How to Sponsor a Conference

I recently attended the Strange Loop conference in St. Louis. This was my first real technical conference, and I was not disappointed. The venue was unique - an old movie theater, called the Tivoli. The speaker lineup had balance - There was an interesting topic for every session. I didn't find the conference overweighted for any technology.

Of interest to me was the sponsorship of my company, OCI. I was proud to work for OCI while attending this conference, and told as many people as would listen, exactly what OCI did for Strange Loop, and for its staff.

* Financially supported the conference through its corporate partnership program.
* Promoted the conference to its employees - and had over 25 attendees
* Paid the admission fee for its employees
* Encouraged its employees to present at the conference - and had 2 regular speakers, and 2 strange passion speakers
* Gave employees flexibility in their schedule to attend - rather than having to burn through precious vacation
* Provided equipment for the conference
* And finally, designed and provided company T-Shirts to wear at the conference, seen above.

That, is what I call sponsoring a conference. In poker terms, OCI was all in. I wish more firms would get behind their community like that.