I talked a little with Amber Naslund (Director of Community at Radian6) at the end of last week on a new way to look at event sponsorship, after she sent our a rather wistful tweet, saying she was looking for a “better way.”
I agree with her. Let’s put ourselves in Amber’s shoes (and indeed the shoes of many companies) – as the figurehead of Radian6 she has conferences asking her all the time to sponsor their event. This means Radian6 give them cash, and the conference organiser slaps the logo on their website, plus gives them a few mentions on the day.
On one side the sponsor is wondering whether they are really getting the exposure they are paying for, whilst many event organisers are in the tricky situation of being new on the scene and struggling to get the sponsorship they need, even when they have a create line up.
This gives birth to two evils that Amber and I discussed that affect both sponsors and organisers, as well as their delegates:
- Pay to play. Sponsors are made to pay for speaking slots.
- Fake sponsors. Event organisers are made to lie about ‘sponsors’ they have onboard in order to secure actual sponsors.
Amber’s thought was that there must be a better way to go about this – on both sides – and I think there is. Continue reading