[Board] meeting prep thread, OSGeo sponsorship and 2018 opportunities

Thu Nov 9 12:50:09 PST 2017

Maybe we could give some percentage (per region? per conference?) of the
OSGeo sponsorship to organizers. Or maybe foss4g conference organizers can
ask for money to OSGeo like we do with codesprints.

There are ways to achieve this. The only thing is to find a balanced way.
Maybe we can give money to conferences which promise to give a percentage
of their tickets sold back to OSGeo?

El 9 nov. 2017 9:33 p. m., "Massimiliano Cannata" <
massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch> escribió:

> Nevertheless, continental and national "foss4g" are not managed by OSGeo
> so I see very difficult to impose "OSGeo sponsors" also there...
> Am I wrong?
>
> Maxi
>
> Il 09 nov 2017 4:42 PM, "Jody Garnett" <jody.garnett at gmail.com> ha
> scritto:
>
> Till we have tried to set it up so there is no conflict, but we need
> foss4g organizers to understand this.
>
> A sponsors $20k sponsorship of foss4g (or any other osgeo event) directly
> applies to their total osgeo sponsosrship. We are not competing for the
> same sponsors, we are trying to give foss4g sponsors an oppertunity to be
> cross-listed. We have left it up to them to ask (for example CARTO is a
> foss4g sponsors who sent an email and was listed on our sponsors page).
>
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
> On 8 November 2017 at 23:36, Till Adams <till.adams at fossgis.de> wrote:
>
>> Dear board,
>>
>> I know that there have been some discussions around this already, but
>> perhaps it's time to think about how to get OSgeo sponsorship and FOSS4G
>> sponsorship under one umbrella?
>>
>> If two independent "groups" request the same potential group of sponsors,
>> this may lead to confusion.
>>
>> My ideas go in this direction: If you sponsor OSGeo (FOSS4G) at a certain
>> level (or with a certain additional charge) you are automaticaly named as
>> sponsor of FOSS4G (OSGeo).
>>
>> In the end the money goes in the same pocket.
>>
>> Just a quick thought, that perhaps is worth to thin about.
>>
>> Till
>>
>> Am 09.11.2017 um 07:18 schrieb Jody Garnett:
>>
>> Jeff you helped set up this current approach
>> <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/2015_Sponsorship_Drive_Working_Group> in
>> 2015, and you make it out to a lot of events, do you have any suggestions
>> for improvement?
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 10:11 AM Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Although we did not get to it last meeting, it is on the agenda for next
>>> time - here is the osgeo sponsorship page for 2017:
>>> http://www.osgeo.org/sponsorship
>>>
>>> In addition to raising money the sponsorship program has a secondary
>>> goal of encouraging sponsors to support our projects, local chapters and
>>> events. This helps recognize organizations that consistently support OSGeo
>>> (rather than focus on big sponsors that put all their effort behind one
>>> event). This has a couple of benefits: it allows sponsors some choice in
>>> directing their funds to OSGeo activities they believe in. It also allows
>>> committees, local chapters and projects to raise funds without being in
>>> conflict with the OSGeo foundation. I think this approach is brilliant and
>>> should continue and be promoted.
>>>
>>> The page lists "Sponsorship Opportunities for 2017", if you hear of
>>> anything from our projects or committees we can make a similar section for
>>> 2018. We had some hits (events, travel grant, website reboot, sprints) and
>>> some misses (UN Hackathon).
>>>
>>> How to sponsors (talk to treasurer or use paypal with a note) is working
>>> well.
>>>
>>> The "sponsorship levels" are only working okay, we made a very cheap
>>> sponsorship level at $500 USD ... and my small consulting shop how2map was
>>> the only organization to make use of it. Indeed we had groups from outside
>>> our industry use the low sponsorship level to optimize search results -
>>> something the board put a stop to in 2017.  I would like to give this low
>>> sponsorship level another try, especially since the new website can provide
>>> additional visibility to these organizations; but I would also understand
>>> if we drop it from lack of use/interest.
>>>
>>> I have gotten private feedback, especially after the foss4g sponsorship
>>> levels were published that OSGeo should raise our rates. I am not so sure
>>> (in part because the feedback is private), in part because we are a world
>>> wide organization and comparisons to us and eu organizations are not
>>> appropriate. Mostly I think there is no need to be greedy - our goal is as
>>> much to promote these sponsors and build community as it is to raise funds.
>>>
>>> We have two discounts available (25% for prior sponsors, 25% for Low or
>>> Lower-Middle Income Economies). These discounts are being effective with
>>> prior sponsors, offering getting them just close enough to the next level
>>> that they provide additional funds. Kind of like we planned. The
>>> low-to-lower-middle-income discount is not really being used; I expect we
>>> need to provide more value - or better advertise that local event
>>> sponsorship counts towards foundation sponsorship.
>>>
>>> The "sponsorship benefits" have been passed to us from previous boards,
>>> and we struggled to understand two of them that required direct management
>>> from the board - indeed they were difficult and time consuming to implement:
>>>
>>> *Invitation to Sponsor Information Exchange Event with Board of
>>> Directors following annual OSGeo International Conference *- we turned
>>> this into a sponsorship breakfast with Maria doing the organizing. This was
>>> successful in giving us a chance to meet meet with sponsors and partners. I
>>> think this was really important to see what organizations are working with
>>> us face to face. Sadly the time allowed barely got us passed introductions
>>> - resulting in a breakout meeting and other follow up activities.
>>>
>>> *Invitation to Sponsor Networking Event with OSGeo Board of Directors
>>> and other invited guests following annual OSGeo International Conference. *This
>>> was intended to be a chance to thank partners and sponsors in public,
>>> although the foss4g organizers set us up a stage during the conference
>>> networking event our board members were not in position act. The
>>> opportunity to network and build connections/collaborations/contacts
>>> was a consistent request during the subsequent breakfast meeting - so we
>>> missed an opportunity here.
>>>
>>> *Joint Press Release with OSGeo to announce Sponsorship. *These are a
>>> bit of a bother to do, generally as a shared google document and then
>>> coordinate timing with the sponsors. Not all sponsors (example CARTO) went
>>> ahead with a press release. We also tend to just make a blog post, rather
>>> than issue a press release to news organizations. This is something we
>>> could coordinate (with marketing?) to provide better value to our sponsors
>>> and partners. We may consider bumping the press release up from silver to
>>> gold.
>>>
>>> *Organization name listed in "about osgeo" section of foundation press
>>> releases. *We are doing this, no feedback so far.
>>>
>>> *First Sponsorship Selection for the **Annual OSGeo International
>>> Conference. *This is interesting as we have not always communicated
>>> this to our foss4g organizers, we should confirm with the conference
>>> committee that this benefit is possible before offering it in 2018.
>>>
>>> *Key OSGeo marketing materials feature your organization's logo, At
>>> promotion events, your organization's logo is displayed as part of the
>>> OSGeo Booth - *We are doing this with the marketing committee, no
>>> issues so far. For our usual sponsors they often have their own booth and
>>> do not make use of this perk. Unclear if this applies to local chapters
>>> running a booth?
>>>
>>> *Full-page Promotional Space on a personalized OSGeo Sponsor Page,
>>> Promotional Space on an OSGeo Platinum Sponsor Page - *Our website
>>> design does not work like this, but it could?
>>>
>>> *Right to use OSGeo Sponsor logo and promote named sponsorship level *We
>>> have new logos to roll out to sponsors.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jody Garnett
>>>
>>
>>
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