[foss4g2014] Sponsorships

Fri Aug 23 09:49:40 PDT 2013

I'm new to this list and look forward to tracking developments and
hopefully participating...

A little background, I've been a member of the "program committee" for the
last two FOSS4GNA conferences and have seen the planning up close and
personal.  I can echo what Darrell reports Steve said about Nottingham's
efforts. For the Minneapolis FOSS4GNA show we generated very strong
sponsorships *without *outside help. That said, *effort does help.* We got
a good decent response to our first call, but when we hunkered down and
made more targeted an focused efforts for second and third approaches, we
were able to double the sponsorships and our platinum sponsor was one of
the last onboard (see: http://foss4g-na.org/sponsor/ for our results).

I would urge you to think seriously and early about the overall role of
"outside help" which I think could be very important. FOSS4GNA was done
entirely with volunteers, and in spite of the conference's success (i.e.,
great program and attendance; and finishing "in the black" financially),
there were some *significant* challenges with that approach, and we were
late on several things like the call for sponsorship and call for papers.
If given a mulligan, the MSP team might make a different decision.

This is a big show and a lot of work. That doesn't just mean it's hard to
manage on a volunteer only basis, it means it generates real revenue that
can help pay for professional support. And, conference planning experience
matters whether it's "cracking the whip" on timelines, generating
sponsorship or negotiating with hotels and the like. You might strongly
consider looking at a fuller "outside support" arrangement (i.e., there are
professional conference planners) before quickly entering into a
"commission" arrangement for sponsorship alone. Commissions are "safe" but
you might find the commission costs you more than it would've to simply
have a professional do the second and third outreach passes on an hourly
basis (or as part of their "package" of support), after you see how many of
"last years sponsors" simply re-up on the first notice (which my company
will do). I'm a billable hours consulting guy so I can't help but observe
that in the scenario above of paying a 10% commission on $200k of
sponsorships you'd end up paying a $20k fee. That $20k could support 200 *
hours* of someone working for $100/hr. Is that (i.e., ~5 person-weeks) what
you think it'd realistically take to generate those sponsorships? I don't
think the FOSS4GNA volunteers (yes, I made my share of sponsor calls) put
in anywhere near the cumulative level of effort.

Congrats on hauling this in to PDX...I'm looking forward to attendance in
your great city already...

MT

-- 
*Michael Terner*
*Executive Vice President*
617-447-2468 Direct | 617-447-2400 Main
Applied Geographics, Inc.
24 School Street, Suite 500
Boston, MA 02108
www.AppGeo.com <http://www.appgeo.com/>

On Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 12:00 PM, Darrell Fuhriman <darrell at garnix.org>wrote:

> Steven from nottingham indicated that they were able to get most sponsors
> on board without too much effort.
>
> That makes me wonder if we shouldn't hold off on paying someone
> until/unless we decide we've picked up the low-hanging fruit and want to
> keep it going.
>
> d.
>
>
> On Aug 22, 2013, at 20:28, "Revello, Neil (BES)" <
> Neil.Revello at portlandoregon.gov> wrote:
>
> >
> > Subject: [foss4g2014] Sponsorships
> >
> > What did we put into the budget for sponsorship coordination?
> >
> > Because we want to get sponsors committed early, I think we might want
> to consider a (sliding) commission scale vs. time.  Then a performance
> payment based on total sponsorship review.
> >
> > Neil Revello GISP
> > neil.revello at portlandoregon.gov
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: foss4g2014-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:
> foss4g2014-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of David Percy
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 12:03 PM
> > To: foss4g2014
> > Subject: Re: [foss4g2014] Sponsorships
> >
> > Deb would be an awesome addition to the team. She has charisma,
> connections, and energy that are invaluable. We have discussed a 10% cut on
> the sponsorships. This would mean, for example, $20,000 on a sponsorship of
> $200K, which is likely. I think we should offer a minimum of something like
> $5K...
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 11:59 AM, David Percy <percy at pdx.edu> wrote:
> >> Deb would be an awesome addition to the team. She has charisma,
> >> connections, and energy that are invaluable. We have discussed a 10%
> >> cut on the sponsorships. This would mean, for example, $20,000 on a
> >> sponsorship of $200K, which is likely. I think we should offer a
> >> minimum of something like $5K...
> >>
> >> On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 9:20 AM, Wm Leler <wmleler at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> I contacted Deb Bryant and it sounds like she would be interested in
> doing this job.  Here is my email to her and her response.  How do we get
> her answers to her questions? I think she would make a good addition to the
> team putting on this conference.
> >>>
> >>>> Portland was recently picked as the location for FOSS4G in September
> 2014! We met last monday to celebrate and to figure out what we need to do
> ASAP.  One of the big items on the list was to get sponsors.  We totally
> need someone to take charge of this.  We even discussed paying someone to
> help do it (e.g., pay them a portion of what they are able to raise).  I
> mentioned your name and everyone thought you would do an awesome job of it.
>  Are you interested?  We can get the sponsor lists from both this year's
> conference (in Nottingham) and from the last time it was held in the US,
> plus give you contacts in other organizations, etc.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Congrats!
> >>>
> >>> Am interested, could be a fun project to take on.  What I need to know
> to decide for sure (because sponsorship raising would be something I'd want
> to do for a fee) is:
> >>>
> >>> attendance numbers for Nottingham
> >>> sponsorship list from there you mentioned including how much what
> >>> consideration was given sponsors (big high five, signs, free concert
> >>> tickets, speaking slots??) who is your fiscal agent?
> >>> what is your target budget?
> >>>
> >>> Strong maybe! let me know the rest and let's talk.
> >>>
> >>> Deb
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Foss4g2014 mailing list
> >>> Foss4g2014 at lists.osgeo.org
> >>> http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2014
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> David Percy ("Percy")
> >> -Geospatial Data Manager
> >> -Web Map Wrangler
> >> -GIS Instructor
> >> Portland State University
> >> -gisgeek.pdx.edu
> >> -geology.pdx.edu
> >> -portlandpulse.org
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > David Percy ("Percy")
> > -Geospatial Data Manager
> > -Web Map Wrangler
> > -GIS Instructor
> > Portland State University
> > -gisgeek.pdx.edu
> > -geology.pdx.edu
> > -portlandpulse.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > Foss4g2014 mailing list
> > Foss4g2014 at lists.osgeo.org
> > http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2014
> > _______________________________________________
> > Foss4g2014 mailing list
> > Foss4g2014 at lists.osgeo.org
> > http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2014
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>

-- 
*Michael Terner*
*Executive Vice President*
617-447-2468 Direct | 617-447-2400 Main
Applied Geographics, Inc.
24 School Street, Suite 500
Boston, MA 02108
www.AppGeo.com
*            *

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