PGConf.EU 2011 - Call for Platinum Partner

We finished PGDay.EU 2010 about a month ago, and planning for the next
conference - PostgreSQL Conference Europe 2011 - is already underway! The
conference will be held sometime in the autumn, with date, location and
exact length yet to be decided.

PostgreSQL Europe is now seeking an organisation interested in becoming
a Platinum partner for this conference. A further call for sponsors at
several different levels (gold, silver, bronze, etc) will follow later.

A Platinum partner is expected to be a larger part of the organisation
of the conference than lower level sponsors, with a larger commitment
both monetary and organisation-wise. For this reason, we are seeking such
an agreement early on.

We do not have a fixed definition of what we want from a Platinum partner.
Instead we hope that you, potential partners, will bring us some ideas on
how we can cooperate. This can be anything from a regular sponsorship
which is mainly monetary in exchange for advertising, to something where
the organisation is much more integrated.

As a reference, here's how it worked last year: Our Platinum partner for
PGDay.EU 2010 was EnterpriseDB. As part of the agreement, EnterpriseDB
paid for, and assumed all liability in the contracts with, the hotel venue
chosen for the conference, including catering and guest-room guarantees.
On top of this, there was also a commitment to use existing marketing
resources from the company to market the conference, assistance in
finding lower level sponsors and participation of marketing resources
in planning meetings.

EnterpriseDB was also in charge of finding and presenting potential venues
to the conference committee, but the final decision was with the conference
committee and not EnterpriseDB.

In exchange for this was given the exclusive title of Platinum partner, along
with all the benefits as listed on http://2010.pgday.eu/partnership_campaign.

Any extra sponsors brought in by the partner could be used to bring down the
cost of the Platinum partnership (though this did not happen), but any extra
money brought in past that would be given to PostgreSQL Europe.

As a hint of the costs last year, the Platinum Partnership ended up costing
approximately €35k-€40k, all included. This is to be seen as an indicator only,
since the cost itself will obviously differ depending on how the partnership
looks.

We wish to discuss the different options for how to do a partnership with
a couple of different companies, to reach what we think is the best for
the conference. For this reason, we would like to hear from you!

* That you are interested in being a Platinum partner
* If this interest is depending on where the conference is to be held, and
in that case what the restrictions are (we have not fully decided where
next years conference will be so, and we will of course take requirements
of potential Platinum partners under consideration for this)
* How you feel you can contribute - monetary, organisation-wise, or otherwise
* Confirming that if you are selected, you will have the ability to provide
planning resources at regular meetings from now and until the conference
is held, exact details to be agreed upon later of course.

Please send us your notice of interest, along with an idea of what you think,
before February 7th, 2011. If you wish to discuss this in person with a
representative from the conference committee, many of us will be present at
FOSDEM in the days before - or you can email us asking for a good time and
person to have a phone-call with!

This is just a notice of interest and does not mean it's an actual offer. We
will proceed based on the input of this for discussions with the organisations
that do submit, working towards a contract that will benefit both sides.

The choice of partner is entirely with the PGConf.EU committee, and can not
be appealed. If we find no suitable Platinum partner amongst the offers, we
will proceed either by direct solicitation or by holding a conference without
a Platinum partner and just regular monetary sponsors.

Please send your response to contact(at)pgconf(dot)eu(dot)

--
 Magnus Hagander
 Me: http://www.hagander.net/
 Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/