also sprach martin f krafft <madduck@debconf.org> [2014-08-17 23:07 +0200]:
> Also, things like naming the talk rooms could even be auctioned off…
>
> > 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.)
>
> I believe this just needs to be properly communicated. If, for
> instance, I introduce the sponsor and say "No worries, we are not
> keeping you from eating. But tonight we owe to ACME. They wanted to
> say a sentence about why they are doing this, and then kick off the
> food intake" (and the sponsor knows that "a few words" is the deal),
> then I believe it would be detrimental to them to screw this up.
>
> > 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.)
>
> To be honest: yes, I know these are the expectations we have always
> fostered. But I have two things to say to this:
>
> 1. there are times when this aspect of the conference makes e.g.
> budgeting and books harder than they should be, and while the
> goal is laudable, we should not shy away from re-evaluating it
> regularly.
>
> 2. If there's a room filled with 300 geeks who are about to be
> treated to a nice meal for free because someone appreciates their
> work and wanted to tell them by sponsoring this dinner, then
> quite frankly, I think that something that might be considered "a
> bit intrusive" presumably by a subset of attendees might still be
> worth pulling off, expecting those attendees to just suck it up.
>
> Obviously, we are not talking about a sales pitch, 30 minute
> auto-biography, or a showcase of how great they are; but even if
> it were to take 3 minutes, I would think this wouldn't be too
> much to ask from our attendees.
>
> > 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.
>
> Ok. We could also broaden it later.
>
> > 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.)
>
> Yeah, and then the experiment has failed. Sure, gauging beforehand
> is good, except the sponsors I've talked to themselves don't know
> yet whether they'll be looking to hire a year from now. Most
> attendees won't know that either.
>
> > Lottery prizes: No objection. Try to figure out logistics before
> > committing to offering it to sponsors, as it seems a lot of work.
>
> The lottery itself is not, been there, done that. The real question
> is whether we want to try to get attendees to get up for these
> sessions. At LCA, they are quite powerful, giving you a sense of
> motion and business and energy right at the start of each day — and
^^^^^^^^
that should have been "busy-ness" ;)
Clearly Freudian,
--
.''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debconf.org> @martinkrafft
: :' : DebConf orga team
`. `'`
`- DebConf14: Portland, OR, USA: http://debconf14.debconf.org
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