Sum up/TLDR - 'elevator pitch' style

The aim of this Proposal is to organize a series of Cardano-centric blockchain events in various Polish cities. Cryptocurrencies have gained huge popularity in Poland but lack of basic education and knowledge of serious projects is overwhelming. Thanks to a rich network of contacts and experience of the proposers carrying out such events should be flawless (see Team Members section).

Long months of lockdowns and restrictions took live, face to face meetings away from us. According to our observations, people are extremely keen on socializing again. Recent live events in Poland are regularly "oversubscribed" when talking about places in the conference halls. Crypto Silesia, CryptoVerse Expo, Made in Blockchain Meetup… (see Facebook pages for reference). Even paid events are getting sold out quickly. That clearly proves there is a huge need for meetups in "real life", no matter if metaverse becomes the new reality or not.

The main objective here is to promote debate and enthusiasm about the Cardano ecosystem.

The 2021 Assay Index survey proved that over 13% of Polish people find cryptocurrencies as the most interesting investment type. Poland also ranks among the top 10 countries hosting the highest number of cryptocurrency ATMs. Yet **Cardano stays under the radar.**Thanks to our Fund 7 initiative, we grow an online Cardano Community Hub called "Cardano Center Poland". A very helpful addition to online efforts to bring Cardano to the masses would be a series of live events, hosted independently or as side-events along various crypto conferences in Poland. Live events are not only about education but more about networking and acknowledging the crypto world is real, the projects (like Cardano) are real and have real people behind them.

We have many ideas on how to encourage people to actively participate in Cardano ecosystem via such events; either as stakers, Catalyst voters, proposers, creators or simply "Cardano-aware" crypto users. To start with, we could implement CNFT (Cardano NFTs) as "tickets" to our free-of-charge events. These can later be used as proof-of-attendance (POAP) to give further benefits on closed groups… Sky's the limit.

As the plan is to run a series of live events across the country, we must consider things like:

• pandemic situation (luckily it seems to be contained)

• geo-political situation (EU Eastern border, unpredictable)

• logistics across the country (even though Poland is not that huge, due to our hometowns' location it will be easier to carry out preparations in the South/Central part of Poland and a bit harder in the Northern part. This can be mitigated thanks to our continuously growing local community, with enthusiastic people spread all over the country

Roadmap - steps to follow:

- having this proposal approved

- community research: which cities would be the best places to hold blockchain & Cardano-related events? Voting on Telegram and Discord

- contacting potential partners (Cardano projects, influencers, local offices of exchanges)

- local market research: expected attendance -> appropriate venues in reasonable prices

- 1st event - 2 months after Catalyst Fund approval (time shift required due to community research/partners acquisition/event marketing)

- next events - at least on a monthly basis, at locations (cities/regions) decided in community votes.

1. Venue rental - $250 (hall for up to 150 people equipped with projector);
2. Basic food and beverages - $200;
3. Travel expenses for organizers and speakers - $250;
4. Speakers' fee: approximately 4 speakers per event, 4x$150 = $600
5. Marketing materials: rollups, banners, gadgets like stickers, pens, caps etc. - small things that make people happy and can be used as incentives for participants who ask question, take part in on-site quizzes or other activities, like random draws or awards for post-event recaps, photographers/video makers; Initial investment of ~$500 (rollup, banner); +$100 per event
6. Event marketing (online communities, social media): $200
7. POAP CNFTs (proof-of-attendance): $50
8. After-event recaps (text + media): $100
9. Event management: $150

~$1900 per event + ~$500 initial investment in marketing materials; 5 events covered by the proposal = $10000

Costs may vary, estimation is carried out based on prices in Katowice, part of the Upper Silesian conurbation with total population of around 2M people.

Our team hopes to gain partners to make it more cost-effective and deliver more than 5 events using Catalyst funds in the nearest year. Thanks to our vast network of contacts negotiations, as well as talks with potential speakers have already started (but we cannot reveal potential names yet, we hope you understand).

Kornel Gajewski - 4 years of experience as blockchain translator, writer and editor in top Polish crypto media outlet BeInCrypto.pl (focused mainly on "Learn" educational series, <https://pl.beincrypto.com/author/kornel/> Cardano Ambassador since 2018 ( <https://forum.cardano.org/u/cornl> ) - <https://www.linkedin.com/in/kornel-gajewski-93508b165/>

Thanks to his assignments which, besides mentioned above, include multiple cooperations with crypto projects throughout the years - they all allowed to gather a really diverse network of contacts which may be helpful in carrying out a series of successful and well-promoted crypto meetups in various parts of Poland.

Nikodem Zegzda - podcaster, YouTuber, owner of Kryptowaluty Wieczorową Porą brand (https://kryptowalutywieczorowapora.pl) with focus on Cardano, entrepreneur, founder of Lideruj.pl, company focused on i.e. organizing online and offline trainings and workshops for professionals - <https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikodemzegzda/>

• Events will be publicly announced and marketed over various social media - providing proof-of-existence
• Events will be recorded (when accepted by the speaker)
• Written recaps will be provided to cardanocenter.pl and/or future partners' websites, including
• number of participants in each event
• list of lectures
• impact in local/global news
• social media activity around event announcement pages and local Cardano social media
• Regular slideshow recaps including above data during Town Hall meetings

1. Organizing at least 5 live events in different parts of Poland
2. Attendance - completely filled rooms, around ~100 participants in every event
3. Encouraging people to explore Cardano - thanks to Cardano-based Proof-of-Attendance NFTs which will be redeemable only during the event; live support with creating people's first Cardano wallet
4. Further activities for POAP CNFT owners - keeping in contact via closed Discord channel on Cardano Center Poland Discord Server - verifiable number of people who join it and possible tracking of their community activities - as proposers, advisors, content creators or just Cardano evangelists

It is an expansion of the initial idea of Polish Cardano Community Hub - Cardano Center Poland, currently in production (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/381137). Community development on Telegram (https://t.me/cardanopolskaADA), Discord (https://discord.gg/SXSJtyfMtK). Website in production: https://cardanocenter.pl

We want to be present not only online but also offline.