On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 7:25 PM, Steve Holden <st...@holdenweb.com> wrote: > I promised I would post something before the end of the (West coast US) week > about sponsorship for ApacheCons EU and NA, so here it is. Unfortunately it > isn't the draft I'd anticipated due to a report after the EU site survey that > the basis of sponsorship was changing. > > I don't know where this new direction has come from, but I gather the > proposal now is that we have €1,500 partial track sponsorships (potentially > many per track), €6,000 exclusive track sponsorships (with no explanation as > to how conflict between exclusives and partials are resolved) and €8,000 > events. > > If there's a real possibility of getting events sponsored then it would > relieve the conference budget of a major burden, so it seems sensible to add > them, but the track sponsorships may not fly as they are. The reason for this > is that the different tracks are of different lengths and with different > average attendances, so charging the same to sponsor a 100-person 1-day track > as a 200-person 2-day seems illogical. > > To remove that stigma (or at least to minimize the perceived iniquities it > imposes) I would therefore propose that we offer sponsorships as follows: > > 1. Conference sponsorship: €1,500 > > Exposure throughout the public spaces, and signage outside sessions. > > 2. Track sponsorship: €500 > > Exposure inside the session rooms for a particular audience. > > An organization can increase its exposure by sponsoring multiple > tracks. It is permitted to sponsor all tracks. > > Small companies with specialist audiences can sponsor a track without > taking out a wasteful conference sponsorship, meaning a targeted audience > at an economically efficient cost. > > Big track, small track, no difference. > > 3. Event sponsorship: €4,000 and up > > Allows a sponsor to promote awareness through social events, which > will by default be receptions, but if we can find a volunteer with flair > they might be much more.
Hi Steve, So this scheme seems personally a bit convoluted to me based on past conferences I've been involved with or that $dajyob has sponsored. [1] has an example. I personally don't understand the difference between conference and event sponsorship at first glance (after reading it several times, I do understand it, but think it could be better said as party sponsorship than event) Typically all sponsors must be 'regular sponsors' which has tiered levels. (typically semi-precious and precious metals denote the increasing value). Those tiered levels buy them additional things, which might be as simple as bigger logo, etc. Alternatively, you could have a flat fee for 'conference sponsorship (as you have proposed). And regardless of which of those methods, have plenty of additional sponsorship 'opportunities' are also available for specific targeted things. This does keep the 'elevator pitch' to a minimum, so you pitch them on the 'levels of sponsorship' and then after they've gotten into that, you offer the additional sponsorship opportunities on a first come-first served basis. (e.g. you can't just sponsor having your logo on the tshirt, or sponsoring a party, you must sponsor the conference, and that opens up additional opportunities (perhaps including track sponsorship, though I agree that will be messy, especially with some tracks estimating 1 day of 25 and others at multiple days of 300 - and to boot all of those numbers are very handwavy at this point anyway)). The thing that really concerns me from this is I haven't seen an amount that needs to be raised. Perhaps that has been discussed privately and isn't polite to talk about in public. All of the rest of this becomes far more academic without knowing what that number needs to be. --David [1] http://www.southeastlinuxfest.org/self-2012-prospectus.pdf
