Multi-event Sponsorship Program
Description: Create a proposal for multi-event sponsorship program for WordCamps/Meetups/other events.
There are many large companies (hosting providers, etc) that want to sponsor every WordCamp, every WC above a certain size, WCs with more than x% developer attendees, meetups in developing markets, topic-specific events (theming workshops, hackathons, new user trainings, etc), you name it. Instead of having to reach out to each and every organizer, it would be easier for these companies to just give a block payment to the Foundation once a quarter and have it set up automatically. It sounds great, right? Start every event with a block of sponsorship money already in place? You’re right, it would be great!
That said, once you start looking at how to structure deals for this, potential issues become apparent pretty quickly, so it would be best if we structure this in a way that existing organizers can agree on, in terms of the pros and cons. Volunteering for this project would mean talking through the pros and cons in a group, and working on a proposal for how to structure overarching sponsorships so that everyone benefits.
Length of Project: This is a short term “subcommittee” type of project; it would be good to create a proposal within the next 2 weeks so we can get moving on a pilot progam to see how it works. I would expect volunteers to need a time commitment of a few hours a week for about a month to draft a proposal, run it by the group/me/Andrea/Matt, share it with a few potential sponsors for feedback, and turn it into sponsorship documentation for plan.wordcamp.org/meet.wordpress.org (coming soon)/codex/etc.
Experience Required: Experience *managing the finances* of a sanctioned WP event (especially within the past year running finances through Foundation), or managing your company or employer’s financial sponsorship of events (of sanctioned WP events is great, but not required).
Marissa, and 10 others are discussing. 
Al Davis 3:17 pm on August 20, 2012 Permalink |
I’d like to participate in this as well.
Al
Al Davis 3:18 pm on August 20, 2012 Permalink |
I’d like to participate in this as well.
Al
Jane Wells 3:19 pm on August 20, 2012 Permalink |
Per the earlier post, you can only pick one thing to focus on in this initial push — overcommitting people to multiple projects is the main reason we haven’t mad more progress on all these already, so we need to hold ourselves to the “one thing at a time” promise to try and get more done.
Garth 3:32 pm on August 20, 2012 Permalink |
I will help. We’ve sponsored several WordCamps (SF, Phoenix, Salt Lake, Chicago, NY, several others) so I can bring the sponsor’s perspective. It would be good to know what things to consider for the foundation.
Jasmine 3:42 pm on August 20, 2012 Permalink |
I will help as well. I’ve not done WordPress camp sponsorship but manage finances and sponsorships for events my company organizes.
kcristiano 3:51 pm on August 20, 2012 Permalink |
I would like to help with this. After managing the Finances of WordCamp NYC last year and handling the sponsorships gives me a good perspective for this. I have a strong background (non-WordCamp) in budgeting and accounting as well.
Kevin
Saurabh Jain 4:04 pm on August 20, 2012 Permalink |
Would like to organize WordPress events, meetups etc in India. Let me know how can I join this program
Grant Landram 5:34 pm on August 20, 2012 Permalink |
Awesome, count me in as well. I handle sponsorships and finances for WordCamp Seattle and the monthly Meetups.
Henry Perkins 12:09 am on August 21, 2012 Permalink |
I’d love to be involved with this program.
Henry Perkins 5:12 pm on August 22, 2012 Permalink |
Hello,
I’ve created a Google Doc that asks some valuable questions in determining price of multi-event sponsorship of WordCamps. Based on the results of these questions, we can begin to create tiers of WordCamps. For instance, ones that tend to attract more developers or individual sponsors vs ones that attract mom bloggers and non-profit organizations.
Document located here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c69XsSdd7norQ4f2nKjvgCDK3-qI6U5WNpZiolA5-gQ/edit
Henry Perkins 5:14 pm on August 22, 2012 Permalink |
Forgot to add – You can comment on the document!
raidarmax 6:23 pm on August 21, 2012 Permalink |
I would love to be a part of this, I organized WordCamp Kenya in 2011 and Doing it again this year.
Shayda Torabi 9:41 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink |
Would it make sense to have someone from WPE on the committee to help decide the structure, or for someone from our team to be one of the receiving end “test sponsors” for feedback.
We’re happy to help any way we can!
Marissa 9:46 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink |
I would like to help as well. DreamHost sponsors a specific set of about 6 wordcamps a year and having something like this would make it much easier to coordinate
Jared Smith 10:09 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink |
I’m happy to help as well. The team I lead a Bluehost is specifically tasked with giving back to open source communities such as WordPress, and I’d love to have a more sustainable and equitable way to sponsor more WordCamps. Count me in!
WordCamp 2012 Roundup « Weblog Tools Collection 8:16 pm on February 14, 2013 Permalink |
[...] for WordPress.tv moderation, materials for event planners, new WordCamp organizer mentorships, making it easier for organizations to sponsor multiple events, improvements to the WordCamp Base theme, and reviewing the current WordCamp [...]