[CREATE] Pitching a community-funded conference

[Joao S. O. Bueno]

Hi Bolsh!

Thanks for explaining the issue.
Again, I reiterate, this was not intended as a critic to anyone - it was more 
flike my feeling og frustration spelled out.

Putting down the numbers like this make it easier to understand what is really 
going on.  Thanks again!

	js
	-><-


On Fri 14 Mar 2008 06:01:03 Dave Neary wrote:
> Hi Joao,
>
> Joao S. O. Bueno wrote:
> > That's about US$4.000,00 per sponsor...
> > I don't want to downplay the work of the people who got the sponsorships
> > - but having Google to dispay its logo proeminently in all LGM's material
> > should cost more than travel expenses for a single overseas attendant.
> > (for example. The same is valid for other high-profile sponsors, of
> > course)
> >
> > Again - I am not condemining Kamila's or anyone's else work. I am just
> > sad for the greed of the big players.
>
> This is the kind of reaction you see from people who have never had to
> go looking for money for a conference like this.
>
> There is *no* commercial benefit to these guys. Having a logo on our
> website doesn't get them anything. Google might come & collect CVs at
> the conference, maybe, which might get them a couple of hires... outside
> of that, these guys are giving us money for goodwill. It's philanthropy,
> not a commercial argument.
>
> To reinforce this: let's say I'm talking to a Canon guy, one of his
> questions will be "how many people are coming?" I'd probably say "200".
> "and you're looking for how much money?" "20,000". "Do you honestly
> think we're going to get $100 extra profit per attendee at this
> conference if we sponsor?" And no, of course he isn't. That would mean
> everyone at the conference buying about $800 worth of Canon equipment.
>
> We're entering a recession, at least in the US. Companies are tightening
> up on their largesse goodwill budgets. They're spending money where they
> can point to the bottom line. Investment returns must be measurable.
> This isn't quite 100% true, but that's pretty much where we're at.
>
> So bear that in mind when criticising - getting money for things like
> this is *hard*. We could probably do it better, and get more money, if
> someone spent all their time at it for 2 or 3 months, but organising
> this conference is a collaborative volunteer effort, and most of us suck
> at sales. My philosophy for LGM1 was "work out the budget, fundraise
> until I pass the budget, then stop - there are other things to do". The
> target budget was $20,000. I'm impressed that (given that our biggest
> previous sponsor isn't supporting us this year) we've already raised
> $13,000 this year. This money hasn't come easily.
>
> Cheers,
> Dave.