[advocacy-discuss] Postconference meditations

[Aaron Houston]

Hi Damian... I would like to add to this... I arrange support and 
sponsorships for a few Java Conferences (JavaZone, DeVoxx, nljug's 
J-Fall) on behalf of Sun.

There are actually *(2) parts*: The *Sponsorship package/letter the 
sponsor signs* and the *actual Purchase Order* you would receive as the 
Conference Organizer.... The Purchase Order is the legal document by 
which you would have leverage to invoice/bill...I would try to get a 
signed agreement 6-9 months before your event and then the Purchase 
Order shortly afterward before embarking on securing a venue/services 
for your event....I can send you a sample sponsorship letter if needed 
to work from...

All of this requires very active coordination, organization, and planning...

Aaron

Damian Wojslaw wrote:
> Three days later, it is time to have some critical thoughts on our 
> event. I sum what went wrong, so that anyone doing their conference from 
> scratch, won't make the same mistakes.
>
> The biggest one, from my point of view:
> - I have never had a written agreement with my sponsors about the money. 
> They backed out and I it was only thanx to few fantastic people that the 
> thing happened.
> - For the reason above,  I  lost a projector at Thursday night and  up 
> until Friday 8:10 AM I didn't know if I had one. Again, thanx go to 
> fantastic friends.
> - I took too much on myself. I should have known, that with health 
> problems at home, I wouldn't able to bring an order to this event. It 
> was nice, but it was a chaos.
> - I had no written plan and milestons. It's just the must. If you have 
> plan, you have objectives and dates, by which you know that all is going 
> as planned, or it's a march to disaster.
> - I have lost my nerver and did my talk in Polish, as all my Polish 
> friends. We agreed previously to have all talks in English and that was 
> my sin against abroad guests.
> - I never thought of it and have should - I did announcement in Polish, 
> while for the sake of our guests, I should have done so in English.
> - I have made a mistake of giving out a conference web page to people 
> that did not keep it up to date, even though I have contacted them many 
> times. Thus the online agenda in Polish was not in sync with one in 
> English and both were not synchronized with reality. I should have 
> reclaimed it and hand out to someone I could trust.
> - It was a deliberate omission, but I should have sent maps to people 
> regarding near hotels and a route from train to conference site.
> - As with the web page, I made a bad choice about a person that would 
> send and Invoice to Sun Czech, which covers most of my expenses. They 
> almost missed the mark and I almost lost all the money that I paid for 
> the conference with. It was my personal earning.
> - Watch your words. I have made a few remarks that, given the Sun 
> sponsoring the vent, made people think that Sun is an evil entity. I 
> have never though of this and it was pointed out to me after the conference.
> - There were omissions in e-mail communication. Most of this two days 
> before the conference, and I am guilty for this.
>
> Given the above, I agree with Roman Strobl, that a guide for conference 
> organiser should be made. I volunteer to give my experiences. Anoyne 
> there to help?
>
> Regards
>
>