2010Q3 Reports: Sponsorship Chairs

Sponsorship

Christy Doran and Srinivas B.

The sponsorship effort for 2009-2010 was reasonably successful compared to the preceding year. For the NAACL 2010 conference, we raised over $30,000 from a range of small and large companies. Given the economic times, this is a noteworthy amount.

Here are a few points to improve the efficiency of raising money for future conferences:

• There should be a single point of contact in the committee who will be responsible for each organization we approach to solicit sponsorship. (Compile and update the list of donors.)

• There should be a local organization member as part of the committee, given that there are usually companies local to the conference who might be better targeted by local organizers.

• The committee members should approach the organizations well ahead of time, perhaps even the fall of preceding year, since organizational budgets are decided during fall of previous year.

• Besides corporations, it might be meaningful for research institutions to show off their research in a "Show and Tell" like set up. This event might attract additional funds to support a conference.

• Clear guidelines need to be established as to how sponsor materials will be presented (logo, write up etc.) on the conference web site.

• Only two sponsors subscribed to the "combo" packs. Sponsors preferred to sponsor conferences in their business regions, this year. Is there a way to make these more attractive to sponsors?