23:1 (2008:03) Board Votes to Allow Organizational Sponsorship

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23:1 (2008:03) Board Votes to Allow Organizational Sponsorship

February 29, 2008 at 3:10 pm | In News |

BOARD VOTES TO ALLOW ORGANIZATIONAL SPONSORSHIP
Jill Emery, NASIG Vice President/President-Elect

At the January 2008 NASIG Board meeting, the board considered a proposal to allow for organizational sponsorship at future NASIG conferences. After a long discussion and careful consideration, the board agreed unanimously to accept the proposal and move forward with organizational sponsorship at future NASIG annual conferences.

Organizational sponsorship will allow NASIG to keep the conference registration at a reasonable cost and still provide top-notch programs and numerous networking opportunities to the annual conference attendees. In addition, organizational sponsorship will also allow us to partner with other groups, such as NISO and UKSG, to offer a larger variety of preconference and continuing education opportunities to the membership.

Organizational sponsorships will be available at the following levels:

Tier 1 Sponsorship: $5000

-Two pieces of promotional literature included in the conference tote bag or registration table
-A copy of the conference mailing list [one-time use only of physical mail addresses]
-Recognition sign at the conference
-Company description in the program
-Listing on the conference website
-Recognition at opening speech

Tier 2 Sponsorship: $3000

-One piece of promotional literature included in the conference tote bag or registration table
-Recognition sign at the conference
-Company description in the program
-Listing on the conference web site
-Recognition at opening speech

Tier 3 Sponsorship: $2000

-Recognition sign at the conference
-Company description in the program
-Listing on the conference web site
-Recognition at opening speech

Tier 4 Sponsorship: $500-$2000

-Recognition sign at the conference
-Listing on the conference web site
-Recognition at opening speech

Other Sponsorship Opportunities:

Tote bags with conference & company logo: $7500
Flash drives with conference & company logo $3500
Buses with conference & company logo: $2500+
Notepads with conference & company logo: $2500
Opening reception: $5000
First Timers’ Reception: $3000
Conference break periods: $3000
Internet café sponsorship: $10,000

The NASIG Board is very excited to explore and develop ways we can partner with other organizations to help continue to provide one of the best annual conference experiences available.

Please see the NASIG FAQ on organizational sponsorships for more information. The FAQ can be found here: http://www.nasig.org/organization/index.htm (click on “Organizational Sponsorship FAQ”).

8 Comments »

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My concern is that there is no mention of the number of company attendees permitted for the conference for the various levels of sponsorship.

In return for what should be an organizational membership, commercial entities should have the right to send a certain number of people which is right now where the expense is for commercial entities — just registration not hotels.

Part of what the Membership Development Committee put forward in order to attract more commercial members was an organizational membership to ensure that commercial people ATTEND the conference and JOIN the organization.

With sponsorship, you do not always get the attendance nor the participation from the commercial group.

Comment by Tina Feick — March 15, 2008 #
Hi Tina,

The NASIG board sees organizational membership to be a separate consideration and we are still working towards achieving that possibility with the Membership Development Committee.

In the meantime, this year CPC has received solicitations from the local commercial center in Phoenix/Scottsdale to sponsor conference costs and the board wanted to be able to take advantage of these offers. We’ve made it an organizational sponsorship so that this does not just appeal to the commercial sector of our membership but could also be supported by libraries, universities and other not-for-profit entities.

Lastly, NISO wanted to hold their preconference as part of NASIG and needed the ability to underwrite some of their costs with their own sponsorship efforts so this seemed like a good chance to take advantage of this opportunity.

Your points are well taken in regards to organizational membership and the board has every intention of revisiting the proposal put forward by the Membership Development Committee at our conference meeting and issuing a decision on the matter prior to our next membership drive.

Comment by Jill Emery — March 17, 2008 #
I think this is a long overdue move by NASIG and I for one would like to see more vendor activity at the meeting. Consider having a vendor day much like the Charleston Conference and most important be sure to set-up a committee within NASIG to sell and manage the sponsorships. It takes work to generate the sponsorship activity and considerable marketing to the community.

Dan

Comment by Dan Tonkery — March 18, 2008 #
Hi Dan,

Thanks for the suggestion. As part of the board decision to move forward with organizational sponsorships, the board did consider how solicitation will be managed within NASIG. The decision has been made to utilize the NASIG Past President to perform the solicitation and recruitment of sponsorship and to work in conjunction with both the NASIG Treasurer and a designated member of the Conference Planning Committee (CPC). NASIG may in fact, increase the number of committee members on CPC to handle this additional duty. We think the time-line and procedures we have developed will allow us to explore this option fully next year. As with all things in this day and age, we also expect to have to tweak these procedures as we develop these opportunities.

Comment by Jill Emery — March 20, 2008 #
Another thing to take into consideration (in addition to Tina’s expectation of complimentary registrations) when asking for anywhere from $500 to $10,000 is that vendors will expect a place to demonstrate their wares during a no-conflict time. A demo room, an exhibit area, and so forth. Vendors, after all, must earn the dollars it takes to bestow sponsorships upon organizations such as NASIG and those dollars are earned through sales. Many vendors make a sincere effort to deliver presentations that are “vendor-neutral” at conferences, i.e., not sales pitches, and a clear-cut opportunity to really “pitch” is important.

Comment by Sandy Hurd — April 14, 2008 #
This is something we considered! However, we wanted to keep things simple for the first year. We decided on a small, simple set of options whereby organizations could offer their support. We may expand the options in future years, and will certainly keep the idea of demo rooms, etc. in mind. The membership has expressed strong opinions about exhibits in the past (both for and against the idea), so we did want to think that through a bit more. Organizations who choose to sponsor the conference this year are doing so with the understanding that there won’t be any exhibits. We’re eager to hear feedback from potential and committed organization sponsors, and will use that feedback as well to make adjustments.

Comment by Kim Maxwell — April 16, 2008 #
Hi all,
Has there been any consideration regarding using organizational sponsorship to support the webpage costs? This was something that I saw other organizations doing when we were in the rfp process and I explored ArcStone client pages. I suggested at the time that this might be a possibility but I don’t think anyone responded to the idea.

Comment by Lisa Blackwell — April 23, 2008 #
I wouldn’t rule any suggestions out, Lisa. As Kim noted, we wanted to start small and focus on the conference.

Comment by Char — April 28, 2008 #