Fedora-Council/tickets ticket #446: Flock 2023: Sponsorship prospectus levels

@jflory7 filed Fedora-Council/tickets ticket #446. Discuss here and record votes and decisions in the ticket.

Ticket text:

This feels like a new thing (or at least in my experience). I don’t think it’s a great fit for Flock.

Previously keynotes have been invited. I don’t like the idea of offering them for sale. I understand if that’s the financial reality we’re facing, but I will pout.

Are these separate events? I understand the “make big money donors feel special” aspect, but this feels like selling access, which strikes me as counter to how our community works. (Practically, speaking, Red Hat may be our only platinum sponsor, so this seems sort of redundant, too).

None of the above are show-stoppers for me, but they have me at 0 instead of +1.

I like the idea of making these add-ons that can be separately purchased instead of swapping things in and out, but if that requires a legal re-review, then nevermind. In particular, the DEI fund / travel sponsor feels like a thing that would allow sponsors to increase their contribution.

We previously had a booth where Red Hat was doing UX experiments — I think that kind of thing might be okay. But a traditional expo booth would probably be a waste all around.

Hard agree. We can’t guarantee an audience for these anyway. I’d offer a guaranteed “birds of a feather” session or something, though?

+1 easy yes to coffee times. we’ve done this before.

How much do we estimate it costs to fund one person from LATAM or APAC? Let’s present it like that: 1 person, 3 people, 5 people, 10 people — e.g. $2500 / $7500 / $12500 / $25000

In the Council meeting today, we discussed the idea of keeping the booth in the prospectus but knowing that we would have a conversation with a sponsor about what a booth at Flock means. A traditional conference booth is a lose-lose situation for the sponsor and the Fedora community, but something more fun, engaging, and interactive like the 2017 Cape Cod cariactures and podcast interview booth would be great. That specific example was also great, because the sponsor (Red Hat team that didn’t normally work with Fedora) ended up sharing the marketing collateral with the DEI Team, which we used for our own videos and promotional material later.

Buying a session doesn’t feel totally right to me either. But I feel like some opportunity to “talk with Fedora” is also nice. What might this birds-of-a-feather session look like? I’m not generally familiar with this format at conferences even though I have heard of them since forever.

Another fair point. I do think a networking event of some kind could be helpful though, whether it is some kind of dedicated networking thing or a dinner. Talking in a quieter setting with sponsors could also be strategically helpful for Fedora too. We have a healthy degree of independence where someone can’t exactly “buy” the Fedora agenda. But for example, tying into the Fedora strategy, say we get some major downstream consumer or an OEM provider to join us at this sponsor social. It could be a useful opportunity to talk shop, especially to provide some feedback on to be a good Open Source citizen and how to participate in the Fedora community. It could also be a good way to get our sponsors to talk to each other instead of just Fedora leadership.[1]

But I’m no pro at this and it would probably take some wrangling to make it a useful event as I described above.

At present, this is a pending question for me.

Approaching it like this seems workable to me.


  1. Also, leadership here to me means Council, FESCo, and Mindshare. Participation of community-driven leadership at this event is key. ↩︎

Just to be clear: the intent of my comment was to take the booth out entirely but be open to putting it back in if a prospective sponsor presses us for it.

So like an unadvertised option? I guess this would be something we leave open for negotiation or perhaps mention as something as an aside, instead of featuring at a top-level perk in the prospectus then.

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Makes sense to me.

A post was split to a new topic: Sponsoring travel for Flock

Oops. I drafted this but did not post it. Here are the modified tiers I am going with:


Level 1: Bronze ($1,500 USD)

  • Logo on conference website and primary printed material (e.g. paper schedule).
  • Verbal shout-out by Fedora leadership in opening and closing sessions.
  • One social media mention during the event.
  • Inclusion of one company or project sticker in event attendee swag bag (swag provided by sponsor).

Level 2: Silver ($5,000 USD)

All benefits from the previous levels are inherited.

  • Inclusion of an additional sticker or small swag item in event attendee swag bag, for a total of two items (swag provided by sponsor).
  • Logo on room displays during breaks between sessions (e.g. transition screen).
  • Social media mentions on opening and closing days of the event.
  • 2 sponsor invitations to a networking dinner with Fedora leadership (Council, FESCo, Mindshare).

Level 3: Gold ($10,000 USD)

All benefits from the previous levels are inherited.

  • A room named after your company or project in the event venue.
  • Daily social media shout-outs.
  • 4 sponsor invitations to a networking dinner with Fedora leadership (Council, FESCo, Mindshare).
  • Choice of one sponsored activity: Meal/Beverage, Audio/Video, DEI Fund, Community Social

Level 4: Platinum ($20,000 USD)

All benefits from the previous levels are inherited.

  • Logo on conference lanyard and attendee name badges.
  • Choice of an additional sponsored activity, for a total of two: Meal/Beverage, Audio/Video, DEI Fund, Community Social

Sponsored activities

Certain sponsorship levels can choose to be the headlining sponsor for a sponsored activity. Additionally, any of these sponsored activities may be negotiated as an add-on to an existing tier, whether it includes a sponsored activity or not. All sponsored activities must be combined with a sponsorship tier, i.e. they cannot be chosen independently from regular sponsorship.

Meal/Beverage

$1,500 USD

Historically, we had one all-attendees networking dinner sponsored by the conference. There are additional opportunities for refreshments (e.g. coffee, tea, water).

Audio/Video (A/V)

$3,500 USD

Sponsor our A/V equipment, service costs, and streaming overhead. A company or project logo can be featured on a splash screen in the session recording after the conference ends (e.g. on YouTube / PeerTube / et al).

DEI Fund

$1,000 USD

Contribute to a special reserve funding for helping underrepresented minorities and socioeconomically challenged attendees make it to the conference. This fund is only used for travel, accommodation, and visa costs.

Community Social

$3,500 USD

We have done game nights, walking tours, and other fun local activities during the conference. A sponsor can be attributed and thanked for one of these community social activities.

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@ekidney helped arrange a beautiful prospectus. This is looking more or less final. I am waiting for a final legal review and agreement document before I disseminate the prospectus more widely.

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