The Value Plan account was launched with the intent to bridge that gap between marketing and sponsorship and allow us to more in order to promote Hive.

We started out in January with 50,000 HBD for the year which was based on projections as this kind of budget never existed until now. It has proven to be sufficient for approximately 6 months or Q1 and Q2.

This report is in two sections and will first review of Q1 and Q2 and will then speak to Q3 and Q4, including expansion of the total budget.

Your Value Plan key holders are as always @Blocktrades, @Crimsonclad, @Guiltyparties, @Smooth, and @Theycallmedan. All have the full set of keys. More information can be found here.

Q1 and Q2 in Review

Remaining balance

124.380 HP
7,151.103 HIVE
3,382.246 HBD

HIVE was converted as we do get unexpected external opportunities where HBD is not suitable and quick HIVE payments are required or where the recipient for legitimate reason cannot exchange HBD at the time. These situations are typically avoided but it is always beneficial to have some reserve of HIVE.

Activity Transaction (grouped)

The following wording is taken from transaction memos.
https://hiveblocks.com/@valueplan

(1) Charity Tournament Sponsorship

5,423.420 HIVE to @mazergaming Charity Tournament Sponsorship | Invoice ref: Invoice #1 Received 18 Feb for $5000 USD in HIVE | HIVE price as is on Coingecko, current to 12:30 pm EST on 21 Feb 22 | Invoice paid in full on Feb 21

(2) SWC National Tournament & Exhibitions

4,675 HBD to @marscrea Third Edition of LevelUp 3vs3 | Hive promotional and social engagement event | project costs submitted and approved on Mar 9
2,959 HBD to @marscrea Third Edition of LevelUp 3vs3 | Hive promotional and social engagement event | project costs submitted and approved | 2nd part of budget to total of 7634 USD plus minor logistics on Mar 15
5,525 HBD to @marscrea 3vs3 SWC | Hive promotional and social engagement event sponsorship | additional project costs submitted and approved | changes due to venue and scaling of event on April 21
1,579 HBD to @marscrea LevelUp 3vs3 | Hive promotional and social engagement event | project costs that are in addition (unexpected) to previous costs | cost increase due to regulations and necessary additions on April 30
400 HBD to @marscrea Screen rental for event | 3vs3 SWC | Hive promotional and social engagement event sponsorship | no additional costs expected on May 3
500 HBD to @marscrea Sandbags for stabilization | forgotten in previous transfer | 3vs3 SWC | Hive promotional and social engagement event sponsorship on May 3
489 HBD to @marscrea LevelUp 3vs3 | unexpected transportation costs on May 11
5,473 HBD to @marscrea 2 x exhibitions | promotional activity showcasing Hive to investors and notable persons | SWC project | additional costs possible but not expected on May 25

(3) Community Well Project

3,425.500 HIVE to @mcsamm Well drilling and installation | Hive local community empowerment and promotion project | Included: drilling, structure and plumbing, tank. Contingency fund not included at this time on March 17
214 HBD to @mcsamm Well structure and signage installation | part 2 of Hive local community empowerment and promotion project. Contingency fund not included at this time on March 26
4,325 HBD to @mcsamm Well 2 | Well drilling and installation | full project minus incidentals | minor proposal replacement | contingency fund not included at this time and will be addressed as incidentals if required on May 21
200 HBD to @mcsamm Additional funds due to rising prices of supply chain | Well 2 | Well drilling and installation on June 5

(4) Hive-Inspired Promotional Film*

1,575 HBD to @thedeltron Hive-inspired film script | downpayment | promotional activity | portion of funds provided by DHF via this transaction | transaction is 50% value of funds outstanding, remainder due upon completion of script task
(*) This is a partial payment. These funds are intended to be refunded back to the account, see write-up below.

(5) HBD at Automotive Repair Shop

700 HBD to @ferbu Hive use of HBD in store project | promotional tech support | display equipment plus incidentals on May 22

(6) Dygycon

100 HBD to @dygycon Sponsorship package purchase | partial comp | Hive

(7) Blockchain Educational Seminars

2,787.540 HBD to @rutablockchain Hive presentations | Caracas and area | 40 presentations in educational facilities/schools and related incidentals | 5% contingency fund included | promotional project on June 5

Work Transactions (tasks)

28 HBD to @samgiset Graphic design | Hive anniversary and worldwaterday illustrations | social media internal/external campaign on March 26
90 HBD to @fionasfavourites Hive dapp status research | 4.5 hours on April 21
95 HBD to @samgiset Graphic design | Multiple events and graphical illustrations | social media internal/external campaigns on April 30
70 HBD to @fionasfavourites Event listing research | spreadsheet of promotional opportunities for Hive on May 11
20 HBD to @inthenow Video editing/fix | 1 hour | promotional material on May 22
500 HBD to @uwelang 2 x press release | written and launched | 250 HBD per on June 4

Findings in review

It has been a strong show so far but not without points that can be improved upon.

Issues

The biggest issue is that not enough Hive community members are coming forward with suitable and properly planned projects. Projects must be geared to an external audience, which is more challenging than internal-focused. Individuals also are hesitant to approach all key holders, particularly those they do not know ahead of time. For this type of an account to be truly successful it requires wider engagement. For example, @mcsamm and @collinz came up with the idea to build a well and followed up on it, despite not knowing anyone in advance.

The other issues are not under our control. Pandemic-related challenges and other global factors greatly restricted our sponsorship and appearance at key events. For example, we had to turn down a speaking engagement in Singapore because of travel restrictions. The rising supply chain costs and general inflation of regular products has caused significant spikes in prices without warning. Fuel prices are a huge problem.

Vision

Adherence to our vision to showcase Hive as the blockchain to build on and as a complete ecosystem has so far been going extremely well. In none of the promotional activities or any activity related to the use of Value Plan funds was Hive ever referred to as a place to get paid to blog. Mentions of content monetization are only included in the general overview of Hive capabilities as a blockchain. There have been absolutely no known incidents of anyone being told that they can post on Hive to make money or otherwise treat Hive posting as supplemental income. Hive is instead presented for its technical capability and for what entrepreneurship and grassroots opportunities (to build on) that it fosters. It is an achievement that this cohesive vision was maintained across this many activities.

Budgets

Every project that is considered under Value Plan must present a proper breakdown of costs with exact line items. Those line items do end up being adjusted as the projects change, but their presentation and planning is expected to be done professionally. Costs are to be reduced where possible.

The need to keep real, professional project management budgets is novel as far as Hive projects go. Some organizers had the existing knowledge of project management to achieve this and others required help to get up to standard. Vendor invoices and documents are also reviewed and adjusted for some larger single expenditures. Not everyone is familiar with vendor sourcing and management. In some locations products had to be shipped or otherwise obtained with undue effort. This caused challenges for the individual organizers in terms of budgeting.

Biases

Many of us have preconceived ideas which are based on a simple lack of knowledge as to what items and services cost in different geographical areas. For example, many believe that the entire country of Venezuela lives in poverty and there is no business or innovation there. While this is partially true, it is also partially untrue. It has been an eye-opening experience to discover the real capability and opportunity of the specific areas and understand the true extent of the opportunities Hive received rather than granted.

Returns

Not all events and activities will see instant returns on effort and investment. Some have much longer timelines in terms of returns than others. The wells in Ghana see almost immediate marketing and publicity due to the presence of reporters on site. The SWC tournament has a much longer timeline due to the involvement of government officials and other formal bodies recognizing and understanding Hive. We would have to re-evaluated after a considerable time to gauge our successes and opportunities.

Main Events Q1 & Q2

(1) Charity Tournament Sponsorship

The tournament was an online e-gaming tournament conducted by @mazergaming in benefit of ZERO Cancer, an American prostate cancer charity. This was a heavily-branded event with many Hive logos on every surface and space a Hive logo could possibly fit. Mazer Gaming was chosen as the first Value Plan event due to their professionalism and high level of organization. They had a solid sponsor plan and the benefiting charity had all of its annual reports vetted by ourselves and by other donors. Much social media engagement was received during the tournament.

(2) SWC National Tournament & Exhibitions

SWC stands for 'Street Workout Community'. This event started out as a simple sports competition in a park with the intent to produce social media hype on Instagram and Tiktok. Due to the hard work of @manuelramos and his mother Marleny, this competition grew to a national-level event which was held in a high-end mall in the city of Maracay. The multiple funding transactions are due to the incredibly aggressive timeline of the event among scaling needs and rising supply chain costs; this event normally would have taken at least half a year to plan. It was a massive success and drew the attention not only of athletes and small business sponsors but also of large venue sponsors like the mall itself and ultimately of numerous government officials. Numerous follow-up exhibitions and presentations are requested and expected. This event is not seen as a charitable donation but as an opportunity for Hive to showcase in front of key decision makers in the region and ultimately lead to integrations of Hive technology and currencies. This is the first such known activity in the history of blockchain technology. Read more here.

(3) Community Well Project

Most have seen the two wells that were built in Ghana communities so far. They are physical wells with Hive branding and an inscription that relates that Hive is decentralized and equally present in all parts of the world, including Ghana, where it has dedicated these wells to the local community. This project differs from humanitarian group approaches as it is carried out only by locals and with utmost respect for the communities themselves and follows local customs of engagement. The number of news sources and individuals who have taken notice of Hive is too many to list here. Notably, we are also inviting existing Hive partners to consider collaborating with us on a well as dual-sponsors. This is another first for any blockchain technology and possibly for any non-humanitarian/non-governmental entity in the world. Read more here.

(4) Hive-Inspired Promotional Film

This is a long-term investment which is also a long-shot. It's the only activity that is a "risk" because we do not have vendors for the film yet. The script is being written and the project will then go to the sponsorship phase, which will account for the real budget behind production, which will also lead to return of funds. This is not the documentary film; it is a Hive-inspired fictional film. The script is being partially financed by 3Speak and return of the funds will thus be processed through one of the key holders.

(5) HBD at Automotive Repair Shop

This is a very straight forward activity where only HBD is being accepted as payment in a functional automotive shop in a smaller town in Eastern Venezuela. The shop does not accept any other cryptocurrencies and services not only existing HBD holders but also its regular customer base, who have the opportunity to use the shop's dedicated laptop to sign up for their own Hive wallet and to view presentations about Hive. Read more here.

(6) Dygycon

A bi-monthly virtual reality space meetup/conference type activity originally organized by Splinterlands. We are currently in discussion to make this event half-Hive and a regular staple promotional activity. During this event we had a chance to showcase our documentary teaser and to speak about Hive.

(7) Blockchain Educational Seminars

A set of 40 presentations in educational institutions in Caracas, Venezuela. The presentations are about Hive technology and encourage students to build on Hive or integrate with existing business ideas/projects. The purpose of these presentations is to promote our ecosystem expansion and attract investment. No mention of posting to earn (or playing to earn) is permitted.

This ends the review portion of this post.

Q3 and Q4 Budget

The ask for Q3 and Q4 is 100k HBD. That would bring the total for the year to 150k HBD.

Projected Events

The following events have variable costs and organizational timelines, requiring some flexibility, and are thus not suited for their own DHF proposals.

(1) HiveFest

This year's HiveFest will be a physical event that will take place September 15 to 18 in Amsterdam. The event itself is organized by @roelandp and has been held to much acclaim since 2016. It is a professional-level event that is geared towards both our internal community members and towards an external audience. This event is projected to take up at least half of the requested budget. Additional details about the event will be announced later but rest assured, it will be awesome.

(2) SWC Exhibitions & Sub-Events

In follow-up to the national sporting event held in May, numerous additional presentation opportunities have been requested by governmental officials and local business leaders. The requests are coming in at a regular basis and are too numerous to list here. They include conferences and conventions. Fortunately the physical assets required for these activities have already been purchased.

(3) Community Well Project

We will continue the well project which we hope to also partner on with others in the blockchain/Web3 sphere in order to reduce costs, amplify number of wells, and extend our promotional reach. The costs for these wells are generally predictable and fluctuate only based on depth of drilling and transport costs.

(4) Conferences

Conference attendance with the intent to promote Hive as presenters/speakers is in the works and will be focused on for the rest of the year. This budget item was originally envisioned as conference sponsorships but due to current market trends we have to be more frugal and logo placement in the corner of a venue is no longer feasible.

https://peakd.com/proposals/227

Thank you for reading our report and we look forward to your support of the Q3 and Q4 proposal #227.