Idea Fest by Catalyst Swarm

Idea Fest provides proposers a stage to pitch their ideas and allows the voters & community to interact and discuss with them

We are highly engaged fulltime Catalyst Community members and successfully organize Idea Fests since Fund 5.

Hey Catalyst Community!

Thank you for voting for our Idea Fest Fund 6 + 7 proposal.

Idea Fest in Fund 5 and Fund 6 have been a huge success and was made possible by the effort of more than 20 people (including organization, hosting, post-tasks, etc.). Idea Fest Fund 7 will happen on December 18th and 19th.

To continue this event, we are applying for further funding to be able to organize and execute the next edition for Fund 8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMRxVLBUtHY&ab_channel=IOHK

____ 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 _____

Idea Fest is an online event where proposers have an opportunity to pitch their ideas and projects to the Catalyst community, and each presentation is followed by a Q&A session.

This initiative leverages the awareness and understanding of proposals applying for funding through Catalyst, brings proposers and the community closer, and puts faces behind proposals, making the process more human after all.

We are submitting this proposal under 'Community Events' challenge because we believe we are addressing most of the challenge's Guiding Questions:

• We are increasing meaningful participation in Project Catalyst among all stakeholders
• We are increasing voter-proposer interaction
• We are increasing active participation in Catalyst and Cardano related events
• We are helping on keeping the community together

IdeaFest has been a success since Fund5, largely approved by the community and backed by IOG, and we want to continue hosting this event that benefits the whole Catalyst community.

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

Date for Idea Fest Fund 8: TBA (around 1 month before voting starts)

Planning 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 Funds 5 and 6)
• 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) and with LATAM teams to include breakout rooms for native speakers of Spanish and Portuguese.

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, Twitter, 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 two editions 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.

Team:

• Dominik Tilman - Organising, accounting, social media and marketing
• Felix Weber - Organising, hosting, outreach to new hosts and topic
• Victor Corcino - Organising, host and proposer onboarding
• Aidan - Organising, moderation

More Details on http//:www.catalystswarm.com

Budget:

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

TOTAL: $22.700

• $8.000 for organisation: Ideation, marketing, outreach to proposers and hosts, setting schedule, etc. (approx. 200 hours for $40/h)

• $7.900 for execution: Moderation, hosting breakout rooms, helping hands (shared equally between all contributors; approx. $300 per person)

• $4.000 for post-tasks: Creating highlight videos, documentation, NFT-awards (approx. 100 hours for $40)

• $2.800 for the integration of Eastern Hemisphere and LATAM region + Translation of presentation in native languages into English (approx. 70 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. 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.