Sponsorship prospectus

[dianaclarke]

• contact 5-10 sponsors from PyCon 2013 and ask them what's most valuable to them as sponsors
• audit the existing prospectus based on feedback from the PyCon 2013 sponsors
• consider alternatives to a print program
• do not promise a sponsor logo splash screen in between talks; we have have other plans for this space

[ygingras]

On 04/10/2013 04:58 PM, diana wrote:

• contact 5-10 sponsors from PyCon 2013 and ask them what's most valuable to them as sponsors
• audit the existing prospectus based on feedback from the PyCon 2013 sponsors
• consider alternatives to a print program

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/PyCon/2014/issues/3.

We need to include demographics in the prospectus. As someone who gets solicited by several conferences per yer for sponsorships, I have a much better time selling the sponsorships internally when I have detailed data on who we are going to meet there.

Yannick Gingras

[jnoller]

On Apr 10, 2013, at 8:17 PM, Yannick Gingras notifications@github.com wrote:

On 04/10/2013 04:58 PM, diana wrote:

• contact 5-10 sponsors from PyCon 2013 and ask them what's most valuable to them as sponsors
• audit the existing prospectus based on feedback from the PyCon 2013 sponsors
• consider alternatives to a print program

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/PyCon/2014/issues/3.

We need to include demographics in the prospectus. As someone who gets solicited by several conferences per yer for sponsorships, I have a much better time selling the sponsorships internally when I have detailed data on who we are going to meet there.

We already include demographics, please provide more info

[ygingras]

On 04/10/2013 05:24 PM, Jesse Noller wrote:

We already include demographics, please provide more info

Let me fish for some prospectuses that really impressed the events team. An example is worth a thousand words in a spec.

Yannick Gingras

[mlhamel]

Do we have the existing prospectus for now, would be nice to have it to have an idea what was inside it before and what would be great to change and keep

[jnoller]

Look at the pycon 2013 site

On Apr 18, 2013, at 2:12 PM, Mathieu Leduc-Hamel notifications@github.com wrote:

Do we have the existing prospectus for now, would be nice to have it to have an idea what was inside it before and what would be great to change and keep

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[paulhildebrandt]

Please feel free to reuse my letter http://pycon.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-become-pycon-sponsor-sponsors.html when getting sponsors.

[dougn]

Information on the Auction and Raffle items. Have the Auction directly in the prospectus (and update Raffle description) with language saying why it is a good thing.

The Raffle and Auction are great ways of getting your company name highlighted and build community good will. Different types of items work best between the auction and raffle.

Raffle: non-unique, bulk items, or those with a fixed known cost.

• T-Shirts
• many copies of the same book
• gift certificates
• Coupon Codes
• Transferable conference passes.
• Items you would expect to find at an Expo Booth, but are more 'rare'.

Auction: The auction needs physical items, that must be on hand at the time of the auction. The items should be something that will be actively used and or commented on. The items that work best are those which are unique, and do not have an easy to discern value. Something that you would not expect to find at a tech conference. For example, a Monty Python themed card game, signed by Guido VanRossum went for 15x it's retail value, and the sponsor is mentioned every time the game is played. The top auction item was a unique piece of artwork from Disney.

• Works of art - numbered and or signed preferable. Print artwork should be framed; PyCon Staff can help with framing. Stained glass, glassware, etc. Jewelry. The idea is to be unique, memorable, and not have an obvious value.
• Unique book sets - geeky cook books, set of books on a theme, think outside the box. Signed books are always a favorite.
• Tech Gadgets - laptops, company skinned apple products. Something unique, unexpected, a hot item, or hard to find.
• Unique Clothing - Company themed unisex jacket, backpack, or carrier bag. Something beyond a polo shirt, and not often seen at a convention or elsewhere.
• Games - The old non-electronic kind. Singed by someone or a team. Not Monopoly.

If you have questions, etc. Please contact the Auction Head (Doug Napoleone) for more details.

[ygingras]

For reference, this is what we used in 2013: https://www.dropbox.com/s/prpe9w4xxtr7bk4/Prospectus_Version2.pdf https://us.pycon.org/2013/sponsors/prospectus/

Our demographic information was basically limited to the expected number of attendees and the mention that they are mostly tech people, form free lancers to CTOs.

Here's one that I like: http://in.pycon.org/2013/static/pyconindia2013-sponsorship-prospectus.pdf

The detailed break down really helps you zero in on whether or not you will find the people of the caliber that you need when you go recruiting there. One key area that is interesting to highlight is the ratio of hackers vs decision makers. Some sponsors are there to hire, some to sell stuff. If you want to sell, you really like to know that there are people with the authority to sign cheques at the event.

This is also a great idea, a closing report that another conference sends to it's sponsors: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j2kvwhbu03bja7h/Droidcon%202012%20Closing%20Report.pdf

They go into great details once again with the demographics (same organizers) but they also include plenty of data to prove that 1) attendees are satisfied with the conference and are likely to come back, 2) they have enough information to make the conference even better the following year. The closing report is a great way to start warming up sponsors while we're getting the real prospectus ready.

Here's one that includes some light demographic information without going full blast. I like the presentation of this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4848y2opfjqrryl/WAQ-Plan%28En%29.pdf

This is another one that pays a lot of attention to details on the presentation. Pretty much the same breakdown of the attendees: http://www.blackhat.com/docs/us-13/sponsors/us-13-prospectus.pdf

Same basic breakdown with very little graphic fluff and a more traditional page layout: http://cdn.oreillystatic.com/en/assets/1/event/80/oscon2012_prospectus.pdf

Of course, we don't have that much data on what our attendees are doing or where they are coming from so we should put some TODO items for the for revised exit survey and put in whatever numbers we can gather and/or guestimate safely.

[jnoller]

I did pretty good the last 3 years. Or did I miss something?

On Apr 28, 2013, at 9:39 PM, Yannick Gingras notifications@github.com wrote:

For reference, this is what we used in 2013: https://www.dropbox.com/s/prpe9w4xxtr7bk4/Prospectus_Version2.pdf https://us.pycon.org/2013/sponsors/prospectus/

Our demographic information was basically limited to the expected number of attendees and the mention that they are mostly tech people, form free lancers to CTOs.

Here's one that I like: http://in.pycon.org/2013/static/pyconindia2013-sponsorship-prospectus.pdf

The detailed break down really helps you zero in on whether or not you will find the people of the caliber that you need when you go recruiting there. One key area that is interesting to highlight is the ratio of hackers vs decision makers. Some sponsors are there to hire, some to sell stuff. If you want to sell, you really like to know that there are people with the authority to sign cheques at the event.

This is also a great idea, a closing report that another conference sends to it's sponsors: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j2kvwhbu03bja7h/Droidcon%202012%20Closing%20Report.pdf

They go into great details once again with the demographics (same organizers) but they also include plenty of data to prove that 1) attendees are satisfied with the conference and are likely to come back, 2) they have enough information to make the conference even better the following year. The closing report is a great way to start warming up sponsors while we're getting the real prospectus ready.

Here's one that includes some light demographic information without going full blast. I like the presentation of this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4848y2opfjqrryl/WAQ-Plan%28En%29.pdf

This is another one that pays a lot of attention to details on the presentation. Pretty much the same breakdown of the attendees: http://www.blackhat.com/docs/us-13/sponsors/us-13-prospectus.pdf

Same basic breakdown with very little graphic fluff and a more traditional page layout: http://cdn.oreillystatic.com/en/assets/1/event/80/oscon2012_prospectus.pdf

Of course, we don't have that much data on what our attendees are doing or where they are coming from so we should put some TODO items for the for revised exit survey and put in whatever numbers we can gather and/or guestimate safely.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[dianaclarke]

You did great, @jnoller!

The task was to: "contact 5-10 sponsors from PyCon 2013 and ask them what's most valuable to them as sponsors"

@ygingras was simply providing that feedback, as someone that spends a great deal of time vetting sponsor prospectuses in his day job capacity.

[ygingras]

On 04/28/2013 06:54 PM, Jesse Noller wrote:

I did pretty good the last 3 years. Or did I miss something?

You did a great job and I was giving some pointers on area to explore if we want to do even better.

Yannick Gingras

[dianaclarke]

This happened.

http://us.pycon.org/2014/sponsors/prospectus/