Right now we are at the end of April, which is approaching the middle of Q2 (April, May, June). The proposal has been held off for as long as possible to give time for initiatives to take hold and allow for follow-up information.
This year we're seeing an increase in unusual promotional opportunities involving partners. These are more formal than our usual activities and typically depend on a chain of events. For instance, exchange-related promotional partner opportunities where we collaborate with the exchange team to drive engagement.
To restate what we already know, the Value Plan project managers are @lordbutterfly, @guiltyparties and @crimsonclad. And as always, your Value Plan keyholders remain @theycallmedan, @smooth, @guiltyparties, @crimsonclad and @blocktrades.
A number of the activities mentioned in the Q1 Proposal apply to Q2. Several have not yet been paid for or have not been entirely paid for. Budgets for larger events and conferences span months as the engagement is subject to change. Changes in conferences often depend on organizers and other sponsors as we may grasp opportunities that were previously unavailable to Hive or simply unknown.
Meanwhile the Value Plan website, which is a work in progress with the intent of being replicated across the DHF, can be found here: https://promote.hive.io
What has been completed?
The next event of this quarter is the BuzzParty, 1-3 May in Graz, Austria. Follow the event at @buzzparty if you can't make it in person.
Talent Land just concluded. We were supposed to do a raffle there in conjunction with our anniversary, but there were some logistical issues and it's quite likely that the raffle is getting moved to a separate event. This conference has proven to be very productive as expected, with many accounts made. Check them out here.
Web3 Amsterdam concluded very well, much as expected. Aside from getting the word out and promoting Hive it has also resulted in a range of invitations and partnership discussions that are under review.
Modular Carnival in Brazil has concluded after a very busy week for our community representatives. The success points are still being reviewed and opportunities followed up on.
Young Art Fair has been initiated and is ongoing at this time and is a multi-month engagement. Much like many of our sponsorships, it is a continuous activity despite its limited cost. It is likely that we'll have a better sense of its metrics towards the middle of Q3.
Coming Up
There are a few key activities and events coming up this quarter. These are large, complex initiatives that will be announced separately once we have concrete information on participation, ticketing, and so on.
HiveFest
There is no formal announcement at this time and this is not meant to be an announcement. HiveFest is an annual event that takes place in the Fall which is Q3, meaning that its budget at least in part is dependent on Q2. (We cannot answer any questions in this post. Please wait until the official announcement.)
Date: ??
Italy Sardegna WRC Rally
Date: 5-8 June, 2025
We are still quite a ways from June but have put in our request to race. Most of you are already familiar with this particular rally if you have followed the Hive rally car over time as its a favorite. This year we want to step things up and couple the rally with a Hive side-event to ensure that we are taking full opportunity to promote our tech and Web3 in Italy. More information on the rally can be found on the official WRC sub-page. We do have some preparation ahead of us and this will be a challenging event not only for our racing team but also in general.
A special note on Southern Europe in general: We spoke about Spain strategies last proposal and the general approach is being taken very slowly to ensure it properly aligns with best practices in the country. Italy will be no different and it is likely that the remainder of the quarter, with the exception of the rally and the side-event, will be spent on exploration of possibilities and planning. Creating opportunities for Hive is always a welcome challenge.
Conf3rence
Date: 3-4 September, 2025
This is a large conference that will take place in Dortmund, Germany, and is set to attract attendees and notable changemakers from across the world. While it takes place in Q3, preparations must start now. We have spoken to the organizing team extensively and have full confidence that this event will help Hive build valuable partnerships and drive adoption in Europe. We will share more information as it is known. Website: https://www.conf3rence.com
General Marketing
Some of the funds from every portion of the VP budget are earmarked for exchange-related or formal partnership-style events and activities. We don't pay for exchange listings and this is no what VP is there for. What we do is joint marketing activities and payments for necessary elements and services to be able to present Hive as a professional, mature entity as is expected at our level. We are neither a small project or startup. An example of such costs is the X account and its gold checkmark, paid ads on selected social platforms, or a trading competition at an exchange.
Due to the general length of the planning and negotiation process, as much of this type of activities involves partners and their teams, it is increasingly difficult to project exact expenses for a specific quarter. This is because there are often lengthy delays which, on the contrary, can also materialize in a speedrun style of an opportunity where we have very little notice. Some of the work required is quite niche, such as legal opinions, and can take as long as it takes. Other types of activities are routine and are known well in advance as they are essentially part of our standard operating expenses.
Documentation
The general theme of non-conference promotional initiatives this quarter can be summed up under the umbrella of what we can loosely call 'documentation' or sharing out our technical and non-technical contributions and advancements.
What do we mean by 'documentation'? Simply letting the world know what it is that we're doing and have done. That can include presenting on specific topics at conferences, holding workshops, writing articles in local newspapers, sharing links on our social media, creating professional media representations through videography, and so on. It does not mean writing Hive posts about the work of others but instead empowering the projects themselves by helping seek out additional opportunities.
Social Impact Projects
This quarter marks the completion of the current social impact projects. These consist mostly of water-delivery but also include a variety of other physical installations.
All social impact projects have two things in common:
- They are organized and built by individuals who are local to the community they are to serve
- They demonstrate the power of Hive by using Hive to solve a long-term need for the local community
With the completion of these projects, we are dedicating Q3 and Q4 to documentation. While the projects themselves are all already well-documented and have been written about, presented, and shared in every possible way using local media, international organizations, print, social media, of course on chain, and everywhere possible, more can be done. This is also an opportunity for those not currently involved to participate.
Hive is one of the few entities in blockchain technology and the cryptosphere that has a measurable and actual physical impact on the surroundings where its decentralized community resides. When one person joins Hive, everyone around them benefits. They don't benefit from funding; they benefit from the inherent capability of Hive to change the world. The world around that individual starts changing. Local shops may take HBD as payment and initiate their digital transformation. A well may be built to provide water for their neighbors. Neighbors may become interested in technology after hearing the person talk about it.
No other entity except for BTC itself has had this much impact in the lives of many (vs the typical, the lives of a few investors). The more we document the tangible impact and our mutual capability, the more impact and capability we have. To support this goal, we are looking for both ideas as to where and how to publisize our stories of impact.
Film
The film festival and related activities around documentation of Hive achievements, including the Water film, are organized by @mynewlife and include a range of activities that are projected to be carried out throughout the year.
Documentation is particularly important and we hope to place additional emphasis on it where possible while also sharing the movies that are made. Unlike most of our competitors, the impact of Hive includes a physical component as Hive enables individuals to make tangible changes and improvements in the communities and countries they live in (as we mentioned above). As a result, there are structures all over the world that prove that anything is possible with Hive. All documentation has its use in time and while we may not publicize a video immediately upon completion, it or parts of it are used throughout our promotional campaigns over time where most opportune and suitable.
We are looking to spend some time over Q2-Q4 filming short Hive documentaries where possible (along-side other initiatives as a value-added project) as global adverts. This gives us unique material and a clear message in a visual medium. All video content made so far has been used in conferences, as part of booth streams, on social media, and as demonstrations in meetings.
As of right now, we are looking to showcase one of the Hive films at a Cannes side-event.
Tech Experiences
A great place to share the innovative work being done on Hive itself and the multifaceted ecosystem advancements are smaller tech events and local tech meetups. These small groups typically consist of professionals and hobbyists who gather to discuss either what they are working on themselves or what they are passionate about. The optimal thing about these is that they allow for an intimate discussion with a natural progression of questions and two-way conversation.
What we want to avoid are commercialized, sponsor-only, tech event opportunities. Often these are 'stacked' with actors paid to pretend to be interested in whatever topic the sponsoring team is presenting. We don't want these vanity engagements. We want authentic engagements. And we know from experience that authentic engagements yield far better results in facilitating understanding and ultimately onboarding than anything preconfigured for a specific purpose as a commercial operation. Hive in itself is a grassroots decentralized community-driven project and seeking out commercial sponsorship would be increasingly contradictory to its purpose. Organic meetups and small events are key.
So how would promoting a specific app or tool-based advancement work in relation to VP funding?
We said this before multiple times: funding hinges on the fact that approximately half of any presentation or initiative where funds are required (for example, to pay for transportation and logistics) must focus on Hive itself. Consider the fact that for any dapp or tool to be built on Hive, Hive must exist. Without the core functionalities and capabilities of Hive it would be impossible to craft as many diverse applications as our development community has. Therefore, we cannot introduce something built on Hive without introducing Hive itself.
Everyone is continuously encouraged to seek out opportunities to share not only their dapps and tools but also their general Hive development experience with others. We want you to tell the world your story.
Speakers
We as Hive need to build up our roster of speakers for which many of you have volunteered in the past. The challenge is, many conferences require speakers with experience and it would be very difficult for them to entertain a speaker who lacks a long, documented history of presenting. We are always asking people to step forward and put their names into the consideration for various conferences. If you are a person who has presented on any topic at a professional conference level before and would be interested and able to represent Hive in the future, please let us know. Take the following into consideration:
- Have your biography paragraph ready
- Have a recent professional headshot ready
- Make a list of previous conferences you presented on any topic at
- Find any recordings or photos of your previous presentations
Other considerations:
- Figure out your current availability and travel restrictions
- Make sure you have a valid passport (passport costs are not and have never been covered under VP)
- Ensure that you are able to leave dependents behind as their travel costs do not fall under VP
Conferences can accommodate for any disability or special circumstance. There is no need to stand on a stage if you need to sit. It's a matter of presentation quality. The topic you've presented on in the past isn't as important as the fact that you have a long history of presenting. If you spent two decades in the automotive industry and now dedicated yourself to promoting Hive, your reputation as a speaker carries over.
Administrative Notice
Some people believe that Hive pursuing one opportunity means there may be insufficient funding for other opportunities. When there’s a situation where an excellent opportunity has come along and we do not have sufficient funding in the account due to it being late in the quarter or where funding has been delayed for administrative reasons, we put in for bridge amounts. If an opportunity which appears to be great to one person is not pursued, it is because it is not viable at this time for various other reasons. We keep abreast of all undertaken promotional projects and are in constant contact with industry partners. If we pause on an opportunity or decline an idea then there is a reason. There are times we are forced to wait for reasons outside of our own control, such as environmental or geopolitical reasons, or simply because the market mandates it. But to be clear, Value Plan does not decline or pause on promotional projects because of other promotional projects.
Proposal
This proposal has been held off until the middle of Q2 in order to evaluate whether we can shift our fiscal year off the calendar year and thus avoid bridge proposals going forward. It is likely that we will see a smaller Q4 and a change towards Q1 2026 to better align with schedules.
This proposal is asking for 250,000 HBD for Q2 2025.