proposal will be submitted on Monday, March 12, 2018. To allow for further discussion, I have decided to postpone official submission to Wednesday, March 14, 2018.

Changes from Previous Pre-Proposal

Please visit this link to see the discussion on the previous pre-proposal: https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/pre-proposal-world-crypto-con-sponsorship.30107/

In short, the previous pre-proposal was submitted to present multiple different sponsorship packages and facilitate community discussion as to which configuration the Dash community at large would like to support. From that discussion, I have decided (at the time of writing this) to submit the “Go Big or Go Home” Sponsorship Package (detailed below in a later section). Nonetheless, there have been some changes made from the last “Go Big or Go Home” Sponsorship Package as well as to the proposal as a whole. I will highlight them here:

1. The team at World Crypto Con has removed all speaking positions included in all of the sponsorship packages. The team has come to the conclusion that many potential sponsors were wanting to buy their way into speaking at the event via sponsorship packages. To keep speakers at the highest caliber, they decided to establish speaking roles be invite only, as both Amanda B. Johnson and Joel Valenzuela are.
   
   
2. To accommodate the change described above, the team at WCC have essentially given Dash the Welcome Reception Sponsorship for free by including the Aria Marquee Branding within the Diamond Sponsorship.
   
   
3. After further discussions with the team at WCC, they have agreed to the following: If the inaugural World Crypto Con is successful and Dash has a fruitful experience sponsoring the event (we feel it has good ROI, exposure, audience, etc.), then any future event the team at World Crypto Con organizes that Dash wants to be prominent at will be accepting DASH as the exclusive cryptocurrency payment option.
   
   
4. Due to the upcoming rebranding of Dash, all material related to the exhibit (including both the booth construction and giveaway items) will have to be newly purchased to stay coherent with the new rebranding. As such, I have been in contact with Freeman (https://www.freeman.com/), the company WCC is working with for the booths, to design and construct an exhibit for Dash at World Crypto Con. After discussion with Joel Valenzuela, we decided for the exhibit construction attached to this pre-proposal below, with the exclusion of all furniture, shelves, flooring, and lighting (to keep costs down and space open). As a result, we will only be purchasing 2 x 20’ back panels which are around $5k each, bringing the total around $10k (asking for $12k for taxes and artwork preparation fees). Being that Dash (from the feedback so far) wants to be a prominent sponsor at the event with a large impact, I did not want to cut corners on the actual exhibit design and construction, which is where all the giveaways/demos/interaction will take place. For the giveaway items, I did not get any specific quotes but based the amount after looking at various bulk item suppliers (for shirts, socks, and stickers) while operating under the assumption of 2000-4000 attendees. Note, I am open to discussing other giveaway items before submission of the official proposal, but have intentionally left out many traditional conference items (pens, notebooks, folders, etc) as I feel they don’t actually get used often and result in dust collectors and/or never leave the household.

About World Crypto Con

World Crypto Con has set out to be the world’s largest and most exciting conference in the cryptocurrency space. The venue is located in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the beautiful Aria Hotel and Casino with over 200,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space. This year the team expects between 2000-4000 attendees, over 150 exhibitors, and top influential speakers including two familiar faces from the Dash community - Amanda B. Johnson, former host of “DASH: Detailed,” and Joel Valenzuela, editor of Dash Force News.

Website: http://worldcryptocon.com/

Sponsorship Package

Please visit this link to view the custom Dash “Go Big or Go Home” Sponsorship Package: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z64wjNwszYNnWZmjUhhfxrwXYCrqBpNS/view?usp=sharing

Benefits to the Dash Community

1. Brand Exposure - World Crypto Con will be at the largest venue (by far) a crypto conference has ever been hosted at. The Aria Hotel and Casino is in the middle of the famous Las Vegas Strip and World Crypto Con has access to the giant Aria Marquee (look it up on Google Images if you have not seen it yet) and Dash will be on it (all of the pre-configured packages include this). Furthermore, the Dash brand will not be only exposed impactfully during the event, but both before the event (through World Crypto Con’s advertising) and after the event (through carefully chosen take home items given out in the gift bags and at the Dash booth).
   
   
2. Exemplify Community Strength - This sponsorship proposal is 100% community driven and shows how powerful the DAO/Treasury is in its ability to further the Dash ecosystem. The individuals representing the Dash community at the booth will not only be explaining why DASH is the best cryptocurrency for payments, but also why the Dash community is the strongest in the space. Our community strength is shown both directly (by explaining what Dash is to the attendees) and indirectly (by having the community members lead the booth) during a time when many other crypto communities are being divided.
   
   
3. DASH Payments - World Crypto Con will only be accepting a few cryptocurrencies as a form of payment for tickets to the conference, DASH being one of the few. This is a huge signal for anyone who may not know what Dash is to check out why the conference picked DASH to be one of the few payment methods accepted. In addition, for those who do know what Dash is and/or own DASH, it opens up another avenue for us to showcase/use our beloved currency.

Who will manage all of this?

General - Currently, I plan on managing the relationship between the World Crypto Con team and the Dash community including all branding components, all sponsorship materials, and any other aspects not mentioned here. I have been in contact with members of the Dash Core Business Strategy team to ensure everything stays coherent with the Dash brand. In addition, Joel Valenzuela has offered to assist where needed. With that said, if the community believes someone else is a better fit to manage this project, I am more than willing to let he/she/them do so.

Booth - The booth will be managed by any Dash community members who want to help grow the Dash ecosystem and believe they can represent the brand well. As of writing, the booth will be occupied by myself and Joel. In addition, the Diamond Sponsorship comes with 6 VIP conference access badges. Initially, these will be offered to any members of Dash Core Group who would like to help manage the booth. Any leftover tickets will then be offered to top members of the Dash community (chosen/approved by the community) that would like to help out.

What if the price of DASH increases/decreases?

With the current sponsorship package, we were offered a 15% discount. I propose to submit the proposal for the full amount, therefore having a 15% buffer for price declines. Any excess funds will be placed back into other conference-related costs, including but not limited to, gift bag inserts, branding material for the booth, items we can giveaway at the booth, travel expenses for top Dash community members assisting at the Dash booth, etc.

In the case of a price increase, I propose using those excess funds to fulfill more of the same items listed above, as well as purchasing other interactive branding opportunities offered by World Crypto Con if the price increase is large enough to allow us to do so.

Detailed Cost Breakdown

WCC “Go Big or Go Home” Sponsorship Package (w/out 15% discount):___$195,000
2 x 20’ Back Panels from Freeman (exhibit construction):__________________$ 12,000
1,000 x Dash Branded Items (T-shirts, Socks, and Stickers):________________$ 10,000
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Total:____________________________________________________________________________$227,000
Proposal Fee:__________________________________________________________________+ 5 DASH
___________________________________________________________________________________________

About Me

My name is Jeremy Liu and I am involved with the Dash sponsored Blockchain Research Lab at ASU and submitted the Dash and ASU proposal in November. Currently, my main focus has been helping build the content for the Dash funded Coursera course (filming will begin shortly), but have worked on Dash scalability as well as represented Dash at the Texas Bitcoin Conference.

 

[Argon31]

You are asking for 500 dash for one single conference. This is a ridiculous amount to invest for one conference.
I dont see the ROI

As a method of marketing, sponsoring a conference is often a lazy and uncreative solution.

This money should be used on things that promote dash utilization in developing countries or the venezvuela project and not wasted on events of this kind.
Dash core is participating is money2020, I dont see how this adds enough value to justify the sky high price.

Will be voting against this.

 

[Arthyron]

That's a chunk of change, but given the place of distinction Dash has already been offered there (Joel, Amanda, etc) and the fact that this is going on during a time in which Core will not be active in convention appearances later this year--presumably after the recently announced full-stack Evolution demo(s) and maybe even a working Alpha will have been made available--I think it's important to keep up the presence and interest. So in other words, while it's not a groundbreaking project like what's going on in Venezuela, etc, this is far off enough down the road that I think we'll be glad having had invested in this ahead of time even if it seems far-off, distant, and not as important as some of our more immediate efforts. If Dash continues to recover and grow price-wise, then your leftover funds will go a much longer way to gobbling up more space. I'm supporting this.

 

[Dashonomics]

You are asking for 500 dash for one single conference. This is a ridiculous amount to invest for one conference.
I dont see the ROI

As a method of marketing, sponsoring a conference is often a lazy and uncreative solution.

This money should be used on things that promote dash utilization in developing countries or the venezvuela project and not wasted on events of this kind.
Dash core is participating is money2020, I dont see how this adds enough value to justify the sky high price.

Will be voting against this.

Thank you for your input.

The goal of this pre-proposal process has been to officially propose the sponsorship package that a majority of the network supports. From the previous pre-proposal discussion, those who contributed to the discussion were supportive of the larger sponsorship package; thus, making this pre-proposal targeting that specific package. If you have thoughts of a different configuration, please see the full possibilities of all sponsorship offerings here (as this is the pre-proposal, there is still room to change things if necessary): https://worldcryptocon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/WCC-Sponsorship-Deck.pdf

Unfortunately, as the price of many cryptocurrencies have been declining lately, Dash included, the price in terms of the amount of Dash is quite large. I would not want this sponsorship to push out any proposals that are for any type of integration/product development. However, after reviewing the current proposals and pre-proposals up until this point, I do not fear this will be the case. If more proposals of the sort do begin to appear, I am more than willing to work with them / the network to formulate the best plan of submission (if this requires a later submission to see if other proposals show up, then so be it).

With regards to Money20/20, these conferences target very different audiences. I believe a holistic conference sponsorship approach where Dash sponsors multiple conferences that target different audiences is best. World Crypto Con is in the largest venue a cryptocurrency conference has ever been held at, and it would be a shame if Dash, which I believe to be the best cryptocurrency, is not present at the conference at all.

To reiterate, I have attempted to make this pre-proposal process as community-driven as possible. This is not the traditional pre-proposal where I am pitching or selling anything set-in-stone to the network, I am merely the aggregator of information from multiple sources to make the consideration and eventual possible submission of an inclusive-by-construction proposal as streamlined as possible.

Cheers!

 

[Dashonomics]

That's a chunk of change, but given the place of distinction Dash has already been offered there (Joel, Amanda, etc) and the fact that this is going on during a time in which Core will not be active in convention appearances later this year--presumably after the recently announced full-stack Evolution demo(s) and maybe even a working Alpha will have been made available--I think it's important to keep up the presence and interest. So in other words, while it's not a groundbreaking project like what's going on in Venezuela, etc, this is far off enough down the road that I think we'll be glad having had invested in this ahead of time even if it seems far-off, distant, and not as important as some of our more immediate efforts. If Dash continues to recover and grow price-wise, then your leftover funds will go a much longer way to gobbling up more space. I'm supporting this.

I completely agree.

If other project efforts begin to arise in the Dash Forum and Dash Central, such as those targeting Venezuela, in which it is clear the proposals would eventually compete for the remaining funds left in the maxed out budget, I will gladly submit this proposal at a later time as I think those are very important and directly impact many lives that need the immediate help.

A potential way to decrease the cost is to not submit with the 15% price decline buffer (submitting using the 15% discount given), but in the scenario of a price decline, it would be quite a mess with actually receiving the sponsorship and the logistics of that. Always open for suggestions though.

Cheers!

 

[Argon31]

Thank you for your input.

The goal of this pre-proposal process has been to officially propose the sponsorship package that a majority of the network supports. From the previous pre-proposal discussion, those who contributed to the discussion were supportive of the larger sponsorship package; thus, making this pre-proposal targeting that specific package. If you have thoughts of a different configuration, please see the full possibilities of all sponsorship offerings here (as this is the pre-proposal, there is still room to change things if necessary): https://worldcryptocon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/WCC-Sponsorship-Deck.pdf

Unfortunately, as the price of many cryptocurrencies have been declining lately, Dash included, the price in terms of the amount of Dash is quite large. I would not want this sponsorship to push out any proposals that are for any type of integration/product development. However, after reviewing the current proposals and pre-proposals up until this point, I do not fear this will be the case. If more proposals of the sort do begin to appear, I am more than willing to work with them / the network to formulate the best plan of submission (if this requires a later submission to see if other proposals show up, then so be it).

With regards to Money20/20, these conferences target very different audiences. I believe a holistic conference sponsorship approach where Dash sponsors multiple conferences that target different audiences is best. World Crypto Con is in the largest venue a cryptocurrency conference has ever been held at, and it would be a shame if Dash, which I believe to be the best cryptocurrency, is not present at the conference at all.

To reiterate, I have attempted to make this pre-proposal process as community-driven as possible. This is not the traditional pre-proposal where I am pitching or selling anything set-in-stone to the network, I am merely the aggregator of information from multiple sources to make the consideration and eventual possible submission of an inclusive-by-construction proposal as streamlined as possible.

Cheers!

Unless Core comes out with this proposal from an official channel, this will likely be turned down by a wide margin.
The line-up looks underwhelming for the kind of money you are looking for.

The largest area for crypto-currency conference is a weak argument to support this..

 

[Dashonomics]

Unless Core comes out with this proposal from an official channel, this will likely be turned down by a wide margin.
The line-up looks underwhelming for the kind of money you are looking for.

The largest area for crypto-currency conference is a weak argument to support this..

Do you have a suggestion for a sponsorship package configuration you would be supportive of or would you not like to see Dash at the event at all?

 

[jesccs]

Hi,
Your proposal certainly looks expensive and you have to explain better how will you use these funds, I have attend many events in Las Vegas and I know that they are very expensive and that many people goes. I recommend you clearly explain the benefits to the DASH community and what are the talks, demos and speakers that will be at your stand.
regards

 

[Dashonomics]

Hi,
Your proposal certainly looks expensive and you have to explain better how will you use these funds, I have attend many events in Las Vegas and I know that they are very expensive and that many people goes. I recommend you clearly explain the benefits to the DASH community and what are the talks, demos and speakers that will be at your stand.
regards

I do believe that I have clearly stated the use of funds, but will quote/highlight them here as they may have gotten lost in the text. The three items in the Detailed Cost Breakdown are as follows:

1. WCC “Go Big or Go Home” Sponsorship Package (w/out 15% discount)
2. 2 x 20’ Back Panels from Freeman (exhibit construction)
3. 1,000 x Dash Branded Items (T-shirts, Socks, and Stickers)

The first cost is item by item broken down in this sponsorship deck (located under the “Sponsorship Package” section): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z64wjNwszYNnWZmjUhhfxrwXYCrqBpNS/view?usp=sharing

The second cost is explained within the 4th point of the changelog with the exact text being: “As a result, we will only be purchasing 2 x 20’ back panels which are around $5k each, bringing the total around $10k (asking for $12k for taxes and artwork preparation fees).”

The third cost is highlighted in the 4th point of the changelog as well: “For the giveaway items, I did not get any specific quotes but based the amount after looking at various bulk item suppliers (for shirts, socks, and stickers) while operating under the assumption of 2000-4000 attendees.”

Now, the breakdown of the Dash branded items may need further explanation. Looking at the quantity and price of various bulk suppliers, I can get printed shirts around $3.50-4, socks are a bit higher at around $5-6, and stickers are fairly cheap.

To speak on the benefits to the Dash community, on top of what is already defined in the pre-proposal, a majority of the ROI will come from the interactions at the Dash booth so I will further explain this. As of now, the only 100% committed community members to be at the Dash booth are myself and Joel Valenzuela. However, I ask you to keep in mind two points. Firstly, the conference is held on Oct 31 - Nov 2, if the proposal is submitted and passed, there is ample time to find other members to help represent Dash at the booth. I have not gone around and asked for people as it is so far in the future and as the booth is not solidified yet (since it only becomes solidified after the proposal). Furthermore, the Diamond Sponsorship comes with 6 VIP passes in which will be offered to any Dash Core members interested to help with the booth and then to top community members chosen by the network at large.

As for what is planned for the Dash exhibit, we plan to have two main sections, a giveaway selection and a demo/showcase section. The giveaway section will be where we have general Dash discussions and give away all of the Dash branded items purchased (fairly standard conference set-up). The demo/showcase section will be equipped with a DASH ATM, the team behind the booth showcasing Dash POS systems, a Dash mobile wallet creation station coupled with giving away small amounts of DASH (will come out of my personal pocket if necessary), and a demo/showcase of Evolution (if available).

I hope this helps. If not, please ask for further clarification and I will gladly do so. I plan on incorporating some parts of this answer to the official proposal if the pre-proposal gets more support for an official submission.

Cheers!

 

[jesccs]

I do believe that I have clearly stated the use of funds, but will quote/highlight them here as they may have gotten lost in the text. The three items in the Detailed Cost Breakdown are as follows:

1. WCC “Go Big or Go Home” Sponsorship Package (w/out 15% discount)
2. 2 x 20’ Back Panels from Freeman (exhibit construction)
3. 1,000 x Dash Branded Items (T-shirts, Socks, and Stickers)

The first cost is item by item broken down in this sponsorship deck (located under the “Sponsorship Package” section): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z64wjNwszYNnWZmjUhhfxrwXYCrqBpNS/view?usp=sharing

The second cost is explained within the 4th point of the changelog with the exact text being: “As a result, we will only be purchasing 2 x 20’ back panels which are around $5k each, bringing the total around $10k (asking for $12k for taxes and artwork preparation fees).”

The third cost is highlighted in the 4th point of the changelog as well: “For the giveaway items, I did not get any specific quotes but based the amount after looking at various bulk item suppliers (for shirts, socks, and stickers) while operating under the assumption of 2000-4000 attendees.”

Now, the breakdown of the Dash branded items may need further explanation. Looking at the quantity and price of various bulk suppliers, I can get printed shirts around $3.50-4, socks are a bit higher at around $5-6, and stickers are fairly cheap.

To speak on the benefits to the Dash community, on top of what is already defined in the pre-proposal, a majority of the ROI will come from the interactions at the Dash booth so I will further explain this. As of now, the only 100% committed community members to be at the Dash booth are myself and Joel Valenzuela. However, I ask you to keep in mind two points. Firstly, the conference is held on Oct 31 - Nov 2, if the proposal is submitted and passed, there is ample time to find other members to help represent Dash at the booth. I have not gone around and asked for people as it is so far in the future and as the booth is not solidified yet (since it only becomes solidified after the proposal). Furthermore, the Diamond Sponsorship comes with 6 VIP passes in which will be offered to any Dash Core members interested to help with the booth and then to top community members chosen by the network at large.

As for what is planned for the Dash exhibit, we plan to have two main sections, a giveaway selection and a demo/showcase section. The giveaway section will be where we have general Dash discussions and give away all of the Dash branded items purchased (fairly standard conference set-up). The demo/showcase section will be equipped with a DASH ATM, the team behind the booth showcasing Dash POS systems, a Dash mobile wallet creation station coupled with giving away small amounts of DASH (will come out of my personal pocket if necessary), and a demo/showcase of Evolution (if available).

I hope this helps. If not, please ask for further clarification and I will gladly do so. I plan on incorporating some parts of this answer to the official proposal if the pre-proposal gets more support for an official submission.

Cheers!

Thank you for your answer and detailed info. good luck in your proposal

 

[ampp]

I'll just list a few things here:

1. Yes, 200k is a lot, keep in mind 20/20 had 11k+ attendees and they advertise over 1000 ceos that show up. Your booth prices seem expensive but at 100k for 40x40 the epic package is double that.
2. If you are going to have such a big dash presence you need probably 20 people there. So at least 20 free tickets to supporters of dash willing to help the booth. This proposal should cover hotel costs too.
3. It's your first year so its a risk that it may not be as big as you hope, some type of guaranteed preferential treatment is good. Like guaranteed (top)platinum sponsorship for future shows.
4. I'd suggest you offer a discount to anyone who buys a ticket with dash.
5. I can't figure out what you want to be (as a conference). CES of crypto conferences? Tickets are too expensive for that. That is a great position to have the 10k+ show down but that requires a lot more average people.
6. If you are attempting to counter the Bitcoin Conference in Miami in size, Dash is not happy with what went down with that.
7. 2 days of conference is not enough to assemble a 100k+ booth. You should have a exhibit pass / open to the public DAY that is cheap or free.
8. imho your tickets are too expensive. It annoys me event organizers like to double dip with exhibitors and attendees. Miami charged $500 up till 2 weeks before the event, and that is overpriced. Most of these events are selling people on something and not educating them.
9. With this big of event dash should have it's own day for a side conference like the Dash London conference, that way Dash people can show up for that or the entire event. This seems very common in the industry. And because there is no 2nd open-house so far this year we need a US based dash event.
10. I think it would be best to wait at least a budget cycle so we can get a little bit of a recovery in on price.
11. What do you do with extra funds if the dash is worth more, how will you cash out?

Because Vegas is couple hours away, i can help the booth but I think volunteers should get a hotel room and a conference pass at minimum.

 

[Arthyron]

@ampp -- Dashonomics isn't hosting the conference itself, this preproposal is to determine if we, as the DAO, want to have a presence *at* this conference which is being put on by other people, and if so, to what extent. See the other thread where we hashed out some of the logistics (a sort of pre-pre-proposal). In that thread, the consensus seemed to be that it was a good idea to be involved with this conference, so in this thread we're trying to sort out to what extent the proposal will ask for financial support from the DAO. Dashonomics would just be one of several people who would be there representing Dash at the ostensible Dash booth, if we decide to go and fund the proposal.

 

[ampp]

@ampp -- Dashonomics isn't hosting the conference itself, this preproposal is to determine if we, as the DAO, want to have a presence *at* this conference which is being put on by other people, and if so, to what extent. See the other thread where we hashed out some of the logistics (a sort of pre-pre-proposal). In that thread, the consensus seemed to be that it was a good idea to be involved with this conference, so in this thread we're trying to sort out to what extent the proposal will ask for financial support from the DAO. Dashonomics would just be one of several people who would be there representing Dash at the ostensible Dash booth, if we decide to go and fund the proposal.

As the likely primary sponsor, having the single largest booth space, and paying a additional 100k i feel like some of my comments should be represented to the people who run the conference. It's like being the largest shareholder, or the largest customer. That status gets you the ability to question business decisions.

 

[Arthyron]

As the likely primary sponsor, having the single largest booth space, and paying a additional 100k i feel like some of my comments should be represented to the people who run the conference. It's like being the largest shareholder, or the largest customer. That status gets you the ability to question business decisions.

For sure, I just wanted to make sure that the distinction between @Dashonomics and the World Crypto Con Staff was clear.

 

[Dashonomics]

I'll just list a few things here:

1. Yes, 200k is a lot, keep in mind 20/20 had 11k+ attendees and they advertise over 1000 ceos that show up. Your booth prices seem expensive but at 100k for 40x40 the epic package is double that.
2. If you are going to have such a big dash presence you need probably 20 people there. So at least 20 free tickets to supporters of dash willing to help the booth. This proposal should cover hotel costs too.
3. It's your first year so its a risk that it may not be as big as you hope, some type of guaranteed preferential treatment is good. Like guaranteed (top)platinum sponsorship for future shows.
4. I'd suggest you offer a discount to anyone who buys a ticket with dash.
5. I can't figure out what you want to be (as a conference). CES of crypto conferences? Tickets are too expensive for that. That is a great position to have the 10k+ show down but that requires a lot more average people.
6. If you are attempting to counter the Bitcoin Conference in Miami in size, Dash is not happy with what went down with that.
7. 2 days of conference is not enough to assemble a 100k+ booth. You should have a exhibit pass / open to the public DAY that is cheap or free.
8. imho your tickets are too expensive. It annoys me event organizers like to double dip with exhibitors and attendees. Miami charged $500 up till 2 weeks before the event, and that is overpriced. Most of these events are selling people on something and not educating them.
9. With this big of event dash should have it's own day for a side conference like the Dash London conference, that way Dash people can show up for that or the entire event. This seems very common in the industry. And because there is no 2nd open-house so far this year we need a US based dash event.
10. I think it would be best to wait at least a budget cycle so we can get a little bit of a recovery in on price.
11. What do you do with extra funds if the dash is worth more, how will you cash out?

Because Vegas is couple hours away, i can help the booth but I think volunteers should get a hotel room and a conference pass at minimum.

Thank you for your input @ampp. I appreciate you taking the time to critically analyze both the proposal and the event at large. Also, thank you @Arthyron for clarifying the distinction between myself and the WCC team (and for being an active participant in the discussions overall). This morning, I had a very productive conversation with the team at World Crypto Con where your points were addressed. I hope my following answer provides not only yourself, but the network at large, some clarity regarding both the proposal and the conference itself:

1. I do believe there may be some misunderstanding with the booth size proposed within the sponsorship package. I had chosen the 20x20 booth which costs $25,000, not the 40x40 booth which costs $100,000.
   
   
2. I would love to have as many supporters of Dash helping with the booth as possible; however, I believe 20 people for the 20x20 booth may actually be too many people. I think this point may have been an extension of the misunderstanding that the configured sponsorship package includes the 40x40 booth. I am more than willing to submit the proposal asking for funds to cover airfare and hotel costs for those assisting with the Dash booth. Nevertheless, I think the cost of the proposal is already the main discussion happening for the consideration of the proposal, and would not want to add any additional costs unless absolutely necessary.
   
   
3. I think this is a great point! The team at World Crypto Con has agreed to give Dash the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) for the Diamond Sponsorship (top sponsorship) for the next four WCC events (estimated timeline of lasting until the end of 2019). Said differently, following the inaugural WCC event, if the Dash network feels that the sponsorship and prominent presence at the event was a success, we have “first dibs” to be the prominent sponsor at future events. This point will be added to the official proposal.
   
   
4. Subject to the passing of this proposal, World Crypto Con will offer a 5% discount on all tickets purchased with DASH. This point will be added to the official proposal.
   
   
5. World Crypto Con is not setting out to mimic any type of cryptocurrency conference (or be a cryptocurrency flavor of other conferences). The team at WCC want their conference to be the pinnacle of cryptocurrency conferences attracting attendees from all backgrounds. Moreover, the team at WCC would love for this event to have as many people as possible attend. Nonetheless, their capacity limit is right around 4,000 attendees due to restrictions from Aria’s ballroom and fire marshal’s capacity limitations.
   
   
6. Spilling over from the previous point, World Crypto Con will not attempt to mimic BTC Miami in any regard. To touch specifically on the inclusion controversy relating to BTC Miami, many of the speakers at WCC are women, there will be a Ladies in Crypto Panel at the conference, and although being in Las Vegas, there will be no WCC parties located in any form of strip club. The team at WCC is going to great lengths to make their event as safe and welcoming as possible.
   
   
7. Touching specifically on the second part of this point (as I believe the first part is based on the 40x40 booth), the Aria is completely booked both before and after World Crypto Con; thus, making any extra exhibit days infeasible.
   
   
8. While I would agree on this point for many other cryptocurrency conferences, I don’t see this being the case for World Crypto Con. The team at WCC is spending over $4,000,000 to produce this event (from personally going to other events, this is substantially greater than most cryptocurrency conferences). Being the inaugural event, like you mentioned in a previous point, it may not be as big as they hope and this is a real risk with a real cost. The prices for tickets were chosen from doing market research and surveying the costs from a wide range of different conferences with different production levels. For the production level of WCC, and the restriction placed on the number of attendees previously mentioned, I personally believe the ticket prices are very fair.
   
   The last sentence on this point about many events selling people on something and not educating them is very important to me. This was one of the first questions I had for the team at WCC during the initial stages of our discussions about Dash being a potential sponsor. Many events, including BTC Miami, end up simply being an ICO Pitch event with a splash of quality content every now and then (I, for one, got bored quite quickly at the event and expressed this same distaste as I believe you have). World Crypto Con will not have any ICOs on the main stage, they will have their own area where those interested in ICOs can go. The topics and presentations on the main stage are for the strict purpose of providing quality content that educates the audience on a wide range of real-world topics.
   
   
9. I would be very open to something Dash specific like this but I will be the first to admit when I think something is better handled by a different party and/or it is “out of my league.” Facilitating the sponsorship of an event and planning a whole event within itself are two vastly different initiatives. I am more than comfortable with the former but don’t believe to be the best person for the latter.
   
   
10. Unfortunately, for all of us, the price of DASH has been declining lately. However, I believe there to be a couple different issues with waiting a budget cycle using this logic. Firstly, if any of us knew for a fact when the price of DASH would recover, or if it would continue to decline, then the decision-making process for all of us would be different. A very unfortunate scenario would be waiting a budget cycle, the price of DASH declining even more, and then being in an even worse position. Do we wait another budget cycle or do we agree to fund it anyway? In scenarios regarding the treasury system at large, I don’t think it is fruitful to hope for a certain future price movement and make decisions based on that assumption. Secondly, the team at World Crypto Con has been getting many inquiries about the top sponsorship packages, including the Diamond Sponsorship within this pre-proposal, and I have asked them to allow time for the Dash community to discuss the proposal, essentially putting others on hold. Other than for a very compelling circumstance, I personally refuse to tell them to continually reject potential business and partnerships. Lastly, I see this being an issue if the budget becomes maxed out and proposals are fighting for space in the cycle. As of now, by quickly adding up the current proposals on Dash Central and the pre-proposals on the forum, I do not see this to be the case.
    
    
11. I will be paying the team at World Crypto Con for the sponsorship package in DASH. Any excess funds in the scenario of the price of DASH increasing will go directly to more Dash branded items, branding material for the booth, travels expenses for those helping with the Dash booth, etc. Please see the section “What if the price of DASH increases/decreases?” for more details.

 

[ampp]

Thanks for taking my points made to the decision makers. I do think if Dash is going to fund this that we need a side vendor event because Vegas is the perfect place, its also not too far to drive from phoenix. While the Aria is fully booked we could do something at the adjoining casino, like many other big conferences do in Vegas. The only coordination is really for cross promotion to drive more people to show up. If core could get 500+ to show up for one day in London, we should be able to make Vegas bigger. I would just like to insure it doesn't overload resources till a event planner is hired.

To clarify point #6, helping this conference get off the ground essentially puts pressure on BTC Miami and it might help to use that angle slightly.

Yeah 20 people may be a bit much for 20/20 but if the exhibit room is open the entire time then at least 10 would be good.

Maybe another idea for them is a locals only discount to get only into the exhibit area, or a smaller educational ballroom thing. I also see some of these conferences do day passes which are slightly more than half price to pull in people who can only show up one day.

I'm not sure how all this booth stuff is going up but the duplication of effort seems to be getting to be more. BTC Miami booth was covered by Danny, then taken to Anarchapulco. Not sure if core has another set of stuff for money 20/20 like conferences. Hopefully anything that gets built, is done in a way that is reusable over and over.

I'm still not sure how MNO's are going to respond to any event costing above 100k just because its more than any other booth than before.

 

[Dashonomics]

Thanks for taking my points made to the decision makers. I do think if Dash is going to fund this that we need a side vendor event because Vegas is the perfect place, its also not too far to drive from phoenix. While the Aria is fully booked we could do something at the adjoining casino, like many other big conferences do in Vegas. The only coordination is really for cross promotion to drive more people to show up. If core could get 500+ to show up for one day in London, we should be able to make Vegas bigger. I would just like to insure it doesn't overload resources till a event planner is hired.

To clarify point #6, helping this conference get off the ground essentially puts pressure on BTC Miami and it might help to use that angle slightly.

Yeah 20 people may be a bit much for 20/20 but if the exhibit room is open the entire time then at least 10 would be good.

Maybe another idea for them is a locals only discount to get only into the exhibit area, or a smaller educational ballroom thing. I also see some of these conferences do day passes which are slightly more than half price to pull in people who can only show up one day.

I'm not sure how all this booth stuff is going up but the duplication of effort seems to be getting to be more. BTC Miami booth was covered by Danny, then taken to Anarchapulco. Not sure if core has another set of stuff for money 20/20 like conferences. Hopefully anything that gets built, is done in a way that is reusable over and over.

I'm still not sure how MNO's are going to respond to any event costing above 100k just because its more than any other booth than before.

I wholly disagree that we need a Dash specific side event to sponsor this event. World Crypto Con in itself will provide a lot of exposure and benefits to Dash before the event, at the event, and after the event.

I agree about not knowing how MNOs will respond being that this is the largest sponsorship for the largest conference a community-driven proposal has attempted to pass. However, I personally think Dash is in a unique position that we will never be in again for this specific conference. We are offered Right of First Refusal to be the top sponsor at future events, they will give all attendees who pay with DASH a 5% discount, all future events Dash wants to be the top sponsor at will exclusively accept DASH as the only form of cryptocurrency payment, we have well-known Dash community members speaking at the event, all of this on top of what is planned for the actual booth (demos, mobile wallet creation, giveaways).

In general, I want to see the treasury being used to create and facilitate more partnerships and long-term business relationships, not just one-off funding scenarios. I believe this potential partnership with World Crypto Con is something we should take seriously as we are being given many long-term benefits because of this unique situation of this being their inaugural event and Dash having a treasury system.

 

[Argon31]

25-40 Dash is the average budget for a Dash Conference Sponsorship, unless core is participating in a big way.

 

[Dashonomics]

25-40 Dash is the average budget for a Dash Conference Sponsorship, unless core is participating in a big way.

Since most conference sponsorship costs are priced in fiat, stating an average DASH amount for conference sponsorships is a fallacy within itself. This logic completely disregards the actual business transaction that takes place with such engagements and the associated value of DASH (in terms of fiat) at the time of said engagements.

Furthermore, I believe grouping all Dash conference sponsorships together is not the most effective method of analyzing sponsorship proposals. The underlying conferences have different audience sizes, audience demographics, advertising methods, venues, booth sizes, locations, end-goals, etc. This statement holds especially true for this particular sponsorship as the team at WCC is offering more than a simple day-of-the-event branding opportunity, but instead, a long-term potential business relationship providing the Dash ecosystem real-world benefits (as stated above in the comment that you disliked).

 

[mastermined]

1,000 x Dash Branded Items (T-shirts, Socks, and Stickers):________________$ 10,000

Shirts are cool and stickers somewhat too but socks or anything else are not the best idea. They will not be seen much and I would rather see that money going to set up new wallets with $5 of free Dash. Besides that I really like it although it seems a bit expensive. How much is your fee? Will this cover your airfare and hotel, it should? What will be done with any leftover funds?