event sponsors & organizers BOF @ DrupalCon NOLA

BoF Session @ DrupalCon NOLA for Drupal Camp organizers and sponsors

TLDR: We are hosting a BOF at DrupalCon NOLA on Wed. 5/11 from 2:15:pm to 03:15:pm (US CT) to discuss how we increase the value of camp sponsorships, create more meaningful sponsorship offerings, and how we can help raise more sponsorship dollars and increase the number of sponsors for Drupal Camps.

OVERVIEW:
The goal of this BoF is to bring together the leading community event sponsors (Acquia, FFW, Pantheon, etc.) with community event organizers to discuss and brainstorm how we can increase and better measure the value our sponsorships generate; by working together to create more measurable and higher value sponsorship packages and opportunities we can get more organizations to sponsor events, potentially get higher dollar sponsorships from current sponsors, and raise more money for events, which would also create more value for organizers and attendees.

Currently most sponsorship packages focus heavily on "branding and awareness" and "thought leadership" opportunities, e.g. size of sponsors logo on an event website, the sponsors name/logo on the lanyard or event rooms, a mention before the keynote, speaking opportunities, training sessions, etc. - these are important, and have value, but the value is very hard to track and measure which typically limits the amount of money organizations are willing to commit.

While we can, and need to improve the value these current sponsorship opportunities generate and our ability to measure value around these (e.g. by sharing demographics & event size data with sponsors pre and post event, etc.) we need to come up with new ideas and more compelling sponsorship opportunities that generate more tangible and measurable value.

How do we help sponsors find employees and fill openings?
Can we help drive new business, or help them serve existing customers betters?
etc.