The Idea Fest for Fund 5 was a huge success and was made possible by the effort of more than 20 people (including organization, hosting, post-tasks, etc.). To continue this event we apply for funding to be able to organize and execute two further editions: Idea Fest for Fund 6 AND Fund 7.

Announcement of IDEA FEST Fund 6 in the town hall meeting September 1st, 2021 (starts at 1:00:30):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LfHn5mZJZk

____ INTRODUCE THE HOSTS ____

The Catalyst Swarm:

"The SWARM is a community-driven "grass roots" initiative, supporting Cardano in its mission to build a universal decentralized system that provides access to a global society and economy.'

CONNECT: We bring the community together to unleash its full potential.

INCLUDE: We build bridges to ensure the diversity of the Cardano community.

EMPOWER: We encourage everyone to act and lead by creating space to do so.

The Catalyst Swarm operates and interacts in and around the wider Cardano Community, focused on linking individuals, projects and communities to Project Catalyst. Our activities are characterized by the following qualities:

Listen to the community and gather data and opinions from an unbiased perspective.
Host different events and meetups where the community members come together, share their ideas, connect, listen and get inspired from each other.
Reach out to underrepresented groups in the community, exploring ways to lower entry barriers and offer continuous support and advice.
Integrate local communities to enrich a diverse, multi-cultural Catalyst Community.
Moderate the community discussions in our events and Discord server in a way that empowers individuals to further engage.
Explore novel ways for decentralized governance within our community, based upon practice oriented methods.
Document and track our activity to build trust and transparency.
Reproduce ourselves by creating new swarm groups to have a diverse co-existence and collaboration of several swarms.

____ I M P A C T _____

This challenge is seeking for better communication between proposers and voters. Both parties don't have a stage to interact with each other so far. Also the personal touch of many proposals is missing. Therefore, IDEA FEST for Fund 5 was established and then executed by the Catalyst Swarm Team together with the community.

This event gives proposers a stage to present their projects and ideas to a wider audience. Furthermore, it enables the voters of Project Catalyst to interact directly with the proposers, ask questions, raise concerns and discuss the projects. This will help the voters to decide on which proposals they want to vote and on which they don't. Added to that, proposers have to work on their presentation skills and try to narrow their project into a condensed pitch. As a result the quality of strategy, objectives and USP of the proposals is likely to increase. The IDEA FEST is a great setting for inexperienced projects to use the stage and become more confident.

Furthermore, the format of the IDEA FEST will attract new proposers for upcoming funding rounds as they see the benefit of presenting their proposals and engaging more people.

In the first edition of IDEA FEST, 36.1% of the presented projects were successfully funded (compared to 21.6% for Catalyst overall).The approval rate of the presented proposals was as high as 70%, further demonstrating the positive effect of IDEA FEST.

____ F E A S I B I L I T Y ____

IDEA FEST Fund 6 details:

Date: October 2nd, 2021

Size: Up to 100 proposers in 15 breakout rooms

Moderator: Stefan Montalbetti

Hosts: TBA

IDEA FEST Fund 7 details:

Date: TBA (approx. one week before Fund 7 voting starts)

Plan for Implementation for each edition of IDEA FEST:

Planing the event:

Event will take place in Zoom with different breakout rooms (we will use the Business Zoom Account of IOG as we did for Idea Fest Fund 5)
Creating Sign-up for proposers
Setting up schedule for the event
Organize and onboard hosts from the community for the breakout rooms
Integration of the eastern hemisphere by providing specific breakout rooms for native speakers of our Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, etc. community (by cooperating with the Eastern Town Hall)

Marketing for the event:

Announcement in each Town hall meeting, Swarm Sessions, etc.
Use our online platforms to market the event (Discord, Twitter, Reddit)
Use IOG channels (Telegram, etc.) to announce the event

Recording and awards:

IDEA FEST will be recorded to create highlight videos of the event and each proposal
Awards ceremony for proposers

References:

We have organized and hosted the first edition of Idea Fest. The Idea Fest has taken place on Zoom and was characterized by high engagement and interaction, fair and open discussions, relaxed and friendly atmosphere, and interactions between proposers and voters.

Key Stats:

52 proposers pitched their ideas
12 breakout rooms
198 participants overall
2 hours full of fun and meaningful discussions

Core Team & Roles:

Dominik - Hosting, finance and accounting, social media and marketing
Felix - Hosting, outreach to new hosts and topics
Filip - Hosting, organizing, finance
Jakob - Moderation, hosting, organizing
Simon - Hosting, website, GitHub, working on connected projects
Stephen - Github documentation and tracking for transparency and trust building
Tevo - Hosting, improving organizational structure, miro boards, website updates
Victor - Hosting, organizing, creating content

More Details on www.catalystswarm.com

BUDGET:

The budget for both events is divided into three parts: Organization, execution and post-tasks

Fund 6 Idea Fest: $15.000

$6.000 for organisation:

Ideation, marketing, outreach to proposers and hosts, setting schedule, etc. (approx. 150 hours for $40)

$6.000 for execution:

Moderation, hosting breakout rooms, helping hands (shared equally between all contributors; approx. $300 per person)

$2.000 for post-tasks:

Creating highlight videos, documentation, award distribution (approx. 50 hours for $40)

$1.000 for the integration of eastern hemisphere (approx. 25 hours for $40)

Fund 7 Idea Fest: $20.000

We want to increase our capacity and also want to include more time zones into this event. Therefore we are considering expanding Idea Fest into a two-day event. For this reason, we have increased the budget for this edition compared to IDEA FEST Fund 6:

$7.000 for organisation:

Ideation, marketing, outreach to proposers and hosts, setting schedule, etc. (approx. 175 hours for $40)

$9.000 for execution:

Moderation, hosting breakout rooms, helping hands (shared equally between all contributors; approx. $300 per person)

$3.000 for post-tasks:

Creating highlight videos, documentation, award distribution (approx. 75 hours for $40)

$1.000 for the integration of eastern hemisphere (approx. 25 hours for $40)

____ A U D I T A B I L I T Y ____

Transparency:

Our standard is the highest possible transparency in all our activities to the community. That is why Catalyst Swarm has a Github repository, where all our activities and meeting protocols are published (see link).

Furthermore, IDEA FEST will be recorded and uploaded to our (Catalyst Swarm) and IOGs YouTube channel.

Metrics to measure our success:

Increase the number of presented proposals in each IDEA FEST by 50%
Increase the number of participants on each IDEA FEST by 50%
Increase the relative number of approved proposals in the voting process, that have pretend their project in IDEA FEST
Increasing the relative percentage of successful funded proposers that have presented their project at IDEA FEST

HAPPY VOTING!

As a part of our fast growing community around Cardano, we wish to increase meaningful participation and accelerate the broad adoption of Cardano. By voting on our proposal you help us being active