Excellant information Alan, completely agreed
that the first step is nailing down the location,
and we need to get moving on sponsorship ASAP.

On a related note, is PLUG a not-for-profit? If
so, is it allowed to accept cash donations? Are
they tax deductible? What about a bake sale?

I'm wondering what happens if we can't get space
donated. Can we rent a location? Anyone know how
much 2,000 square feet (?) of air conditioned
space for a day is?

On Mon, 1 Jul 2002 alandd@mindspring.com wrote:

> As sponsor wrangler for the just completed install fest, I should make some
> comments here.
>
> I don't know if you noticed at the last install fest the absence of any local
> vendors.  This was not for lack of trying on my part.  Aside from needing to
> overcome general ignorance about Linux, several things combined to make
> getting local sponsors difficult.
>
> Bill and Thurm did a great thing putting the install fest together and I don't
> want to diminish the great impact of what they did.  One thing that hurt
> sponsorship procurement was that the time the event was anounced till when it
> actually occured was only 2 months.  Brick and morter vendors simply don't
> move that fast.  At one it took me 1.5 months just to talk to the right
> person.  Their priorities and procedures are not geared to make marketing
> decisions that fast.  I just heard back from one last week about the first
> install fest to say they decided not to participate ("Yes, well thanks for the
> response anyway").  If you want traditional companies to sponsor, more than 2
> months is needed to turn the squeaky gears that don't run on "internet time."
>
> Second, I had no attendance numbers to point at, no track record that would
> tell the vendor what bang he will get for his sponsorship buck.  That is
> resolved somewhat with the numbers from the last event.
>
> Third, and in this case, most important, it is difficult to go to the vendors
> without a solid date, time and location.  This was not a problem at for the
> last event but it still is a problem for this one.  Sponsoring a club event is
> already low on the priority list for a vendor and then saying that the date
> and place is not confirmed will not help.  Until date and place are "real," I
> would not want to go asking for sponsorship of a "vapor" event.
>
> In summary, before vendors will take the sponsorship opportunity seriously:
> 1 - Date and place must be set.
> 2 - Projected attendance must be defined (we have a good track record from the
> last event).
> 3 - Local store-front sponsors need time and prodding to make participation
> decisions.  This means and date and place must be set so we can work on the
> local sponsors starting NOW or we will be too late.
> 4 - A real web site with event specific content must be available to tell the
> vendor "See, don't you want to be a part of this?"  We have the content from
> the previous event but nothing sold on this event yet.
>
> This is just my observations and opinion based on my sponsor wrangling
> experience for the last install fest.  Someone with more charisma or real
> marketing experience would probably get better results than I did.  I'm just a
> geek asking for free stuff.  YMMV.
>
> Alan
>
> On Mon, 1 Jul 2002 00:00:44 -0400 (EDT) Robert Bushman <plug@traxel.com>
> wrote:
>
> --<clip>--
>
> - Verify site (GCC Student Union?) and date (28 Sep?).
>
> --<clip>--
>
> Open Volunteer Slots (verified):
>
> - Sponsor Wrangler
>   Contact companies regarding sponsorship.
>   Alan has been mentioned as a good resource
>   for contacts.
>
> --<clip>--
>
> ________________________________________________
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>
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>

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