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Comment by roberte3 | Hacker News Reader

I'm going to say a strong NO to this, and I strongly advise others to do so as well.

The thing about sponsorships of things like barcamps and heck any other event is the fact that you negotiate what you give up for the money.

Here they are asking for EVERYTHING, and not saying exactly what they are going to give up, for the 'privilege' of having them stop by... Do I give you the names of all of my attendees? How about their names and email addresses so you can spam the hell out the my 'entrepreneurial community'.

And don't even get me started on the mealy-mouthed help you solve your 'biggest pain point'. Which one exactly? Every event has its on hard pain point, but for the most part its finding a good venue. Sponsors are easy, usually I have to tell a bunch that I don't want them anywhere near my event.

(Organizer of three barcamps, twenty two startup hackathons, a startup conference, startup weekend, burning man 'decom' parties).

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Robert - not sure i understand the strong negative reaction?

Have you had any experience or interaction with these 3 brands? Is there any precedent that would lead you to think we would want names & emails, or have any intent of spamming anyone for that matter? The reason the 3 of us choose to join forces on this project is because we all try and engage with entrepreneurs, not market at them.

I am sorry if you have had a negative experience in the past with sponsors, but this offer my friend is a genuine one. Last year we attended multiple BarCamps and had an absolute blast, the feedback that we got from the communities was overwhelming appreciation and hope that we would come back again next year.

We are not asking for everything, in fact we only want to be involved with what you need help with. I think its so AMAZING that you have such overwhelming support from sponsors in your community, but in our experience there are still tons of barcamps struggling to solve a few pain points. Or in some cases (like BC Charlotte), they don't even want our monetary support but just wanted us to come participate and meet their community.

The bottom line is, this is something new and we are going to make mistakes & learn as we go. All i know is that we want to find a way to make barcamps even more awesome...and i hope people are willing to work with us to help make that possible.

Jonathan

The crux of the problem is the following: 1) You don't say what your giving anywhere. a) You don't say anything about what organizers pain points are, or how your going to solve them. 2) The goal of all sponsors is develop their brand. Engage with customers etc. However the problem is that sponsors are antithetical to the origins of barcamp(s) which sprung out of the communities disgust with a large sponsored event. (Foocamp).

As a result of two I have developed a LOT of rules and regulations depending on the event of what we have to sell. And honestly if I could get away without sponsorships I would.

There is the old Winston Churchill story. Winston to women at party ” Would you sleep with me for $1,000,000 ?” Women “Why Winston I would indeed.” Winston ” Would you sleep with me for $10?” Women ” What kind of women do you take me for?” Winston ” We have already ascertained what kind of women you are now we are mearly deciding on a price.”

As a result, I demand a high price for my virtue.

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