A bizarre but plausible idea for a sponsor

[D at vid lacravate]

Hi everyone ,

I am David (lacravate) from the Paris organisation committee ... It happened i subscribed to all the active european mailing lists for communication and information purposes and i kept this one (among a very few others) after the conference as there are some really interesting stuff going on here ... :)

I answer to this message to share experience but not to meddle in your own affairs ...

En ce jour du Fri, 22 Aug 2003 18:52:32 +0100,
Nick Johnston <sky at erupt.com> parlait ainsi :
> >>Yesterday I had an interesting idea for a sponsor for YAPC::Europe
> >>2004 in Belfast: Rox Energy Drink!...
> >>What do you all think?
> >I don't think that it's a bad idea.  
> Well, that's pretty good I suppose. I was expecting to be shot down in 
> flames.
Any sponsor idea is a good idea ... They are hard enough to come by to put some aside just because they look off-topic . Any attendee to a YAPC would agree not to understand why a specific sponsor is present during the conference . For cheap conference such as YAPC , any money honestly earned is good money ... :)

> However, are you prepared to do all the dealing with potential sponsors, 
> or are you happy for people to approach sponsors they think of 
> themselves? While I wouldn't have any problem with doing it, I think it 
> would be better if enquries about sponsorship came from someone 
> 'officially' connected with the conference.
I think this item was already answered but let me add this : first , as in any other field , you need a coordinator with power to say yes or no (good idea or bad idea ...) . It helps out cutting short endless discussions about this option and that other one that are anti-productive . Second , don't choose for a job the person who should be priviledged because he had the idea first , or because of his (or her :) place in your community : choose the one that has the skills for the job and don't hesitate to allot the job to somebody else if you see your first choice wasn't such a good one . It is not the person or h(is|er) ego (or both) that matter , it's the timing of the preparations for the conference .

(these two could save a big amount of time and energy and shorten the inevitable delays ...)

> Slightly OT: are we going to have notepads next year? I really didn't 
> like the fact that there were none in Paris. I know most people probably 
> didn't miss them, but what about poor laptop-less people like me :-) ?
Very good point ...
Specifically and in general . Specifically because i can tell you that we missed as well the notepads, we definitely should have provided one . The problem was that we thought we could get them as sponsored goodies to put in the bag , but nobody really work on this , i mean the goodies in the bag . The matter escaped us .
So that's my "general" : the bag are very easy to find and produce (we ordered them less than two weeks before the conference ...) , more difficult is to find things to put in it ... It is a real job for the conference and IMHO somebody should be set to it ...

Cheers and and all my wishes for the success of Y::E::2004 ! :)

-- 
D at vid lacravate
lacravate at mongueurs.net
tresorier at mongueurs.net

Assistez à la prochaine conférence Perl en France
23-25 juillet 2003 au CNAM (PARIS)
http://yapc.mongueurs.net