[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G sponsorship

Daniel Morissette dmorissette at mapgears.com
Wed Apr 2 10:37:48 EDT 2008


Thanks for your reply Gavin, see my answers below...

Gavin Fleming wrote:
> 
> Maybe it's not clear enough in the Prospectus for 2008 but it /is/ 
> there, that ANY level of support would be accepted and is up for 
> discussion. It can be 'in-kind' or financial. In-kind could be 
> volunteering, loaning computers, whatever. Some of these items are listed.
> 

I think I saw this note in the prospectus saying that we could contact 
you to negociate something, but I guess I didn't feel like asking for a 
custom package, I was just hoping to find something that fits in the 
list of std packages.

> 
> Then there’s also the option of purchasing an exhibition stand (about 
> USD1500 for 3x3m early bird with discount). There is a discount for NGO 
> and government and educational institutions.
> 

You mean the 17,500 ZAR option? At today's exchange rate that would be 
more like 2,200USD:
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=17500&from=ZAR&to=USD&submit=Convert

But anyway, a booth is not necessarily a good solution since the small 
players are small teams or individuals and do not have the resources or 
even the interest to man a booth for the duration of the event if they 
want to also participate in the presentations and workshops, etc.


> 
> Do you have anything in mind? Who are the small players 

Just look at who makes all OSGeo's project run and you'll see that very 
few work in big shops. For the most part they are individuals or small 
consultancies of a couple of people. There are also bigger organizations 
who make little use of OSGeo software but would still like to show their 
support without going as far as the Silver package goes.

I cannot give names since that would be assuming that those 
people/organizations are sharing my opinion which may not be the case... 
I am only speaking for myself here and guessing that others may be in 
the same boat.

However we could look at the FOSS4G2006 bronze sponsors...

http://www.foss4g2006.org/internalPage.py?pageId=13&confId=1

some of them were local Swiss organizations that you would not see again 
in events outside their country, but a few are long time open source 
developers/supporters from outside Switzerland (including Mapgears), and 
you do not see any of them in the following years' sponsors list... in 
the case of Mapgears that was because there was no good sponsorship 
option for us in 2007... I can only guess what the reasons were for the 
others, but it would be reasonable to think that a few others may have 
had the same reasoning as me.

FOSS4G 2006 was the first year of OSGeo's existence, the number of 
organizations around it has grown exponentially since then, so I am 
guessing that there has to be a larger number of small players who might 
be interested in sponsoring the event today but are not interested in 
paying as much as 5k$ (I'm only guessing unfortunately).


> and what amounts 
> would they like to offer?  And what are they looking for in return? We
> can then look at including clearer options in the Prospectus.
> 

In 2006 the bronze option was 1000CHF (~770USD at the time) and sounded 
like a good deal to me. It included 1 conference pass, one small 
booth+table in exhibition area, org. name and logo on website and in 
program as bronze sponsor, and organization listed on a special banner 
at the even.

Many of the bronze sponsors didn't end up using their booth space 
(Mapgears used it only part time), which goes to show that the booth 
space is not necessarily of interest to them. What I'd be more 
interested in would be a few feet of space along a wall in the 
exhibition area to put a banner/logo and a small display with a few 
brochures... that would be enough for me since as I wrote earlier the 
small players don't have the resources/interest to man a booth anyway if 
they want to participate in the conference activities.

So here is my suggestion for a bronze sponsorship package for future 
FOSS4G conferences:

- Price around 1000$USD
- Include 1 full conference pass
- Hot-linked logo on the conference website as bronze sponsor
- Org. name + logo in the conference program as bronze sponsor
- Logo in a slide with other bronze sponsors in opening plenary
- Space for a small banner somewhere in the conference venue

I realize that in 2006 the other sponsorship options were cheaper than 
they are today, so what I suggest today may no longer be possible... 
that's too bad.

Daniel
-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/


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