We recommend builderscon organizers not to use a generic sponsorship plans that are commonly used, where a price tag is slapped onto plans named "platinum", "gold", "silver", etc.
We feel that while these plans are easier on the organizers, they present no value in helping the sponsors visualize what exactly their sponsorship fees will be used for. Generic plans like these may not include the specific type of sponsorship that they want: for example, previously we have had a sponsor come to us saying that while they would like to contribute a fairly large amount of money to our event, they did not want too much exposure. Upon listening to their reasoning, it made sense, but with generic plans, it becomes harder to find a good landing point where all sides can agree on.
We instead recommend coming up with a catalogue of sponsorship items that the sponsors can mix and match. In this document, we list a few possible items that have actually been used in the past. As a builderscon organizer, you are not obliged to use these exact items. Feel free to choose (or not choose) to use any of these, depending on your specific needs.
At the same time, however, do not forget to provide examples on how sponsors might be able to bundle a set of sponsorships.
Place name/logo on backpanels, which are boards placed behind the speakers during presentations.
Sponsor logo will show up on every photo/video. Official photos and videos will circulate indefinitely on the web. Speakers tend to use photos from conferences as their online profile photos as well, so extra exposure can be expected.
Sponsors pays for 1 square of a backpanel. They may purchase multiple slots. Each backpanel may contain somewhere around 4~10 logos. Usually there is one backpanel per room.
Sponsor must provide high-resolution logo to be used.
Provide lunch/bento boxes to the attendees.
Approx. 600~1000 JPY per meal provided
Sponsors may distribute leaflets or other swags with the lunch/bento boxes.
None
Conferences that hand out brochures/pamphlets/handours may utilize few pages on these to place advertisements from sponsors. These handouts usually contain vital information such as WiFi connection information, locations for lunch/bento boxes, information about keynote speakers, etc., so there is a very high chance of exposure to attendees. Also, you may choose to allow direct marketing messages on these ads, as they are relatively non-invasive.
Varies. 1 slot of advertisement could cost anywhere from 50,000 JPY to 500,000 JPY depending on placement and number of attendees.
As stated in the description, most attendees will look at these advertisements. Sponsors will also have much freedom with regards to the actual content of such advertisements
Sponsor must provide high-resolution advertisement data. Organizers must provide exact specification of the advertisement slot, and must make sure to check the advertisement data before hand to make sure they do not contain messages that are not appropriate for conferences.
Those who purchase this sponsorship can either
- Provide us with just the design to place on the bags, or
- Provide us with the actual bags
The former option should be much more expensive than the latter (e.g. 2.5 times or so more). The benefit of the former for the sponsor is that they can will not need to spend money or keep track of number of bags they order. However, they will have no control over the final quality of the bag. The latter imposes more responsibilities to the sponsor, but they are in full control of quality of the bag, as well as having to pay less.
Make sure to order bags with gussets. Participants tend to collect a fair number of swags during the conference, and therefore is much easier for them to carry these in bags with gussets.
Varies. Each bag costs about some where around $3 to $5 when ordered in bulk, so add the premium that your conference can ask for on top of this.
Every attendee gets a bag and they will go home holding one, so the marketing ROI is pretty high. This is especially true in Japan where most attendees will use some sort of public transportation.
If the sponsor is providing the design only, then sponsor must provide high-resolution design data. Organizers must provide exact specification of the bag.
If the sponsor is providing the entire bag, organizers must provide the number of bags that is required in advance.
For either options organizers must make sure to check the design data before hand to make sure they do not contain messages that are not appropriate for conferences.
When running international conferences in non-English speaking locations, you may need to accomodate interpretors/translators. This sponsorship will be used to hire them.
Costs vary, but interpretors require more than language skills to be effective, and therefore tend to be relatively expensive. From experience these cost somewhere around 1,000,000 for six to eight, hour long sessions.
It is usually better to split the costs between a few sponsors.
Interpretors for conferences in markets where the locals mainly speak in a non-English language are highly appreciated by all sides as English speaking guests require assistance as well as locals.
Sponsor names will appear on pamphlets, and their names will be announced at the start and end of the translations.
No action is required from the sponsors.