How many times have you gone to a conference and heard anything much said about the sponsors? Sure they are present and you see them – so there is a brand impact. But there isnt much in the way of real interaction.
At Barcamp London last weekend, there was definite interaction with the sponsors. From people saying “My view of Yahoo has completely changed” (they hosted the event and provided some of the food) to just the general gratitude towards the sponsors for providing things like food, drink, free t-shirts (I never saw so many in one place before!) and networking cables!
Here is the full list of sponsors:
Yahoo! UK, venue and connectivity!
eBay, Saturday lunch
Yahoo! UK, Saturday dinner + beers!
BBC.co.uk and backstage.bbc.co.uk, Sunday breakfast and Sunday lunch!
TechCrunch, drinks and snacks for the event!
Chinwag, sponsoring event t-shirts!
Belkin, power and network equipment
Don’t forget Apress, who I lured into providing free books to give away to helpers and other folk.
Don’t forget Apress, who I lured into providing free books to give away to helpers and other folk.
This got me thinking, as you say my view on Yahoo and what they do has changed for the better and I now believe they really are doing something and not just sitting around making a prettyblog. http://yodel.yahoo.com/It wasn’t until this afternoon through when I was putting my tshirts away that I remembered Chinwag had sponsored the tshirts. I knew Belkin has sponsored the cables but am I going to go telling everyone now how great Belkin are or how they should all user Chinwag and read TechCrunch UK?Sadly no, I think them sponsoring an event like this is great but they need to go a little further than putting up the cash.They need to send people along, send flyer’s, we might not want to see 20 presentations on how Belkin cables are the best in the business but they could have done something on networking of some sort and dropped in “oh and Belkin are doing …”I don’t want to come across as ungrateful (to late?) I think its great that they did sponsor the event, but I think they could have made better use of being a sponsor.Give me something to take away other than an logo on my frontI’m yahoo’s latest fan and I will be taking a look at the ebay developer network so the correct sponsor ship does work.
This got me thinking, as you say my view on Yahoo and what they do has changed for the better and I now believe they really are doing something and not just sitting around making a prettyblog. http://yodel.yahoo.com/
It wasn’t until this afternoon through when I was putting my tshirts away that I remembered Chinwag had sponsored the tshirts. I knew Belkin has sponsored the cables but am I going to go telling everyone now how great Belkin are or how they should all user Chinwag and read TechCrunch UK?
Sadly no, I think them sponsoring an event like this is great but they need to go a little further than putting up the cash.
They need to send people along, send flyer’s, we might not want to see 20 presentations on how Belkin cables are the best in the business but they could have done something on networking of some sort and dropped in “oh and Belkin are doing …”
I don’t want to come across as ungrateful (to late?) I think its great that they did sponsor the event, but I think they could have made better use of being a sponsor.
Give me something to take away other than an logo on my front
I’m yahoo’s latest fan and I will be taking a look at the ebay developer network so the correct sponsor ship does work.
i agree – yay! the sponsors. How amazing to go to two days of such smartness for no admission fee!I think this was a really great example for sponsors for how to be quietly noticed and greatly appreciated/embraced. I’ve been to lots of things where the sponsors get their moment in the sun and every one is thinking ‘sponsors blah blah blah blah’. Do something useful – that seems to be the moral to the story!
i agree – yay! the sponsors. How amazing to go to two days of such smartness for no admission fee!
I think this was a really great example for sponsors for how to be quietly noticed and greatly appreciated/embraced. I’ve been to lots of things where the sponsors get their moment in the sun and every one is thinking ‘sponsors blah blah blah blah’.
Do something useful – that seems to be the moral to the story!
yes I agree the biggest winners from the event were Yahoo – they outnumbered all others for praise. eBay did well as well – helped by the fact they had a representative there as well I think, though I have forgotten his name :(Others did less well – Techcrunch UK probably needed Sam Sethi there as he is the face of Techcrunch UK – though his lack of appearance also brought conversation – and that in itself will keep people going to the blog. There was definitely less chance of those conversations happening without the sponsorship.I agree on Belkin and Chinwag – though I had network cables – I wonder what those without network cables views were on Belkin. I can see them mentioning Belkin in conversations after..Representation is definitely key – but I wouldnt want barcamp to become full of them 🙂
yes I agree the biggest winners from the event were Yahoo – they outnumbered all others for praise. eBay did well as well – helped by the fact they had a representative there as well I think, though I have forgotten his name 🙁
Others did less well – Techcrunch UK probably needed Sam Sethi there as he is the face of Techcrunch UK – though his lack of appearance also brought conversation – and that in itself will keep people going to the blog. There was definitely less chance of those conversations happening without the sponsorship.
I agree on Belkin and Chinwag – though I had network cables – I wonder what those without network cables views were on Belkin. I can see them mentioning Belkin in conversations after..
Representation is definitely key – but I wouldnt want barcamp to become full of them 🙂