Re: [Debconf-team] sponsored tracks?

[Gunnar Wolf <gwolf@gwolf.org>]

Daniel Pocock dijo [Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 09:49:33PM +0000]:
> Has there ever been any variation to the existing sponsorship model, for
> example, having sponsors for particular tracks?
> 
> E.g. if there is a free/open VoIP track next year, there are a few
> commercial VoIP operators I could reach out to - such sponsors could be
> asked to pay a premium for things like

I am *personally* not in favor of such a scheme. I think the
"academic" part of the conference should be free of sponsorship
bias. Chairing a track includes the ability to decide what talks are
part of it, and can become a huge advertisement, commercial
venue. I do not say I will utterly oppose the idea, but I'm very much
more at ease without it, or if it can be _clearly_ still controlled by
us, not by the sponsor.
 
> a) having roll-up banners in a room dedicated to the VoIP for a day
> 
> b) someone from one of these companies could introduce speakers while
> wearing a corporate T-shirt

This could be acceptable, yes. However, if I take talkmeistering and,
for some sessions in a row, introduce speakers with a shirt given to
me by $foo, I get the equivalent of what they got against a huge
payment - So, would sponsors think it's worth it? Wouldn't they prefer
to pay me a beer, give me a complimentary shirt, and ask me to
talkmeister for the day?

> c) if it could be made clear that the sponsor was not associated with
> the speakers, the corporate logos could be overlaid onto the bottom of
> the slides

We should not impose design criteria to speakers. 

There are many things to discuss if this idea goes further. I do not
like he idea, and we have managed to avoid that point so far.  Yes, we
need money. But we need to stay as independent as we have always been.