Hi all,
Based on our discussions at the last meeting, and my back-of-the-envelope calculations from organizing similar events, I posted our notes on a draft budget here: http://2011.westcoastwikicon.org/wiki/Budget
We have multiple steps to do, including: * refining the budget -- for instance, we may decide we can't raise so much, or that we want a sliding registration fee * determining sponsorship levels and potential sponsors * asking sponsors for money * finding a fiscal sponsor who can host our bank account and any monies received from sponsors
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS: We need 2-3 (or more) dedicated volunteers to work on the above tasks! Please post on the wiki if you are interested in working on this aspect of the conference.
You won't be alone: Eugene Kim and I have both volunteered to work on this, and we both have conference financial planning experience. But we don't want to do it by ourselves! So if you want to take it on, great, and you're interested but unsure what to do we will help you out. It's not as scary as it seems!
Let me know/post on the wiki if you're interested.
-- phoebe
- determining sponsorship levels and potential sponsors
These are the lists of potential sponsors for the Stanford Wikimania bid:
http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/mng-ba.mercurynews/quote/components/das...
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13840964 (way out of date now; they publish these every quarter)
http://trends.techcrunch.com/2009/10/19/techcrunch-dealmaker-rankings-the-to... (likewise)
James, I think you may have misunderstood. We're looking for sponsors to DONATE money. Venture Capitalists [1] _do not_ give away money, they invest it in promising start ups. They are all about making more money, sort of the antithesis of what we're doing.
-Jon
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_capitalist
On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 12:57, James Salsman jsalsman@gmail.com wrote:
- determining sponsorship levels and potential sponsors
These are the lists of potential sponsors for the Stanford Wikimania bid:
http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/mng-ba.mercurynews/quote/components/das...
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13840964 (way out of date now; they publish these every quarter)
http://trends.techcrunch.com/2009/10/19/techcrunch-dealmaker-rankings-the-to... (likewise)
Wikimedia-SF mailing list Wikimedia-SF@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-sf
Jon,
Venture capitalists sponsor public events just like any other organizations which want to set themselves apart from their competition. E.g., http://etl.stanford.edu/about/
I agree they are less likely to do so than public companies and startups, which is why they were listed in that order.
On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 1:06 PM, Jon Davis wiki@konsoletek.com wrote:
James, I think you may have misunderstood. We're looking for sponsors to DONATE money. Venture Capitalists [1] _do not_ give away money, they invest it in promising start ups. They are all about making more money, sort of the antithesis of what we're doing.
-Jon
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_capitalist
On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 12:57, James Salsman jsalsman@gmail.com wrote:
- determining sponsorship levels and potential sponsors
These are the lists of potential sponsors for the Stanford Wikimania bid:
http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/mng-ba.mercurynews/quote/components/das...
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13840964 (way out of date now; they publish these every quarter)
http://trends.techcrunch.com/2009/10/19/techcrunch-dealmaker-rankings-the-to... (likewise)
Wikimedia-SF mailing list Wikimedia-SF@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-sf
-- Jon [[User:ShakataGaNai]] / KJ6FNQ http://snowulf.com/ http://ipv6wiki.net/
Wikimedia-SF mailing list Wikimedia-SF@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-sf
Jon,
Venture capitalists sponsor public events just like any other organizations which want to set themselves apart from their competition. E.g., http://etl.stanford.edu/about/
Absolutely. In particular, they like to get their name in front of promising entrepreneurs, as finding interesting companies is essential for their business. So if you pitch them, I'd try to find some reason they can see it as a useful marketing expense.
Alternatively, rather than pitching venture capital funds, it might be worth talking to individual venture capitalists, who are just the sort of person to be fascinated by Wikis. For example, Mitch Kapor and Vinod Khosla are both tech investors and major Wikipedia donors.
William
wikimedia-sf@lists.wikimedia.org