[CREATE] Pitching a community-funded conference

[Dave Neary]

Hi,

Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:
> No-no-no, I mean from *the very* beginning :)

Well, I can't do that, but I can say where I came in.

A couple of weeks ago, Louis sent me a mail saying that LGM for the year
was having trouble getting sponsors, and asking for my help. In
particular he asked me to get in touch with people I knew in companies
they're already talked to to try and get a definitive answer to our
requests for sponsorship.

I did, and finally got those definitive answers yesterday. I also (on
their request) sent out some tentative requests for sponsorship to other
sources, including the Linux Foundation, where Jim Zemlin also went
looking for sponsorship for the conference.

After about 10 days, and fairly limited investment on my part, I have
not made any significant progress towards getting a new sponsor, and I
don't believe Kamila or Louis have either. We now have 3 confirmed
sponsors (Intel, Google, FSF), for a total of at least $13,000 (maybe
more if one sponsor who has confirmed they're sponsoring can improve
their package).

> Are we low on resources?

See above - 3 confirmed sponsors, $13,000.

> If yes, how exactly low on resources are we?
> How much money do we need?

See my mail to Jon earlier - we have 2 things, basic costs (which are
more than covered with the $13,000) and travel costs, which were 80% of
the budget in 2006, and probably more last year.

How much do you want to spend on people's air fares to Poland?

I think it's a good idea to get community donors supporting the conference.

> What is the current status of liasing with sponsors?

I'm in contact with Intel, Louis with Google and FSF.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
dneary at free.fr
Tel: +33 9 51 13 46 45
Cell: +33 6 77 01 92 13