Pre-proposal: Circus City Sponsorship

[Syntheist]

Following on from the research post that i made here and on the Dashpay reddit I have put together this pre-proposal.

This is my first attempt at a proposal and I'm seeking to learn: I welcome any and all feedback and I'm happy to answer any question you have related to the proposal.

Circus City Sponsorship

Dash - Digital Cash as the sole Commercial Sponsor of Circus City Bristol 2017, becoming the first blockchain to sponsor a major cultural and artistic event in the UK.

140 Dash divided between 2 cycles:

697872 - Wed Jun 7 10:47:12 UTC 2017
714488 - Thu Jul 6 07:07:12 UTC 2017

Circus City is an international contemporary circus festival that happens every 2 years.

The next festival happens from the 12th to 29th of October in Bristol, UK.

In 2015 the festival sold 6000 ticket and hosted 50 events and performances across 15 venues in the city: http://www.bristolcircuscity.com/about/

We are seeking sponsorship from Dash in return for:

• placement of the Dash logo on all publicity (estimated audience reach in 2015: 100,000 people)
  • Trailer
    
  • Website (66,000 page views over Sept/Oct 2015)
    
  • Programme, Flyers, Posters (30,000 items produced in 2015)
    
  • 5 Vinyl Banners
    
  • 2 large static banners at the festival hub
    
  • 2 mobile banners for host venues
  • 2 commercial billboards on the M32 and Gloucester Road

In addition to the sponsorship I would like to actively promote and integrate Dash within the festival:

• running a Dash info and help desk at the festival hub;
  • explaining the basics of blockchains
    
  • Installing Dash wallets
    
  • signing up to exchanges
• Accepting Dash payments at the festival bar and merchandise stall.
  
• helping each individual artist install a wallet and giving them 0.15 Dash as their 'drinks voucher' to spend at the Dash sponsored festival bar.
  
• offering and supporting payment of ticket sales to artists in Dash. (2015 sales: £60,000)

Background

Bristol is the perfect city in which to promote Dash as it is a tech hub within the UK and it is also well versed in the existence of alternatives to fiat because it has a local currency, the Bristol Pound, with its own bank accounts and physical notes.

Being the first festival in the UK arts sector to be sponsored by a cryptocurrency will be a major talking point, Circus City already recieves attention in the national press and this is likely to increase significantly.

Many circus performers work internationally and are faced with the problems and risks associated with being paid in multiple currencies. The circus community is one that could really be helped by adopting blockchain technology. Given that Dash provides a faster, cheaper and more private service than fiat or other blockchains it seems like a win/win.

Contemporary circus is very different from the world of the traditional big top circus.

Inside the contemporary circus community there is a very high proportion of geeks, the rapid adoption and creative adaptation of technology is commonplace. From programming through to hacking hardware there is a big first mover advantage, because being the only person who figured out how to do something can lead to years of work with that act. The circus community is a potent group of early adopters and potentially very vocal advocates for Dash.

Of course there are slight technical hurdles at present and a small amount of help is required for people to begin using Dash. This learning curve is far outweighed by the fact that Dash could solve everyday problems for artists who are already living transnational lives.

About Me

I'm a theatre maker based in Bristol, for the last 10 years I have worked to create and sustain artists’ collectives in the city, working with the local council and property owners to find buildings that are underused. I have been involved in creating and marketing 40 shows in that time and have helped establish 5 collectives that provide office and rehearsal space for artists.

I’ve been using blockchains since 2011 and I'm keen to bring the very clear benefits of Dash's technology and governance model to the communities I'm part of. I have been working with Circus City on their website and saw an opportunity for a beneficial partnership with Dash.

I can be contacted here or on the Dash Nation slack as syntheist.

Project

The festival has already received funding from the Arts Council England (£56,000) and Bristol City Council (£20,000), so it is guaranteed to happen.

All of the sponsorship would go directly towards paying the costs of the festival and promoting Dash at the festival. Circus City is executive produced by Theatre Bristol Ltd and due to the nature of the existing funding it is not run for a profit.

There has been a reduction in arts funding across the country and this year the festival is seeking other sources so that it can reach a wider audience.

The timing of the cycles is related to the print deadline and festival launch in July.

The Dash sponsorship money will be used for the following purposes:

Cycle 1

Marketing
12 Dash - Hire Marketing Manager
24 Dash - Printing an additional 10,000 brochures
6 Dash - Printing an additional 500 A3 posters
10 Dash - Distributing printed material
10 Dash - Internet advertising campaign
5 Dash - Proposal repayment

Total: 70 Dash

Cycle 2

Dash Promotion & Intergration
30 Dash - Sponsored Bar = distributing 0.15 Dash per artist and technician (200 in total)
27 Dash - Staffing the Dash info and help desk for 17 days
5 Dash - Support staff for artists choosing to receive their ticket sale payment in Dash.

Evaluation
8 Dash -

• Preparation of a detailed report on feedback gathered from the Dash info desk on first time user experience with blockchain technology, wallet applications and exchange sites.
• Assessment of the impact of the additional sponsorship on the festival’s marketing.
• Recommendations for integrating Dash into future cultural events.
• Presentation of this research to a seminar of 300 circus producers at http://subcase.se/

Total 70 Dash


Closing Statement

I believe that there is significant benefit to be found in promoting Dash through the arts and that Circus City represents the perfect opportunity to begin exploring that connection.

To close here is the trailer for the 2015 festival to give you a flavour of the work that is presented at Circus City:

 

[jimbursch]

This is a terrific proposal but I think Dash is not at the right stage for this kind of promotion. We should not be promoting Dash to a general audience at this time.

However, I do believe we should be exploring ways of supporting the arts using Dash. For example, I can see using Dash to commission a relevant art project.

 

[Syntheist]

This is a terrific proposal but I think Dash is not at the right stage for this kind of promotion. We should not be promoting Dash to a general audience at this time.

However, I do believe we should be exploring ways of supporting the arts using Dash. For example, I can see using Dash to commission a relevant art project.

Thanks for the response, I glad that the proposal sounds terrific.

I agree that a general audience might struggle in dealing with Dash, however the circus community is not a general audience but one that is highly technical, focused on learning new things, practicing their application to perfection, and taking calculated risks that put their lives on the line, it is a world of early adopters who travel between countries for work on a regular basis.

I think the complexity of many aspects of circus make Dash look trivially simple, take for instance the way that the art of juggling is described on paper: Juggling Notation is hardly a user friendly system.

It would also be possible for Dash to fund a commission of a work that responds to a relevant theme suggested by the community. That is a really exciting idea in itself.

 

[dime]

I agree that a general audience might struggle in dealing with Dash, however the circus community is not a general audience but one that is highly technical, focused on learning new things, practicing their application to perfection, and taking calculated risks that put their lives on the line, it is a world of early adopters who travel between countries for work on a regular basis.

I would agree with this. The "circus scene" is actually much more vibrant in modern times than many expect and it is a counterculture with a strong community. It is a good place for dash to be, similar to the skatopia proposal. There are lots of young folks involved for whom introducing an alternative to traditional banking would be an amazing opportunity.

You would have my votes.

One suggestion. The item: 30 Dash Distributing 0.15 Dash per artist and technician (200 in total).

Would you consider changing that to a match? We will match up to .15 dash per person who is willing to go through the process of purchasing dash for themselves. I would prefer that to 30 dash being sent to wallets that may or may not be used.

 

[GrandMasterDash]

Yes, local currencies like the Bristol Pound have indeed generated a lot of interest. Dash is a good comparison and I think you're onto something there. I would vote yes.

 

[Syntheist]

Thanks for the support and feedback.

Would you consider changing that to a match? We will match up to .15 dash per person who is willing to go through the process of purchasing dash for themselves. I would prefer that to 30 dash being sent to wallets that may or may not be used.

We would certainly consider this, having the 30 dash as a matching fund. I agree the idea of Dash being given away and then not used feels wasteful.

However I think there are a few factors that can mitigate against this:

• Free beer. Dash will be used instead of the artists' free drink tokens. 0.15 is currently worth £12 or 3 pints of good beer.
• The 30 dash won't be divided into paper wallets before the event, but transfered only once they have installed their own mobile/desktop wallet.
• The process of introducing each person to dash will include making their first purchase.

That way i think people will have the incentives needed to use their dash. I can see a micro economy running during the festival as artists transfer dash between each other.

The biggest trust hurdle in getting to use any crypto is dealing with exchanges, they currently represent the biggest 3rd party risk in the space.

Being able to delay that hurdle eases the adoption process.

 

[Syntheist]

The co-director of the festival wanted to give a little more background:

"Hello, my name is Lina B. Frank I’m the Co-Director of Circus City, an independent festival with tremendous ambition: in our first year we put 10,000 tickets on sale in 15 venues.

Due to the political discourse and local authority cuts in the UK we are under increasing pressure to diversify income streams and are looking for new ways to match-fund our mission and festival.

The budget is made up of Arts Council England funding (30%) and City Council funding (15%) which means 55% is self-generated by a small team of people through tickets sales and fund-raising from a variety of sources.

I’m also the Head and Coordinator of Baltic Nordic Circus Network (website being launched 16/05/17) - a network of 15 circus organisations in 7 countries in the Baltic Nordic region in northern Europe who collaborate to deliver strategic change and improve conditions for people working in circus. We strive to be the nexus for information sharing on a Baltic-Nordic level with partners in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The idea of the circus community adopting dash as their international currency is interesting to me. For the festival I forecast a monthly risk assessment on currency exchanges to our board as all our deals are made in multiple currencies and with a big political event such as Brexit hanging over us we are at mercy of these forces.

It means artists who work in Euros get paid 20% less this festival in relation to 2015, simply because GBP is weaker to the Euro. Being paid in dash would eliminate these risks and unnecessary pay-cuts. For the network as one of many examples; my salary is in one currency and the funding is in another, which means that my organisation can get indebted very easily during the course of a project.

Circus is an inherently international art form, traditionally the performers have been societal outsiders, nomads travelling in a micro-society of their own with families, school and political systems. Only at show-time do they it interact with society.

Today circus artists can work in anything from 5 to 50 countries in a year and struggle to find adequate mobile phone deals let alone banking facilities, often receiving payment in cash in various currencies as they travel and having to exchange it locally at poor rates. If they can be their own bank and get paid in digital cash instead then they stand to benefit a great deal.

These are my own views and not representative of the organisations I work for."

 

[Dima]

It means artists who work in Euros get paid 20% less this festival in relation to 2015, simply because GBP is weaker to the Euro. Being paid in dash would eliminate these risks and unnecessary pay-cuts.

Well, price of Dash is quite volatile at the moment, yesterday it was $95, today it's $91. So I have no idea how you planning "eliminate these risks"...

 

[Syntheist]

Well, price of Dash is quite volatile at the moment, yesterday it was $95, today it's $91. So I have no idea how you planning "eliminate these risks"...

A very good point and thanks for engaging, hopefully I can expand on Lina's thinking and perhaps by replacing "eliminate" with "reduce" in the above quote we get a more useful statement. The question is:

Can holding reserves in dash reduce the financial risk to an organization of the GBP falling in value compared to the Euro?

Currently the festival receives all of its funding and ticket sales in GBP, it owns no other currencies, it has no way to hedge against the value dropping against the Euro.

While dash itself is currently volatile it represents a significant hedge against fluctuations between other currencies and in the longer term against the persistent inflation of fiat.

This is also about time scale, these would be reserves held for years rather than days.

If Circus City had been holding 10% of its reserves in Dash since the 2015 festival then they would have been able to pay the artists in 2017 who work in Euros an undiminished fee because over the last two years Dash has not dropped in value compared to the Euro unlike GBP.

Of course it's possible for dash to drop in price compared to the £ or € but the fundamental uncertainties facing both of those currencies are such that I believe it's a relatively small possibility and certainly worth the risk: small downside, large upside.

Do you feel that answers your point sufficiently?

 

[jimbursch]

All cryptocurrencies, including Dash and including Bitcoin, are very volatile relative to fiat currencies such as USD, EUR and GBP.

Can holding reserves in dash reduce the financial risk to an organization of the GBP falling in value compared to the Euro?

The answer is emphatically "No".

While dash itself is currently volatile it represents a significant hedge against fluctuations between other currencies and in the longer term against the persistent inflation of fiat.

This is a false statement. Holding dash increases exchange risk dramatically. There is no reason or evidence to support the claim that it is a "signficant hedge" against volatility of exchange rates between first world fiat currency.

You are suggesting that an arts organization which doesn't have a lot of money engage in very risky cryptocurrency speculation. Please don't do this if your care about the arts.

 

[Syntheist]

I can see your point, cryptocurrency speculation is very risky. I think that arts organisations in the UK face a choice: keep doing what they have done and face a slow death through funding cuts or take the risk of doing something new and finding ways to exist on their own terms.

I believe that the distributed governance of dash as a network will maintain and enhance the value of dash.
I believe that the UK government will drive the pound off a cliff in the process of bungling brexit and inflating away their debt.

Given the choice between certain failure or a very risky chance of survival: I pick survival everytime.

Past performance is no indication of the future but i know which of these currencies I wish we had been holding since 2015:

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=EUR&view=2Y
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/dash/

 

[Syntheist]

Statement of Work

Edward Rapley On Behalf of Circus City

Introduction

Circus City 2017 is proposing that Dash becomes the sole Commercial Sponsor of Circus City 2017, becoming the first blockchain to sponsor a major cultural and artistic event in the UK, we are seeking a total of 140 Dash across two payment cycles.

The majority of the sponsorship would be spent covering the costs of the festival including paying additional staff, initially this would be in marketing and then by running a Dash sponsored bar. The wages of the core team are covered by the existing funding and any profit will go directly towards the artists who perform.

We will also promote Dash as a solution to people working within the international contemporary circus industry. As such part of the sponsorship will be used to run a Dash help desk and every artist in the festival who installs a wallet will be given their free drinks vouchers in the form of Dash.

Background

Circus City is an international contemporary circus festival that happens every 2 years. The next festival happens from the 12th to 29th of October in Bristol, UK. In 2015 the festival sold 6000 ticket and hosted 50 events and performances across 15 venues in the city: http://www.bristolcircuscity.com/about/

Bristol is the perfect city in which to promote Dash as it is a tech hub within the UK and it is also well versed in the existence of alternatives to fiat because it has a local currency, the Bristol Pound, with its own bank accounts and physical notes.

Being the first festival in the UK arts sector to be sponsored by a cryptocurrency will be a major talking point, Circus City already receives attention in the national press and this is likely to increase significantly as a direct result of the sponsorship.

Many circus performers work internationally and are faced with the problems and risks associated with being paid in multiple currencies. The circus community is one that could really be helped by adopting blockchain technology. Given that Dash provides a faster, cheaper and more private service than fiat or other blockchains it seems like a win/win.

Contemporary circus is very different from the world of the traditional big top circus. Inside the contemporary circus community there is a very high proportion of first adopters and the rapid adoption and creative adaptation of technology is commonplace. From programming through to hacking hardware there is a big first mover advantage, because being the only person who figured out how to do something can lead to years of work with that act. The circus community is a potent group of early adopters and potentially very vocal advocates for Dash.

Of course there are slight technical hurdles at present and a small amount of help is required for people to begin using Dash. This learning curve is far outweighed by the fact that Dash could solve everyday problems for artists who are already living transnational lives.

Austerity and the Arts

There has been a reduction in arts funding across the country including Bristol and this year the festival is seeking other sources so that it can reach a wider audience. In 2018 Bristol City Council funding for the arts will drop to zero and because the Arts Council uses a match funding model this will see Circus City lose £40,000 of its funding for 2019. We therefore need to explore entirely new ways to keep going.

About Me

I'm a theatre maker based in Bristol, where for the last 10 years I have worked to create and sustain artists’ collectives in the city, working with the local council and property owners to find buildings that are underused. I have been involved in creating and marketing 40 shows in that time and have helped establish 5 collectives that provide office and rehearsal space for artists.

I’ve been using blockchains since 2011 and I'm keen to bring the very clear benefits of Dash's technology and governance model to the communities I'm part of. I have been working with Circus City on their website and saw an opportunity for a beneficial partnership with Dash.

I can be contacted here or on the Dash Nation slack as syntheist.

Scope of Work

The festival has already received funding from the Arts Council England (£56,000) and Bristol City Council (£20,000), so it is guaranteed to happen.

All of the sponsorship would go directly towards paying the costs of preparing the festival, promoting Dash at the festival and then paying the performers. Circus City is executive produced by Theatre Bristol Ltd and due to the nature of the existing funding it is not run for a profit.

The timing of the cycles is related to the print deadline and festival launch in July.

We are seeking sponsorship from Dash in return for:

• Primary placement of the Dash logo on all publicity
  Estimated audience reach in 2015: 100,000 people
• The Dash logo will be visible on:
• • Trailer
  • Website (66,000 page views over Sept/Oct 2015)
  • Programme, flyers, posters (30,000 items produced in 2015)
  • 5 Vinyl Banners for roadside railings
  • 2 large static banners at the festival hub
  • 2 mobile banners for host venues
  • 2 commercial billboards on the M32 and Gloucester Road

In addition to the sponsorship we would like to actively promote and integrate Dash within the festival:

• running a Dash info and help desk at the festival hub:
  • explaining the basics of Dash
  • Installing Dash wallets
  • signing up to exchanges
• Accepting Dash payments at the festival bar and merchandise stall.
• helping each individual artist install a wallet and giving them 0.15 Dash as their 'drinks voucher' to spend at the Dash sponsored festival bar.
• offering and supporting payment of ticket sales to artists in Dash (2015 sales: £60,000)

We will also conduct research into the use of Dash within the festival with a view to sharing this information at one of the largest gathering of circus producers in Europe:

• Preparation of a detailed report on feedback gathered from the Dash info desk on first time user experience with Dash, wallet applications, exchange sites and as payments.
• Assessment of the impact of the additional sponsorship on the festival’s marketing.
• Recommendations for integrating Dash into future cultural events.
• Presentation of this research to a seminar of 300 circus producers: http://subcase.se/artists/

The Dash sponsorship money will be used for the following purposes:

Cycle 1: Marketing

12 Hire Marketing Manager
24 Printing an additional 10,000 brochures
6 Printing an additional 500 A3 posters
10 Distributing printed material
10 Internet advertising campaign
5 Proposal repayment

70 Total

Cycle 2: Dash Promotion & Integration

30 Sponsored Bar
27 Staffing the Dash help desk during the festival (17 days)
5 Support for artists to receive their ticket sale payment in Dash
8 Creation and presentation of the integration research

70 Total

Period of Performance

Cycle one will happen in June with weekly updates by me and the rest of the team at Circus City on dash.org/forum in June.

Cycle two will begin in July and extend until the presentation of the Dash research paper after the festival with monthly updates outside of the festival and weekly updates during the festival.

Place of Performance

The work will take place in Bristol, UK apart from the presentation of the research paper which will happen in Sweden.

Work Requirements

Kickoff:

• Selecting image files from https://www.dash.org/promotional-graphics/
• Consultation with previous sponsored events

Design Phase:

• Integrating the Dash logo into the design of all print and online promotional material

Media Phase

• A press release will be written and sent to all national press detailing the sponsorship and highlighting the benefits of dash as digital cash.
• Circus City core team available for interviews
• Printing all promotional material
• Distributing all promotional material

Help Desk Preparation Phase:

• Gathering resources, including videos to help introduce Dash to people at the festival.
• Email to all artists with instructions for downloading, encrypting and backing up a wallet.
• Training other help desk staff
• creation of questionnaires and research metrics for the report

Festival Phase

• Running the help desk daily
• Distributing Dash to artists
• Running a Dash wallet/POS system at the festival hub
• Writing up daily research based on responses at the help desk

Research Phase

• Compilation of research data
• Analysis of data
• Completion of written paper
• Presentation at Subcase
• Publication of the research on the Dash Forum and reddit

Schedule

The below list consists of the initial milestones identified for Circus City Sponsorship:

June 1st – Result from the DAO becomes clearance
June 7th – All design and print resources collected
July 1st – Printed material released and website fully updated
August 1st – Introduction to Dash email written and sent to artists
September 1st – All help desk resources and procedures in place.
September 14th - POS/wallet solution implemented
October 1st – Help desk team trained
October 12th – Festival opens.
October 29th – Festival closes
November 14th – Completion of report
November 17th – Presentation and publication of the Dash integration research

Acceptance Criteria
The work will take place with the weekly or bi-weekly updates, including opportunities for the community to feedback on the process to ensure that it is clear the funds are being used correctly and the work is processing as detailed in this proposal.

Should it become clear that this is not happening there is the chance for the community to vote against the second cycle of payment.

I commit to the fulfilment of this statement of work:
Edward Rapley

 

[MizzyMax]

So wait 200 people total get Dash but it goes on for 17 days? If someone said free $15 I'd be over there in a second. You sure that would last you throughout 17 days ?

 

[Syntheist]

So wait 200 people total get Dash but it goes on for 17 days? If someone said free $15 I'd be over there in a second. You sure that would last you throughout 17 days ?

To clarify it is only the artists who are performing in the festival who will be given the Dash, so unless you've got a way to join a european circus company in the next couple of months it's going to be difficult

We will have a list of their emails and they will get checked off as the dash is sent so no one can claim multiple times.

Hence we know that the maximum number will be 200 and any unclaimed dash will go directly to paying the artists's fees after the festival.

 

[jimbursch]

This is an excellent, well thought-out proposal that deserves serious consideration. Here are some thoughts/suggestions:

-- be generous with you cost estimates; we want to fund a successful event; you don't have to be cheap
-- I would like to see some sort of video production added to the proposal so it has legs well beyond the live event.
-- Also would like to see graphic designer work on the printed material; don't just slap a logo on stuff and call it a day. A well-designed brochure at the very least.
-- Again, VIDEO!

-- I suggest including a Dash address with the proposal where people can contribute to the proposal fee. It will help to be able to say "n people contributed to the proposal fee, demonstrating broad Dash community support."

-- Give us a link to one of the official Circus City media channels (e.g. Twitter https://twitter.com/circuscity1) where you mention this Dash proposal to verify your bonafides.

-- Start a new thread with your near-final pre-proposal; this thread is done.

-- I have to say, I love the idea of "Dash: the official cryptocurrency of clowns worldwide."