Sorry for my delay in any response. I've had a busy day at work - on top of all the last minute planning for this event. So to address a few thoughts.
I understand the constraints of the operation, I was not trolling and was seriously worried that in your place in Minnesota people will be pissed off from the $1 gift. But you know marketing, especially you know what works at your place, so if you say so I am sure everything will be fine.
I do understand you are not trolling but I also feel you (and to a lesser degree buy4crypto) are missing the point for what the event is about. This event is not about handing out a ton of money - or even a grand prize of $500 or $10,000 dollars.
It's about creating awareness for digital currencies. Period. Yes I am going to put Vericoin at the front of this message but my goal as somebody who is passionate about digital currencies as a whole is to simply try and have some engaging conversations with as many people as I can about what Vericoin is and how it can be used in society.
The handing out of Vericoin is very secondary to the bigger picture of simply trying to create awareness & interest for the future of digital currencies. To be honest, I don't even need any Vericoin to still make this day successful. I will do it with my passion for digital currencies. So please don't get so caught up on the price/value/amount of coin being handed out during the day.
The whole purpose of having Vericoin to hand out is to demonstrate the process for those who are interested in learning more. It's about demonstrating the process. It doesn't matter if it's $1, $10, or $0.05 that I'm sending to people - because regardless of the amount - they will still engage in the process.
I am ready to donate 100k VRC in the next 5 minutes to support any ideas that take this coin to the next level :-)) and I said to you I have nothing but respect for your hard work, but this event unfortunatelly will not change anything for vericoin, except that you feel very well that you have done something and probably that makes worthwhile the whole thing. So I am keep waiting for the opportunity to show my support. :-)))
And to continue my rant here for a minute, if I may, let me explain the main problem I have with You (and many others on this forum). You (and so many others) have this attitude that if something MASSIVELY large doesn't happen to this coin than it isn't even worth doing, nor is it "successful". How on Earth can you already come to the conclusion that this event will "unfortunately not change anything for Vericoin"? When it hasn't even happened yet!!
So far over the last 6-8 weeks I have been able to get 7 different people to invest money into Vericoin. By having simple conversations over coffee, beer, or just over the internet. One of those 7 people I got to invest in Vericoin got another 2. All together just from me personally, I have gotten 9 other people to invested some $10,000-$15,000 in Vericoin. Now I get none of my actions took the coin to "the next level" as you are so patiently waiting for. But you know what?? If You, and everyone else that just comes to this forum to bitch & whine would get out of their chairs and actually do something productive with their time maybe we'd have another 10 people that could have done the same thing. If 10 more people did what I have done then we would have another $100,000 invested in Vericoin. This didn't take some big announcement or the need for a plan - it was simply just getting out of my chair, off bitcointalk.org and being proactive.
So lets take a moment here and go back to this event that we already know won't change anything. What if I'm able to spark enough interest with 10 people during the day that 3 of them decide to actually invest a little money in Vericoin, say $1,000. Then one of those three people decides this really is a good opportunity and decides to invest $5,000 more. Then 1 of those other people talks to another person who decides to get involved. Fast forward six months later and all together they have now talked to 5 more people to get involved. Next thing you know there is $25,000 more invested in Vericoin. Oh wait!! That's right - you don't think getting $25,000 invested in Vericoin is big enough to actually matter. So yeah, I guess you're right - the event was a big failure. Nevermind.
It's the old saying that a 10,000 mile journey begins with the first step. You and so many others are just sitting here waiting for some MASSIVE milestone to happen not realizing you are missing the biggest opportunity of all - to go out and do something about it. You know what I'm doing after the fair tomorrow? I already have another event on meetup.com on 9/4/14 to discuss Vericoin with my cities bitcoin meetup group. Another event that... oh wait that's right - will unfortunately not change anything for Vericoin.
There are about 15 of you that just never shut the fuck up about everything wrong with Vericoin. You point out every problem you think you see. You never come up with any real solutions but you're always the first to point out every problem. Yet... none of you will go away. You say you're hanging around because you're now a "bagholder" and have so much money invested. Well why don't all go on meetup.com
right now - create an event for 3-4 weeks out calling it "learn about Vericoin - the future of digital payments" and try and get somebody new to learn about the project you are "involved" in. Not only will it get you out of the basement for a minute and possibly a little vitamin D for your skin - but your folks will really appreciate having the house to themselves for a couple of hours for once in their lives.
Don't even waste your time responding to this message tonight, you know why? Because I'm leaving in 20 minutes to go DO SOMETHING about making Vericoin more known in this world. I know it "unfortunatelly will not change anything for vericoin" but you know what? At least I'm doing something about it.
tldr; fuck you, fuck you, Lootz you're cool, and fuck you I'm out!
edit: thank you everyone who actually is supporting the event tomorrow! We're really excited about it - going to go do some last minuting planning for it right now