log inhelp

Get your own free workspace
View
 

Sponsors and Swag

Page history last edited by Jeremy Clifton 2 years, 6 months ago
  1. Should Sponsors Be Speakers?
    1. The Problem: In some cases, the presentation can be a glorified sales pitch. Sensitivity to "sales pitch" type presentations can vary from member to member.
    2. Sponsors may not be willing to speak if they can't pitch their topic.
    3. If it's a sales pitch meeting, make it known ahead of time.
    4. In many cases, it is an appropriate role of the user group to expose their members to technology that may be of use to them.
    5. Frequency - if you have monthly meetings then 1-2 obviously "sales pitch" type meetings may be OK. With weekly meetings it could be even more often.
    6. Have rules
      1. Sales pitch can only occupy a certain portion of meeting
      2. Sponsor can talk during "pizza time" if they bought the pizza
    7. De-couple product and technology. Make sure the speaker understands that their presentation should be about the technology, and in exchange allow them a few minutes at the end of the presentation to pitch their product as well as time to speak to individual members after the meeting.
    8. Have a "Product Shootout" - Many vendors can make short presentations about their competing products, followed by a Q&A session afterwards.
    9. Protect sponsors from their competition. Make sure you don't have one recruiter working the room while the sponsor/speaker is speaking.
    10. Acknowledge job seekers and recruiters during the meeting and facilitate interaction between them after the meeting.
  2. Finding Sponsors
    1. When recruiters show up to work the room, turn the tables on them work them for a sponsorship! Talk to their marketing departments about sponsoring your group. Some recruiters even have a point person that interacts with user groups.
    2. Getting monetary support is more likely from local and regional sponsors.
    3. Find a company that is using a technology and has had great success with it, or has done something outstanding with the technology and have them discuss how the technology solved their problem. Some groups have not had good success with this method; some companies may be reluctant to discuss their process.
    4. Leverage known user group programs; many publishers, tool vendors and software companies have such programs.
      1. O'Reilly
      2. TEK Systems
  3. What Do You Get From Sponsors?
    1. Publishers - Books
    2. Food
    3. Venue
    4. Software Licenses
    5. Hardware
    6. Shirts/Hats
    7. Cool Stuff In White Boxes"
    8. Other Giveaways
    9. Monetary Support
      1. Some organized groups get money directly from sponsors & work with it
      2. Groups w/o legal organization have sponsors buy things like pizza, etc. directly.
    10. Careful! Don't give all swag at one meeting! Be careful not to end up with dated swag, though; this can be difficult to get rid of.
  4. What Do You Give Sponsors?
    1. Mentions/Slides at meetings
      1. Generous sponsors may get mentioned at every meeting
      2. Sponsors of single meetings just mentioned at the meeting they sponsor
    2. Link or banner on web site.
    3. Link & mention in email newsletter.
    4. Attendance figures.
    5. Time to talk at meetings.
    6. Sponsors who have given presentations are given opportunity to post their slides somewhere for meetings to download.
    7. Although some groups give out member lists, most don't.
    8. Sponsors can sign up for the group's email list & post job offers, product info, etc.
    9. Sponsor gets opportunity to send out a focused email (sent by group on behalf of the sponsor) to the group in exchange for sponsoring a meeting; may be a special offer, etc.
    10. Distinction between monthly & annual sponsorship benefits and/or different levels of sponsorship (platinum, gold, silver).
    11. Be careful with recruiters posting job offers! Some members may be antsy about this since it could mean wooing employees away to new jobs.
  5. In This Breakout Session:
    1. Fred Haigh
    2. Jeremy Clifton
    3. Mike Henigan
    4. Ryan Duclos
    5. Jason Noble
    6. Max
    7. Stuart Ainsworth
    8. Geoff Hiten
    9. Kevin Roberts
    10. Tim Corbett
    11. Charlie Arehart
    12. Douglas Knudson 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.

PDF version