 So recording now and I'm going to hand this over to Tim Konstian who is the sponsor fulfillment coordinator So Tim go ahead and kick us off Hi, everybody. I've worked with many of you before and maybe nagging at some time But a lot of the deadlines are approaching. So Maybe I won't be so annoying but as Megan mentioned this will be recorded and it will be stored in the event kit If you missed the last Webinar we had that one was more about about your sponsorship their coordination activities any logistics Neat shipping information This webinar is really going to be more about maximizing your sponsorship You know Megan mentioned it before we are so appreciated over your support and the excitement around Drupal Karnel a huge You can actually feel it around the office and we're all excited here We're hope you're excited, but ultimately you're here for for more than just supporting the Drupal community And so this is really good chance to learn new ways how to you know maximize it how to make the most out of your benefits and really Have your Drupal Karnel a la experience the best it can be so Many of you do know Megan. She's a pro. She's been around since really the beginning of the Association has been a part of Everything Drupal so she really is the master at this and you can learn a lot from her But if you or your employees are missing it again, this will be stored in the The event can't you can go back and review it there. So with that I'm going to kick it off Megan feel free to type any questions in the questions section and we will get to them as best as we can and You know if you have any follow-up questions direct them to me on my email Or my sky, please message quite a bit. So Megan let's get started. Okay. Thanks. Well, that was quite the introduction Never been called the master before but I'll take it. So why don't we just dive into this presentation? And hopefully everyone's seen it if you are not able to see it just Put a note in the question section and we'll just fix anything as we go along All right, so Everyone is sponsoring for slightly different reasons and What I've found over the years is there's three main reasons why people sponsor one is to For business reasons, obviously you're looking for leads. You want to do business development with other companies? So we'll talk some about how to really Use Drupal con for that purpose other people are there to recruit talent We're gonna have Thousands of developers and site builders as well as other job functions at Drupal con It's a great chance to highlight your company culture and your jobs and interface with people that are Possibly looking for a position and so the other reason people Sponsor is to support the community to demonstrate that they're one of the community and a leader in the community As well as a thought leader, so they might be sponsoring to highlight some of their modules And I'm trying to get more traction with that module within the within the community So those are the three reasons. I see people wanting to sponsor but regardless of what you want to Get out of this Drupal con There's really four simple steps To help you achieve your goals and one is you have to be proactive You have to really start your marketing as you're leading up to Drupal con through Drupal con and after and I will talk about some steps that you can take You also want to make sure you really know what your goal is and that it's measurable And that you have a really clear Chris message that you are pushing out To Drupal con attendees and that your whole company who's attending is part of that team And then the last one is you want to look at all your channels So not just the team members who are going to be going but also what are you doing? We're social media and blogs and your newsletters and things like that. So We will kind of break that down a little bit and see what that looks like for each of the different reasons You might be sponsoring. So as I mentioned, you need to be proactive and So that means even starting now you can start promoting your sponsorship We recommend that you contact your database and followers On in social media really let them know that you're going to be there Maybe your company is presenting. Let them know that what session got selected Tell them to check you out at the exhibit hall give them your booth number You can even do raffles. Let them know like maybe you want to raffle off an iPad or whatever It's cool. Now, you are even welcome to raffle off any of your unused Drupal con conference passes When you are doing your promotions through social media We put in the handles and the hashtags that you'll want to use just so that you get even more traction and In reach through your social media channel. So you'll see that here and these are some of the things you can do beforehand during the Drupal con You want to think about all the people you're sending. So whether they're going to be working in your Your booth or they might be presenting. They might be a developer who is going to sessions or Going to the sprints. This is your this is your team. This is your street team So to speak you really want to give them a uniform so that your brand stands out wherever they go and Even if they're developers, we highly recommend that you give everyone business cards because everyone's there to network And you can think about branding your business cards beyond just your you know company logo You can put your message on there. So for example, if you're recruiting talent you might want to have your the jobs URL on there or Just pull it out the Positions that you have open and that way even if it's a developer who's talking to someone they can just hand this out to people So that's one thing that we recommend is just make sure people know you're there And before you get on site sit down with everyone who's going and let them know what your goals are And what the message is and give them metrics So for example, if it's we want to have so many leads Coming out of this business, you know, your team should sit down and know what that is And what the message is what your elevator pitch is and make sure that everyone understands that you are to have these kinds of conversations And maybe even we'll go into some more detail about how you can set up meetings beforehand with you know, kind of like your target audience and make sure that the conversations are we're going to happen so that you leave the event With the outcome that you you were hoping for Also during the event you want to really keep your name out there every, you know, it's great opportunity to be blogging some people will Do a blog every night kind of a recap and get it out into social media And then of course you could be doing live tweeting during the trees node or any important sessions It helps you just really keep your brand out there and be seen as a thought leader And make sure that you are participating in all of the ways that have this organic networking We have birds of a feather as a chance to come together and Talk kind of meet people who want to talk about a common topic that you get to choose or other people choose But you can look for birds of a feather meet people Of a similar interest as you you can go to the special events that are happening at night And you can find out what the community is Doing in terms of events by going to the event site under the community section and we'll be promoting Where all the sponsor parties are and of course we even just have the hallway track It's not an official track, but you'll see a lot of people will go to Drupal con and not even go into sessions They just walk around the hallway and network and talk and they get a lot of business done there So just make sure you have people that are available to float around and have those organic conversations And then of course if you did get a booth as part of your sponsor package Just make sure whatever your message is it's really clear what you're promoting and Have it aligned with your goals and do different things to bring people into your booth whether it's raffles or Clipting cards business cards from people or whatever you need to do just to capture names that you can then follow up with them Because afterwards you want to make sure you do follow up with all your contacts that you're making throughout the event and Again, just reinforce the message and your call to action And we recommend that you get your follow-up email out within 48 hours We highly recommend that you Write this before you go to Drupal con and you have it ready to just push a button and Send out to your contacts because it is a marathon going to a Drupal con and it is exhausting And even 48 hours after Drupal con you may really not want to do a lot of work So we recommend that you plan ahead and and line that up so that it's just a push of a button So those are just some high levels of what to do before during and after a Drupal con regardless of what you're trying to achieve with your sponsorship But let me drill down into those three different areas the lead generation talent acquisition and community and thought leadership So for lead generation This is a sponsoring it gives you an opportunity to acquire new clients What we recommend is you go to the URL that I have here. It's the attendee profile page When a person registers for Drupal con they have the opportunity to say yes make my attendee information public and So this URL takes you there so you can see all the people who are willing to Communicate with you you can click on each individual's picture and profile and email them directly We highly recommend that you're very careful and how you use this because we have had people in the past use webcrawlers to Get all the profiles and their emails and just email them All of them and that came off the spam and it really was not well received And so We recommend that you do go through you think about who you really want to talk to and you email each person directly to the channel that they've Allowed you to communicate with them and it's a great opportunity to say who you are and why you want to talk with them and sit up a meeting so that you can Have a more meaningful conversation face to face So that's one thing that we highly recommend is that you make sure you go into these Conferences with meetings set up and then of course You might want to think about giving your staff some goals So give them goals for how many sales meetings they should have how many conversations they need to have And how many business cards they collect, you know, if you don't measure it you can't manage it and We just always find the more metrics you put around things that the more you come out with a better outcome So there's some suggestions for new clients some other things are you can just find new clients just by being available So you might have some people in your sponsor booth But make sure you have someone else who can roam around do that business development and strike up conversations at the birds of a feather and the social events We also have the IP happy hour on Wednesday that you're all invited to and so I highly recommend that you go to that It's mostly You know the sponsors and the supporters that it's the Drupal shops Software companies hosting companies that attend there and so that's something that you you definitely want to put on your calendar So those are some ways to get some new clients out of Drupal con But you can also use Drupal con as a sales tool to reach into your existing pipeline You know, you can go back to lost deals even and let them know where you're going to be Perhaps you want to invite them and see if you can kind of resurrect that relationship. I'm sure you have active leads that You're just looking for another reason to nurture them and and and reach out and touch them one more time with some communications And so we can easily help you do that And then also you might have some existing clients that you want to expand the footprint within that client and and so Drupal con can help with that as well So what we we recommend is for all of these categories lost deals active leads Existing clients is to invite them to Drupal con You get to really kind of be their Sherpa For Drupal con let them really see that you're the expert Bring them to your employees sessions or other sessions that help reinforce your expertise You can host a dinner and invite them to come and join you where you can talk to them some more about Drupal and your services Of course while you're on site you can show them around You know, it's not just the sessions, but it's the Coder lounge where People are working or the sprints. There's just so many things that you know Depending on their interests you can really find out what their interests are and make sure you walk them over to that or even Introduce them to some of the rock stars that are there So to reach out to them we we'd certainly recommend that you send them a newsletter or promote your presence there and blogs and and social media and I just really Give give them a reason to come and talk to you one more time and help move them through the pipeline or expand their expand their engagement with you So that's How to get some leads from new clients as well as through your existing pipeline But there's another way of generating leads and that's through partnerships. So many Drupal shops especially say that You know, they have a lot of leads but perhaps their Their bench is not available And they're looking for the right person to pass the lead on or maybe there's some downtime with their bench And so they're looking to take on some special projects Or maybe you even have a certain expertise and you'd like to go to market with someone and Kind of capture our special segment so that's where we start talking about partnerships and I see a lot of this happening at Drupal con I've even seen partnerships forum and turn into mergers They're just pretty exciting. We're starting to see a little bit more of that in the Drupal ecosystem, too and so this is a great time to you, you know, especially if you're on the show floor look around see who else is on the show floor and You know when people are in sessions and it's quiet in the exhibit hall go ahead and start talking to each other You know, there's probably a lot of business that you can trim up just by collaborating and Again, if you know that this is a direction you want to go take a look at the sponsor page and the companies that are out there check out their their profiles and set up some meetings in advance and so you make sure that You have these conversations because Drupal cons can be really distracting. So you don't want to leave a Drupal con without You know Having these conversations take place and again, I can't reinforce it enough You want people to work in the booth, but you definitely want to make sure there's someone who's having these meetings And it's not tied to the booth all the time So those are a couple different ways that you can take advantage of Drupal con for lead generation So talent acquisition is a big part of why people sponsor and So if you have a booth you want to make sure it's really clear that you're hiring so put up a sign Make sure that when people come visit you at the booth that you can hand out a flyer that explains what the jobs are Right. It's very strong call to action Again, you can sit at meetings in advance go through the attendee profile if you see people that match What you're looking for in terms of new talent go ahead and tell them that you're really interested in having a conversation and let Them know a conversation never hurts We also have our new job board called Drupal jobs and Tim is going to be sending you a coupon code so that you can post jobs. We highly recommend you take advantage of this And again, make sure you have business cards to hand out to everyone whether it's your developer staff That's going or your sales team Everyone's part of networking. So just make sure you have business cards to hand out and your business cards can even promote some of your jobs And whatever you do with your messaging, I highly recommend that you demonstrate Why your company is great. There's a lot of companies to work for in the Drupal community So why is your culture the one that is so special? I highly recommend that you really think about that captured in pictures Captured in a list of your benefits You can really use that as your messaging in social media and blogs You know, and it's really important to show that you're living your culture So if your team's getting together and doing a special team dinner or you're having fun together Take pictures of that and tweet it out with a call to action of like come work for us And do the same with blogs and your other different channels, but that's just really one way I see companies separating themselves from the pack because like I said Drupal talent they can choose to work anywhere, but there's certain things that they're looking for It's not always just salary salary is always a thing. Well, I've never we're looking for, you know, flexibility that work-life balance opportunities for challenges and Getting to work on special new projects and in learning and professional development So those are the kinds of things that you want to call out Another reason people sponsor is to show that they are community or thought leader and So if you have a booth again, just highlight that message if you are a supporting partner We are going to give you a sign that you can put on your table Maybe you want to even bake that into your messaging a little bit to show that you're not just someone who's built a business with Drupal, but you're giving back in all the ways you're giving back whether it's being a supporting partner contributing to the Drupal aid accelerate fund Of course all of the code that you're contributing because code is king. So make sure you highlight your modules at your booths and in your social media. I'll just get the word out there and You know, you could even attend buffs you might see that there's a need to really talk about certain Things about the community. Maybe it's something about being a camp organizer or maybe it is about certain Functionality that really, you know, you really want the community to come around and talk about and you can schedule birds of a feather session or buff as we call it and Help lead that conversation Really put yourself in a position of leadership You can also look to see what birds of a feather have been scheduled by others and attend and show your leadership by adding to the conversation again, of course, you can show your your community and thought leadership just by highlighting everything through all of your communication channels and And again There's something better than just showing that you really live your values and One way to do that is go to the community summit on Monday. It's a free event if you are a community leader go ahead to that You can find more information on the event site And this is where community leaders talk about ways better ways to run camps or better ways to Promote the sprint mentor program So I highly recommend that event I also say that joint you can become a sprint mentor or have your staff become sprint mentors Kathy phase is looking for people who will work with our new community members and show them how to get ready for a sprint and Show them how to contribute on Friday. I went through that program a little bit and I have to say it just Accelerated my understanding. I have a lot more to do but I am Eternally grateful for the sprint mentors who helped me and and one of them was Bluehost And I will never forget that it was Bluehost who reached out and helped me. It's a great way to align your brand with Connect the ethos of our community and Anyhow, I just can't encourage you enough to have your staff sign up to be a sprint mentor Really good for your company and then of course you can even just have your staff go to the sprints on Friday They can go as sprint mentors and they could just go as contributors many of them I'm sure are contributing and of course make sure they're wearing your t-shirt so that you know When they're at the table and people are looking at them that they see your brand So these are just a couple different ways that you can highlight your community and thought leadership If that is one of your your goals there and so I you know, it's a simple presentation I just kind of go through some of the real Probably obvious things, but you know, it's always good to refresh How to get the most out of your Drupal con? To really be prepared and know in advance what you want to get out of it and break it down into some Tactics that are measurable and so that's what I did around those three main areas around the lead generation talent recruitment and Thought leadership So I'll just leave you with this one slide. I just kind of summarizes it for networking 101 Because I don't know maybe you are a little introverted I know I can get a little shy and I have to really force myself to get out there sometimes Even though that might be shocking to some of you who know who know me But networking is one of the biggest things you can do at Drupal con with all those people so Networking 101 bring plenty of business cards. Make sure you have an elevator pitch So when you talk to people, you know exactly what you want to say Try not to make it sound too salesy, but you know, have your have your pitch ready And Drupal con can be a bit of a family reunion So try to grab try to avoid gravitating to people, you know and start looking around for new people And of course sometimes that can be a little awkward And so there's different openers you can use and I'm just really blunt and I just say hi. I haven't met you yet Just Say it how it is. I haven't met you yet. I want you my name is Megan and I would strike up conversations with people and You know also If you see people that are just standing by themselves, I just encourage you to talk to them We find that that lone person in the corner. Just go say hi I say that for two reasons one. It could be your next customer and two It's really intimidating to go to a Drupal con by yourself So when you walk into there and it feels like this family reunion and you've been invited But you don't know anyone it's hard to break in so, you know It's just also being a nice ambassador of our community And so again when you're talking with people try not to sell anything people don't love like the hard sale but they they do Value relationships, so you know when you're talking to them find out more about them Tell them a bit about yourself and your company and ask them what they're looking for What why they came to Drupal kind and they might give you some good hooks Where you can kind of position yourself as you get to know them a little bit more And another nice trick is everyone's handing out business cards. So what what's going to make someone hold on to yours? I usually write something on the business card and hand it to them it's a little bit more personal and they tend to hold on to it and of course hold on to all of theirs because They within 48 hours up to the event you can get all their names into a spreadsheet and send that email out and and Hopefully you'll start building a pipeline with all those contacts So just a recap to get the most out of your sponsorship be proactive define your goal and your message Get your whole team that's going to push that out They are one of your channels use social media use blogs use your newsletter do an email campaign to your existing database Uh and make sure whatever you're doing it's you have defined metrics So that way you really know what success looks like to you and you can decide afterwards if you achieve those goals So those are the uh, that's pretty much the presentation And if you have any questions go ahead and post them now And in the meantime, I'm just going to hand this back over to tim And he can close us out So tim you want to take it over? Yes, I do. Thank you Megan. I don't know about you guys, but I personally found that very helpful This will be my first con and that was loads of information that I hope you guys Are going to absorb so a few things I want to touch on that are more on the fulfillment and coordination side So Megan mentioned the VIP sponsorship happy hour Everyone that was a sponsor is invited. I just need to know who's going to attend so we can get them on the list per se So if you just want to send me over The name and an email address or whoever is going to be going to that sponsorship VIP Appreciation happy hour. Please just go ahead and do that and uh She also mentioned the Drupal job codes. Uh, it's basically 30 days prior to the con so april 11th I'm going to be sending you all a coupon code similar to the code I sent you for the Drupal con ticket itself If you post a job the job will be available for 30 days, but you can post a job All the way up to The con itself and even to the last day of the con. So the job will be live Extending past that 30 day period One last thing I would like to Kind of make note out there is a lot of you guys are sponsoring modules You know a little bit more complicated Sponsorships or some of you just need some more information regarding logistics boost setup A lot of sponsors are found this helpful and so have I if you want to I'm Totally open and flexible to setting up personal one-on-one meetings to go over really anything You know a phone call or skype call google hangout Can save us loads of time rather than doing emails back and forth where You know it could take multiple days to get a question answer, especially if we're working on different time zones I'm pretty flexible. You know I can stay late wake up early and get it going out there But um I know a lot of sponsors have found it helpful and I like I said so have I so don't hesitate to reach out to me directly Phone call email skype google hangout. They all work for me and you all have my contact information So I just want to make that put that out there And again, you know, we're so appreciative of you guys's support. We're excited. We're hope you're excited and Basically that's going to conclude this webinar again. This is going to be posted on the event kit So if you want to recap it if you want to share it with someone or you just liked it so much And you loved what Megan had to hear. You just want to keep listening to it over and over again So thank you all for attending. Um, I I'm assuming I'll be in contact with a lot of you and I look forward to actually meeting a lot of you So thank you very much and uh, we'll see you at your pecan la Great. Thanks tim. All right. I'm going to close this out and then we can get the recording out to everybody All right. Thanks everyone for joining