Freelance Camp

Run Your Own Camp: Finding Sponsors

// April 18th, 2009 // Run Your Own Camp

We have received a significant number of questions on how to run a freelance camp. In order to help as best as possible, Dmitry and I will be writing a series of articles detailing the lessons we have learned over the past year.

Running your own camp is a pretty straight forward process! The bar camp model is quite well documented and we borrow heavily from it. Dmitry is gathering a number of blog posts and will begin making a basic checklist.

There are two questions that comprise most of the emails we get: “How do I find Sponsors?” and “How do I get people to come?”.

To kick it off, I wrote a post last month on my own blog to help answer questions regarding finding sponsors: http://blog.shaneandpeter.com/2009/03/19/finding-sponsors/. I am re-posting the article below with a few modifications:

Have a Budget

First figure out how much you need and what kind of money you are comfortable asking for. It cost me just over 3k to run the event last year with a free venue (Thank you Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History), significant in kind contributions and 150 attendees. That covered breakfast, lunch, t-shirts, internet, a phat after party (Thank you local Heineken distributor for sponsoring and throwing down beer) and a pile of office supplies. I was asking for $250 per sponsor either in cash or in kind. We ended up with 17 sponsors in order to get the event accomplished.

This year, I expect to have more attendees and really don’t have the time to hunt down 20+ sponsors, so I asked for $500 per sponsor in order to keep the number smaller. Borrowing from Wordcamp’s recent decision to charge attendees as to help cover the cost of the event, we have decided to ask for $25 per person. We have reserved 50 free tickets for students and hardship cases, as well as another pile for sponsors. After making a budget, I figured I was looking for about 10 sponsors this year.

What are you offering?

First things first. I only have one sponsor per business vertical. I found that increased the value and really helped sponsors make a commitment. This was the #1 concern sponsors expressed aside from the legitimacy of the event. I then put together a list of benefits that sponsors would receive. Here is the list I sent out this year:

Sponsor Benefits

* All sponsors receive 5 free tickets. (More available upon request)
* Your Brand will be Publicized on:
Freelancecamp.org Website
Event Schedule
All Marketing and PR Materials
Email lists hitting over 10,000 business owners
Blogs Posts and Articles
T-shirts (or Stainless Steel Canteens)
* Sponsor signage at the event
* A short timeslot at the beginning of the event to promote your company
* Distribute and bring promotional materials for discussion and networking.
* A chance (depending on attendee interest) to facilitate a freelance session. For Example “Maximize your chances of winning the gig”

With that list, I began to cast my net.

Who do you know?

First, ask your friends, your coworkers, your twitter pals, on facebook etc. Tell people you are looking for sponsors. They will most likely send you a bunch of leads. When you ask, make sure you keep it short and clearly explain the event in a few sentences. Tell them what your ideal sponsor looks like should they spot one in the wild. Once you have exhausted the personal connections list then you hit the pavement at a jog: think local.

Think Local

Start by visiting your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and talk to them. They can be incredibly helpful. They might be a sponsor and if not, can connect you with numerous business owners. If you need someone from the SBDC to vouch for the event, I can ask my local SBDC director to email them. Even if you don’t plan to run a freelance camp and just want some help, the SBDC kick some serious butt. I’m talking free HR consulting, free bookkeeping support and education, business planning, marketing consulting and more. They exist (thank you well spent government programs) to make sure we are succeeding.

Go talk to your city and your county. The City of Santa Cruz is one of our sponsors as it wants to support any activities that drive business and are a viable solution to the current economic times.

Approach local service providers who support small businesses: lawyer, accountant, bank, credit union, commercial real estate agent, ISP, insurance, payroll specialists, investment/retirement, web service firms, print shops etc.

Hit up any local services firm and startups that use freelancers and want to meet more / be seen positively in the industry.

Check out any local institution that has small business owners as benefactors: museum, design center, coworking centers, coffee shops.

Set a meeting with any educational organization such as jr college or local university that wants to help their students transition into business ownership or has a business education department.

Think of large companies that service freelancers and email them. You never ever know. We just landed Elance.com as a sponsor, which came from an email sent into the ether. I am in discussions with Sugar CRM and Automattic among others (fingers triple crossed).

And so there you go folks.

Support Freelance Camp!

Attend Freelance Camp Miami 2009!

Attend Freelance Camp Santa Cruz 2009!

I’d like to sincerely thank the current Sponsors of Freelance Camp 2009 (August 15).

Baskin and Grant LLP
City of Santa Cruz
Cruzio
Elance
Happy Santa Cruz
Lighthouse Bank
Nextspace Coworking and Innovation Center
Shane & Peter Inc.
Studio Holladay