Re: Sponsorship strategy and benefits for 2011 (follow up)

[Brian Cameron <brian cameron oracle com>]

Fred:

> The past sponsors:
> ------------------
> We always talk about how we should nurture our relationship with
> recurring sponsors of the event and try to communicate more than just
> when we need the funding. This is probably the best moment to at least
> acknowledge that we really appreciate and have noticed their long term
> support to GNOME.Asia. I previously mentioned giving this category a
> discount on the sponsorship levels, Brian believes giving them a better
> sponsorship level is preferable (I'm all for more money considering our
> needs). Now what exactly can we offer that is generic, applies to all of
> them and "easy to calculate"?

Giving them a better sponsorship level seems pretty straightforward and
easy to calculate.

> Sponsors we want developers from:
> ---------------------------------
> I suggested to email a separate message with the Call For Sponsors
> (together with the detail budget) explaining that if they send us
> developers for the hackfest+ conference we will credit their sponsorship
> level as follows:
> - per developer from USA: USD 2K
> - per developer from Europe: USD 1.5K
> - per developer from Asia (not India): 0.8K -> might see if it's from
> Singapore or Australia as the cost is quiet different
>
> I didn't get feedback, does it mean we're all ok with the scheme? Please
> reply YES/NO so we can move forward with contacting them.

I think it would also be good to plan a special BoF or session at the
hackfest for people from distros to get together and work out how to
better collaborate and do things like support GNOME 2.x going forward.
If we have some special program that directly appeals to distros, they
may be more interested to send engineers, or provide additional funding.

> Consulting companies:
> ---------------------
> The suggestion was to have a "how to make money with GNOME technologies"
> session during the hackfest for a smaller sponsorship level, plus some
> logo placement.
> Looking at our call for sponsors I suggest the followings:
> 1. 1 New level name: Technology sponsors
> 2. Amount: U$ 500 or INR 22,000
> 3. Benefits: 1 person can attend the session (extra person + $US 200),
> logo on website and fliers (no mention in marketing
> announcements/email), no booth, 2 conference passes

This sounds really good.  Perhaps there might be some value in
discussing possibilities and what we could do as a community to make
it easier to earn money working on GNOME.

For example, there has been discussion about doing things like setting
up a website where GNOME consultants can bid on jobs or to create more
"bounty" opportunities for doing work on GNOME.  For example, it
would be neat if end-users could donate money towards fixing particular
bugs and that money could be treated as a bounty to whichever consultant
fixes it.  Perhaps discussing such ideas at the hackfest might lead to
finding new ways to make money doing GNOME-related work.

> 4. 1 New level name: local exhibitor (only for local India companies
> with less than 50 people)
> 5. Amount: U$ 1,000.- or INR 44,000
> 6. Benefits: only exhibit space 3mx3m

Why only Indian companies?  Since this is GNOME.Asia, it seems it
would be nice to expand this to any local Asian company with less than
50 people.  The event should be fostering GNOME consultants all across
Asia, I would think.

Brian