Re: [Debconf-team] Voluntary conference contributions for pro/corp attendees

On 26 February 2015 at 04:00, martin f krafft <madduck@debconf.org> wrote:

For the future, we could consider a "corporate registration package"
that we could sell for an invoice, including services as e.g.

​(Why is that not possible now?)​

- listing of names, affiliation and contact details in a booklet
made available to all attendees;

​It's 2015, if you're going to list them do it online not in a booklet. Cheaper, easier, more accessible to attendees, and potentially available permanently.

I'd say a list something like:

  Professional Attendees

  ----------------------

  Hewlett Packard

  ---------------

    Bdale Garbee

    Martin Michlmayr

    Keith Packard

...

    "HP is a global company that does blahblah. We're hiring! hp.com/jobs"

IBM

---

...

​might have actual value in two respects: it lets companies recruit, and lets companies demonstrate that they're a better employer than others because they'll pay for their employees to go to cool conferences.​ (It seems a bit like both a carrot and stick at once to me...)

​I would expect that's sufficient "service" to justify invoicing, but I don't know german tax law...​

​(Hmm, HP is not a sponsor yet? perhaps I should've used Google as my first example)​

(I'd list sponsoring organisations first, then order by number of attendees, I guess)

- participation in a networking event;

Not convinced this is valuable per se... Recruiting events seem to be where it's at, and having people who don't have someone to pay for them there is more interesting.

- room category upgrades;

​Seems like they could just book a room on their own if they can afford to pay for things.

The other approach might be providing a nicer memento to "paying" attendees. Perhaps everyone gets a debconf t-shirt with sponsors logos, but professional attendees also get a nice collared shirt/blouse with some subtle branding as well? Obviously the cost per shirt would want to be much less than the professional rego fee...

Cheers,

aj

Anthony Towns <aj@erisian.com.au>