Sponsorship

Sponsorship for events is becoming more important to help make them affordable. We also attract sponsors to events to, for example, pay for a student to attend or support the attendance of speakers or people outside of the normal remit (e.g. legal staff). This in turn attracts different audiences to the event and raises the profile of the sponsoring organisations. Sponsors offering free t-shirts, software licences or even hardware can also enrich the experience of attendees.

One has to be careful with sponsorship – the balance between in-kind and actual cash is important. Sometimes in-kind sponsorship can help enrich the programme but it does not help your budget.

The EL should use the goals and themes of the workshop to identify which companies might be interested in sponsoring your event.

Create a set of packages for sponsors (e.g. the traditional Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum) but also allow for ad hoc sponsorship and be clear about what advantages (e.g. presence on all organiser intro slides) or influence sponsors will have (e.g. a talking slot, a workshop slot, a stand). This will make it easier to approach sponsors.

As mentioned in the section on Infrastructure, the task of attracting sponsorship needs to be assigned to the members of the event team. After successful first contact with sponsors by the event team, the EL or designate can then take forward the conversation with those interested in supporting the event.