Re: [Debconf-sponsors-team] RFC DC15 sponsorship brochure
On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 1:51 PM, martin f krafft <madduck@debconf.org> wrote:
> Hello sponsors team,
>
> we have received the first requests for DC15 sponsorship as
> companies are heading into the 2015 budgeting season towards the end
> of QIII/2014. Therefore, we would like to get the brochure done as
> soon as possible, ideally by the end of August. There are also the
> ideas floating around of handing our brochures to sponsors at DC14
> and FrOSCon, both of which are close.
Glad to see you sorting this out early!!
> Please clone from http://git.debian.org/?p=debconf-data/dc15.git and
> have a look ASAP. The brochure can be trivially built using
> pdflatex. I could not attach a PDF as I am on a crap connection,
> sorry. Maybe someone can build it and push it somewhere where we can
> later remove it again -- it's a draft...
>
> We have mainly built on the DC13 brochure, but we have reworded
> a few sections and also added ideas of a job fair and additional
> sponsorship opportunities.
I didn't do a full and thorough reading. I will try to do so soon, but
I have a lot on my plate, so here's my "quick" first pass.
> Some of these additional opportunities are required because we can
> foresee problems when a German non-profit wants to pay for e.g.
> a day trip, coffee, drinks/snacks, or a conference dinner.
> Therefore, it would be much easier if a sponsor just stepped up to
> handle these, and we think it actually be an attractive opportunity
> for some of our sponsors to sponsor more directly like we have in
> mind.
I'm not understanding the problems you refer to, but that's ok because
what you asking for is historically allowed. IE: Sponsors can pay for
coffee serve or somesuch stuff. The trick though is mapping this to
levels. Historically in-kind donations need to be for things that we likely
would have gotten for the conference anyway, and paid for out of
general DC funds. Also it's tricky sometimes (but not always) to value
these in kind donations. (Best I can say is try to figure out how much
it would have cost us to pay for said item and credit them that amount.)
> However, a few members of the DC15 team are still a bit torn about
> the idea of having e.g. a sponsor say a few words (only a few!) at
> the conference dinner or the C&W party, or whether we are "selling
> out" by offering so many perks to be "purchased". Yet, noone has
> strongly objected, and therefore it's time to make a move and get
> your to look. The thread is here:
>
> https://lists.debian.org/debconf15-team/2014/08/msg00033.html
I strong feel this is likely to be risky, (from my experiences organizing
many different free software events outside of Debian). Basically
once you give a sponsor "the mic" you have little control of what
they say and how long they say it. (Even if you give them strict
guidelines.) The closest I have come to doing something like this, that
worked, is to allow sponsors to submit a small announcement to be
read by an MC/organizer at the event.
The thing is, is that it seems you're looking at this as a potential
sponsor perk, that would presumably yield something of commercial
value to the sponsor. I suspect most "few words" said by sponsors
that have commercial value to the sponsors, would be considered a
bit intrusive by attendees. (DebConf, from what I understand,
shields attendees from the typical commercialism found at most
large conferences.)
Job fair: No strong feeling pro/con. If we do it, I don't know if setting
the limit at silver makes sense. IE: I'd probably think bronze should
be allowed to participate as well. The real question is whether
conference attendees would come. IE: I'd gauge attendee interest
before deciding to do this, because it would be weird to throw a job
fair and have no job seekers show up. (I've seen it happen before, it's
super awkward.)
Lottery prizes: No objection. Try to figure out logistics before committing
to offering it to sponsors, as it seems a lot of work. (We've done swag
before, if sponsors want to give some swag away that is too expensive
to give to every attendee, I'm sure a fair system can be worked out.)
Lecture and meeting room naming: Seems a bit overly commercial. If you feel
strongly about it, let's discuss further.
Attendee travel, room & board: Tricky. I'd argue this is probably doesn't
work, and we risk companies, saying I'm going to sponsor the three DDs
that work for my company. IE: We can not have companies that pay to
have their employees attend try to have that expenditure count as tiered
sponsorship.
DebCamp hack days: I have no strong opinion.
Coffee: Ok.
Snacks & Beverages: Ok.
Network infrastructure: This makes sense if an ISP is giving us in-kind
donation. I, however wouldn't seek out a cash donation for this, and
would steer the cash to a general debconf sponsorship.
Overall, I have one question. As a fundraiser, I greatly prefer sponsors
give non-earmarked donations. (Money that doesn't go to a specific part
of the conference.) I wouldn't really want to incentivise non-earmarked
donations too much.
How do you propose recognizing coffee/hack/snacks sponsors in the
overall tiering thing. Historically we've been trying to map them to tiers,
by calculating their in kind value, but I'm starting to think there may be a
better way.
Have these things that offer additional marketing opportunities, not count
towards tiers, but have them available as additional opportunities for all
bronze+ sponsors. e.g: You contribute to bronze, and you can participate
in the "marketing track" by spending additional money.
It's kind of messy, so I'm not 100% sure of the correct answer. Personally,
I'd prefer if we downplayed this oddball opportunities, because they make
the life of those on sponsors team harder. IE: Just give us a check, thank
you very much!!
> Also, we don't propose DebianDay, as none of us thinks this every
> really worked out well. Instead, we would like to have an "opening
> weekend" with talks that are suitable to a wider audience. This
> could fly quite well, given the proximity to e.g. Frankfurt and
> Stuttgart and even Munich.
I have no strong opinion here, since my understanding is Debian Day
is considered optional, so I think you have plenty of leeway to do what
you want. (Not sure what this had to do with sponsor perks though).
> Since this also has to bounce through dc-team, we would really
> appreciate if you could have a look ASAP.
>
> Also, you will notice that we are toying with the idea of having
> portraits on the introductory page, just to add a bit more of
> a personal touch to the brochure -- all the other conferences I have
> been involved with had faces associated with "the organisers"
> -- whether those faces were actually organisers or not. It might just
> mean more money. Who knows.
>
> If you want your picture in the list of portraits, please
> submit one to me or add it yourself! ;)\
You've only allocated 10 spots in the draft. I'd guess there are
at least 20-40+ people involved in organizing DebConf each year.
So, I don't think we want to list ALL organizers in the sponsors
brochure, nor do we want to play favorites and pick the 10 most
important organizers. Perhaps we can improve the status quo and
recognize ALL of the organizers on the DC15 website (photos
optional)?
> We are also addressing our sponsors directly, rather than just
> saying "sponsors may do this or do that".
Although it was probably originally written in third-person because
it usually is considered academically more correct, I think as long
as you are consistent, the change to second person is probably an
improvement, as it is more engaging, and reads more like a
personal correspondence. Nice work.
> So, looking forward to your comments...
>
> Thank you,
>
> --
> .''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debconf.org> @martinkrafft
> : :' : DebConf orga team
> `. `'`
> `- DebConf14: Portland, OR, USA: http://debconf14.debconf.org
> DebConf15: Heidelberg, Germany: http://debconf15.debconf.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Debconf-sponsors-team mailing list
> Debconf-sponsors-team@lists.debconf.org
> http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-sponsors-team
>
Reply to: