Dear Brian,
thanks for getting the ball rolling on this. There are multiple
points in your e-mail and I shall try to address them individually.
If there are replies, it might make sense to split the points into
different messages an amend the subject.
1. The idea to contact those potential DC14 sponsors whom you've
approached too late is really good. Do you have a list of
contacts you could send to me in private?
2. I am not sure that sponsorshop tiers should stay constant. The
reason is that budgets also don't stay constant and fixing
exchange rates does not solve this — it opens a different box of
Pandora.
3. In fact, I think every DebConf should be run independently and
there should not be a definition of tier levels in USD, to which
sponsors and organisers have to adapt.
4. While there is a bit of charm in the idea of awarding platinum
sponsorship at different levels based on country of origin (and
economical strength), I think this would be too hard to carve
out.
Instead, I think that tier levels should be dependent on budget,
i.e. we should look at previous DebConfs for data like "1
platinum, 2 gold, 4 silver", etc… and then divide the budget
total by the average of those counts to get the level needed. And
then we round up.
5. This does not mean that we shouldn't engage with potential
sponsors in deals such as "gold for the next 5 years for
$12,000/year" and never downgrade them below gold (though they
might receive an upgrade in a year with a very cheap conference).
6. There should be no currency risk if we receive e.g. $60k for the
next five years and invest it for interest. This is currently
hard because the central banks are flooding the markets still,
but in theory, exchange rate changes should be balanced out with
changes in the respective interest rates. Of course, we don't
have an actual treasury to take care of risk management here…
7. Based on your numbers and our very roughly projected budget, I'd
consider the following levels approriate in Euros: Platinum: 20k,
Gold: 10k, Silver: 5k, Bronze: 1.5k. RFC.
8. I think we should aim high and be ready to be flexible about
sponsorship tiers. For instance, A might have bought Platinum for
22k but B says they can only give 20k, but they will only do it
for Platinum. Now a deal could be cut according to which e.g.
B enables employees to work on something for DebConf, or prints
stuff for us, or handles bags etc., so that they pay 20k and
some labour on top. Since we don't have to disclose numbers,
A would also not need to find out.
Alternatively, we could ask A in this case whether they would be
okay with B getting Platinum for less, whether they want their
money back, or whether we can find another perk to justify their
additional expense.
9. One thing I am missing in the sponsorship tiers are free
conference tickets, including potentially free participation in
a special dinner event. I know this goes against the inclusive
philosophy of DebConf, but we are dealing with sponsors here and
we might just have to put ourselves aside for a minute. I am
alluding to the LCA speakers dinner, which is a great perk for
sponsors: they get treated to nice dinner and exclusive access to
the speakers for that evening. We don't make such hoohaa about
prominence of our speakers, but we could easily organise a fancy
dinner e.g. for our Silver+ sponsors, who get to enjoy catered
food in the presence of e.g. the organisers, the DPL, and
a handful of prominent DebConf attendees to make the sponsors
feel special.
10. All this said, I would like to pick up the ball you started
rolling for DC15 and approach sponsors ASAP, even before DC14
takes place. Then, sponsors can inform themselves ahead of time,
ask questions, maybe even send people, and generally make a much
more informed decision about sponsoring DC15.
--
.''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debconf.org>
: :' : DebConf orga team
`. `'`
`- DebConf14: Portland, OR, USA: http://debconf14.debconf.org
"however jewel-like the good will may be in its own right, there is
a morally significant difference between rescuing someone from
a burning building and dropping him from a twelfth-storey window
while trying to rescue him."
-- thomas nagel
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