Online Sponsorship Prospectus¶
Sections
Introduction¶
Welcome to our brand new Online Conference Sponsorship Prospectus. This document has been adapted from the original Sponsorship Prospectus for our Portland 2020 conference to reflect the virtual conference, including new benefits and increased value across our community.
We’re excited to work with the organizations in our community to build the best possible event in 2020. In particular, we would love your feedback on sponsorship levels and benefits. We expanded the offerings and introduced a lot of new things, but please let us know if there are other points of interaction with our community that would be valuable for you.
Concept¶
Write the Docs (https://www.writethedocs.org/) is a three day conference focusing on documentation systems, tech writing theory, and information delivery.
Writing and maintaining documentation involves a multidisciplinary community of technical writers, designers, librarians, typesetters, developers, support teams, marketers and many others. This group of people can be collectively referred to as “documentarians”.
Write the Docs creates a time and a place for this community to share information, discuss ideas, and work together to improve the art and science of documentation.
Demographics¶
Our audience is primary from companies in the software industry.
Each conference we sell:
- 80% Corporate tickets
- 15% Independent tickets
- 5% Student tickets
For those people, they have a range of job titles. The most common job title is Technical Writer, but we have many other people who attend our conferences:
- Technical Writers (60%)
- Developers (10%)
- Support Staff (10%)
- Managers (10%)
- Community Contributors, Enthusiasts & Other Folks (10%)
Why Sponsor¶
By supporting a Write the Docs event, your company will gain not only visibility and credibility with front-line documentarians, but also valuable insights that will help you get the most out of your own documentation efforts. If you’re hiring for docs positions, Write the Docs is also an excellent opportunity to meet top-notch talent.
We work hard to keep ticket prices affordable for a broad range of attendees. Your sponsorship makes it possible for all sorts of documentarians to attend our events, whether they’re a freelancer, a student or out of work. Becoming a sponsor demonstrates your commitment to and support of good documentation, and the people who build it.
Sponsorship Packages¶
The following options are suggested sponsorship levels. We are happy to discuss adjustments and custom packages.
Second Draft¶
The Second Draft package is great for companies looking to hire or to promote a product.
- Increased Three (3) tickets
- Increased Two (2) featured job postings on our Job Board, also promoted in our newsletter (10,000 subscribers)
- Increased A short description (250 characters) and logo of your company on the conference website
- A table at our virtual job fair
- Name included in welcome announcement in email newsletters and social media
The Second Draft package costs $2,500.
Publisher¶
The Publisher package is great for sending a team and getting to know the community.
- Increased Seven (7) tickets
- Increased Four (4) featured job postings on our Job Board, also promoted in our newsletter (10,000 subscribers)
- Increased A short description (250 characters) and logo of your company on the conference website
- A table at our virtual job fair
- Name included in welcome announcement in email newsletters and social media
- New A small logo on all Write the Docs website pages for 3 months
The Publisher package costs $5,000.
Patron¶
Limit 3
The Patron package highlights your company as a force in the industry and community:
- Increased Thirteen (13) tickets
- Increased Seven (7) featured job postings on our Job Board, also promoted in our newsletter (10,000 subscribers)
- Increased A medium description (750 characters and logo of your company on the conference website
- A virtual sponsorship booth
- A featured table at our virtual job fair
- Small logo included in intermission slides and on talk videos
- Name included in welcome announcement in email newsletters and social media
- New 5 minute sponsored lightning talk on main stage of the conference
- New One newsletter sponsorship (logo & 300 characters) in our newsletter (10,000+ subscribers)
- New A logo on all Write the Docs website pages until the end of 2020. (30,000 pageviews/mo)
- New A small ad displayed on all non-conferences pages of the Write the Docs website (240x180px, 180 characters, 10,000 pageviews/mo) for 3 months.
The Patron package costs $9,500.
Keystone¶
Limit 1 - Sold Out
The Keystone package highlights you as our main community partner:
- Increased Twenty (20) tickets
- Increased Ten (10) featured job postings on our Job Board, also promoted in our newsletter (10,000 subscribers)
- Increased A large description (750 characters) and logo of your company on the conference website
- A featured virtual sponsorship booth
- A featured table at our virtual job fair
- Large logo included in intermission slides and on talk videos
- Name included in welcome announcement in email newsletters and social media
- New 5 minute sponsored lightning talk on main stage of the conference
- New Two newsletter sponsorships (logo & 300 characters) in our newsletter (10,000+ subscribers)
- New A logo on all Write the Docs website pages until the end of 2020. (30,000 pageviews/mo)
- New A small ad on the Write the Docs website (240x180px, 180 characters, 10,000 pageviews/mo) for 3 months
The Keystone package costs $17,000.
Other Sponsorship Opportunities¶
The following a la carte offerings are available either independently or combined with one of the previous packages to increase visibility at the event.
Opportunity Grants¶
Provide additional money for our Opportunity Grant program, which provides funding for people to attend the conference.
$2,500
Additionally, for $5,000 we will offer exclusive sponsorship of our Opportunity Grant program. Please talk to us about this soon, as this option is removed once we have secured the required funding for this benefit.
Benefits¶
- Your sponsor logo will be shown on the stage during all staff presentations as a grant sponsor (opening, closing).
- We will mention your company as a grant sponsor on Twitter from the official Write the Docs account
Writing Day¶
Sponsor the Writing Day on Sunday, where we get together to help improve the documentation of many projects. This is great for any company that is looking for contributors to their open source projects.
$2,500
- Logistics: The Writing Day is during the day Sunday.
Payment¶
Invoices must be paid within 30 days of invoice receipt, or no later than one (1) week before the virtual conference.
Run of Show¶
This Run of Show provides more context about the event and answers some common questions you may have. Please let us know if there is any information missing that would be useful for you.
Sponsorship schedule¶
- SUNDAY: The conference online platform is open. You are welcome to hang out at your sponsorship booth and attend the Writing Day, but no formal sponsorship events are happening. You’re also welcome to lead a Writing Day project if your documentation is open source.
- MONDAY: The conference platform opens at 8am, so we recommend arriving around this time to get the most interaction with attendees. This is the official start of the main conference talks, when sponsor booths will need to be staffed. The conference will run until around 5pm.
- TUESDAY: The Job Fair will be on Tuesday morning in the Sessions area of the online platform. The normal conference sponsorship activities and expo booths will be available all day Tuesday, but primarily on Tuesday afternoon.
See the full schedule for exact timing details.
Sponsorship platform¶
We will be using Hopin as our online conference platform. It has multiple unique spaces for attendees during the conference, and we hope it will allow for a good amount of interaction between attendees and sponsors.
We will open the online platform 1 week prior to the conference starting. You will be able to create an account and be assigned roles by us, but it won’t become fully active until the Sunday of the conference.
Hopin has a set of sponsor documentation that explains a bit more about the sponsorship setup on the platform.
Sponsorship spaces¶
A quick overview of the important spaces in the “venue”:
- The main stage is where the talks happen. This is also where Lightning talks will be given.
- The Sessions area is where the Unconference & Job Fair will happen. Sponsors will be assigned sessions at the scheduled time for their job fair “tables”, and Expo booths will be available for the duration of the conference.
- The Expo area is where sponsors will be able to have booths available. You can provide videos that will play whenever attendees enter your booth, as well as chat or video-call directly with attendees.
- The Networking area is where you can chat with a random attendee to get to know people. There is no specific sponsorship usage of this area.
Sponsorship events¶
Job Fair¶
On Tuesday morning we hold our Job Fair, which is a wonderful place to connect with our over 500 attendees. Many of them are looking for jobs now or will be in the near future, so it’s a great chance to talk more about your company culture and open positions.
Logistics: You will be assigned a session in the Sessions area where you can engage with attendees and answer questions. The session will have a max capacity of 10 participants (for video/audio), which means it’ll serve as a “lobby/reception” area for your session. We recommend that you answer general questions in the main session and then break off into private calls or chats to talk in more depth with specific people.
Sponsor booths¶
Sponsor booths are only available for our larger sponsors. You will be given a booth that is in the Expo area of the online platform. Most of the attendee focus will come during breaks between talks and at the beginning and end of the day.
Logistics: You can record a video to play at your booth when attendees enter the booth, but we generally recommend having someone with the Expo hall tab open to answer any questions that attendees might have. We also recommend that you answer general questions in the main booth and then break off into private calls or chat to talk in more depth to specific people.
Writing day¶
On Sunday we hold our Writing Day. This is a place where the community gathers to get actual work done. This generally involved communities and organizations hosting a documentation sprint on some piece of documentation that is open source and needs improvements.
If you want to participate in the Writing Day, it helps to do a bit of work up front. The best way to prepare is to have a set of issues that you’ve already picked as “easy for beginners”. Starting with these issues will make it much easier for people to start, and feel productive. Make sure you also have good installation instructions and other helpful beginners content as well.
Logistics: We will send a signup sheet to the general attendee list a week before the conference, where you can sign up. You can introduce your project to attendees on Sunday morning during the Writing Day Introduction.
How do I get the most out of my sponsorship?¶
Come prepared to engage with our community, and to learn just as much as you teach. Engage with our event as attendees as well as sponsors. Send technical staff who can chat with people on the interesting things your company is doing, and get value from the vast amount of insight in the room. We do have some decision makers in the room, but soft sells will work better than hard sales in the environment we strive for.
Who is my primary contact?¶
Eric Holscher will be your primary contact, but our team is available at sponsorship@writethedocs.org. If you have a time sensitive inquiry, please email the entire team to ensure a timely response.
During the conference itself, we will also have a help desk available on the Hopin platform. You can find staff members there to ask any additional questions you might have.
How do I use my sponsorship tickets?¶
You should have received a unique URL with a discount code for your sponsorship tickets. We are happy to send it over again, just ask!
How do I use my job postings?¶
You can post your jobs to our job board. You will be given a discount code that will let you post them for free, please ask us for this if you don’t have it! They will be published in our Newsletter every month, and displayed on our website as well.
What do I need for the job fair?¶
The job fair will be a low key event. Generally we recommend having links available to your job descriptions, and ways for attendees to engage with you online after the event.
Can I play multiple videos in my sponsorship booth?¶
Yes, you can point your booth video to any YouTube playlist as well as a specific video. So if you have multiple videos that you’d like to show (eg. a hiring video and a product demo), you can create a playlist and embed that in your booth.
We will also share the sponsorship videos with attendees after the conference, so that you can continue to get more value from the video content you produce.
What does the platform look and feel like?¶
You can see a demo of the platform in this video. It’s currently linked to the expo hall demo, but it has demos of all the other areas as well:
