[MeeGo-community] Local meetups: sponsors

[Quim Gil]

On Wed, 2010-10-13 at 19:40 +0200, ext Randall Arnold wrote:
> Greetings all,
> 
> As Quim has pointed out, sponsorship is important to sustaining local
> networking groups.  Of course the groups get something out of it
> (venues, food, etc) but as we know sponsors will expect a return as
> well.

For the sake of sustainability, the local sponsors should find that
return in the local activities. The budget of a local MeeGo network can
be zero and still meet its objectives efficiently. If there is a reason
for a cost then that cost needs to be justified with local funding.


> Meetup.com has a good feature in listing local sponsors, but we should
> think bigger.  The best we can offer any sponsor is advertising.  Word
> of mouth is good, but I would like to propose a small localized,
> rotating ad banner on the Meego.com home page or at least on a
> second-level page for official group sponsors.

Let's leave meego.com out of advertising. Local sponsors usually have
some budget for local activities. If think bigger is not sustainable for
a network then it's better to think smaller first.  :)


> I also intend to leave a space for sponsors on MeeGo flyer templates.

Flyers are a different thing since they do have a local scope. Note that
producing flyers is a cost already, so the first question is whether
flyers are an appropriate tool for your marketing goals.

> Sponsors help keep operating costs down and fulfil the sense of a
> multilevel community.  They should be recognized.
>
> Thoughts?

Actually... shouldn't we discuss first the funding needs fior local
meego networks? If those needs exist then let's make the calculation of
the budgets and then start thinking of sponsors.

In the case of the SF Bay MeeGo Network we have:

- The meetup.com fee. Can be avoided using free of charge channels. I'm
covering it since I find the service convenient in our context (need to
report it as expense at some point but it's a small fee).

- The local infrastructure. We look for different hosts in every meeting
that are free of charge. You can see this as implicit advertising if we
are using the premises of an organization.

- Drinks, food. If there is a sponsor for that in a specific meetup then
the sponsor gets the mention and thanks in the opening and closure of
the meetup. It's an investment directly related with the size of the
audience. Otherwise no food, nor drinks, or everybody pays their own
coffees and problem solved. 

What else?

--
Quim