Posted in April 2012 …

Apr 29 2012
2 Comments
Events

How to Run a Tech Conference Part 3: Budget and Sponsors

This is the third post in my series on running a tech conference.

  1. Getting Started: Goals and Vision
  2. Choosing a Venue
  3. Budget and Sponsors
  4. Finding Speakers
  5. Event Logistics & Timeline
  6. Promotion of your Event
  7. The Day Of!
  8. Post Event

Budget Categories

As I mentioned in my first post, you can spend as much or as little as you want on a conference. For the purposes of this series, I will assume that most of the readers are organizing events in the 100-300 person range, with a limited budget. Given that, in this post I will outline the different items that you should consider including in your budget, and the range of prices you can expect.

Venue

Room rental

Room rental fees vary depending on the venue that you are using. Obviously if you get space donated by a corporate sponsor, you won’t have any room rental costs. If you are using a hotel or conference center, the rooms themselves tend to be relatively inexpensive but will require you to use their catering services and charge you a food and beverage minimum. In my experience with hotels and conference centers, you can usually rent a ~150 person room for about $1,500 a day.

Audio / Visual

Here are the A/V items that you should expect to rent for your event:

  • Projector package (includes an LCD projector, screen, cart, and extension cord) — $325
  • Wireless Microphones (lavaliers) — $120
  • Wired mic — $50
  • Power Strips — These are super useful when you have lots and lots of people using laptops at the event. Some facilities (particularly universities and training centers) are built with lots of outlets in the floors and desks. If there are insufficient outlets in the space, you can probably rent them from the venue for a nominal fee. However, you need to make sure that they are stocked beforehand as most facilities don’t have 30 power strips hanging around! — $15
  • Flip charts and/or white boards are an essential item at any tech conference. In most cases these items can be rented from the A/V department. — $50
Pro Tip: Get a sponsor to fund a “power up station” — a central place where everyone can charge their laptops and cell phones. Even better if they can bring in a few laptop and mobile phone chargers in case people forget them. The sponsor benefits by having everyone huddling around their table.
Catering

This is where your choice of venue makes a huge difference. If your event is at a hotel or conference center where you are required to use their catering vendors, then your daily delegate rate (DDR) will include food, and can range anywhere from $25-$75 per person depending on the market. (Some markets, like New York City and Paris, soar into the $90-125 range.) Continuous beverage service will run about $20 per person. In contrast, if you are not obligated to use a specific vendor, then you can feed a large group cheaply with pizza, sandwiches or bagels.

Here are a few cost-cutting tricks when planning catering for an event:

  • Skip a catered lunch: Suggest that people go out and grab lunch, or encourage people to “brown bag” their meal. There are two big drawbacks to this approach. First, you drastically reduce the networking opportunity at the event. Second, you run the risk of people deciding to go back to the office or home instead of returning to the event.
  • Skip a catered breakfast: Give away granola bars at registration or stuffed in the swag bag. (Be careful, as this may violate your contract with the venue if the agreement states that you must use their catering services.)
  • Designated beverage breaks: Rather than having continuous beverage service, consider having a few designated breaks.
  • Get a sponsor to agree to cover one of the meals or the coffee station: They can either by purchase the food outright, or pay a sponsorship fee. They can then have their signage on all the service tables.
  • Don’t overorder: If your meal is set up buffet-style, you usually don’t need to order food for your exact registration count. Typically we order breakfast for 50% of the headcount, and lunch for 85% of the attendees. (The one exception to this rule is box lunches. In that case, you need to order the exact number since each person gets an individual box.)

Speaker Appreciation

We try to go out of our way to show our thanks to the speakers. This typically includes a dinner the night before the conference. I particularly like this gathering as it helps build some camaraderie among the speakers at the event. We also give a small gift to the speakers. A book or a gift card is a nice gesture to thank them for their time and efforts.

Design & Print

Design and print is another area where you can spend as much or as little as you want. Take name tags for instance. You can buy a bunch of white sticky labels and some sharpies, and leave it at that. Or you can hire a badge vendor who will print name tags on site and provide badge scanners for your vendors/sponsors. Similarly, you can get nicely designed directional signage and agendas printed for every door. Or you can bring some flip charts and use them as signs. It all depends on the tone that you want to set at your event.
In general, print costs can really add up if:
  • You print lots of items
  • You print last minute
  • You ship overnight
  • You print in color
You may be thinking that you can save lots of money by printing in advance and avoiding rush fees. But it may not be possible to get name tags done in time with people registering last minute, or for the agenda to be printed in advance when your speakers still owe you the final details of their abstract. So prepare for some last-minute scrambling when it comes to name tags, signage, and agenda printing.
Name Tags

I think that name tags might just be the bane of my existence. Trying to get them printed any earlier than a day in advance is not worth the trouble as there are always last minute additions, registration swaps, and other changes. Our method for handling name tags has evolved over time.

The first few events I did I had no idea what I was doing, so I would use Eventbrite to print badges. It has a very convient “Print Name Badges” functionality that allows you to export the attendee list into a set of name tags in different sizes. I would then stay up until 2am the night before the event and stuff name tags into plastic holders and attach lanyards.

Then we started using a vendor called PC Nametag to do plastic holders and lanyards for every event. We would send them the attendee list and a badge template, and they would print, stuff, and ship directly to the venue. This was better than being up all night badge stuffing, but it was problematic for a number of other reasons. First of all, we had to place the order about a week in advance, which meant that it wouldn’t include any of the registrants in the final week. And even a week in advance, we would need to do an expedited order and it would be very pricey (often $1,000+ depending on the venue).

Eventually we decided, with the exception of our largest events, that sticky name tags would suffice. We have a template that our graphic designer created, we drop the names into it, and print the labels the day before the event at the office. If we’re cutting it close, we send the file to a local print shop and get the labels done there. We still need to print a few blanks but this method is affordable and accommodates the last-minute registrants.

For MongoSV this year, where we had 1,200 attendees and a full expo hall with dozens of vendors, we used a vendor (ExpoBadge) to print the badges with scanners. They provided lead retrieval units for the vendors, which was a big value-add for sponsors. They also handled on-site registration and last-minute badge printing. Outsourcing this aspect of the conference to a vendor was worth the $6,000 as it allowed the team to focus on the more important parts of the events, such as the sessions, the guests, and the sponsors.

After the success of the lead retrieval units with our sponsors at MongoSV, we wanted to figure out a way to offer this service at our smaller events. This has resulted in us starting to experiment with a startup called Qrious, who has built a name badge printing service and smartphone app that makes it easy for  attendees to share contact information at events.

If you don’t want to deal with the headaches that I’ve described above, do yourself a favor and invest in some white sticky labels and sharpies!

Signage (directional, agenda)

Depending on the layout of your venue and the complexity of your schedule, you may need signage. Venues will often have small signage posts, but printing large signs with the schedule, directions, and map of the venue can be extremely helpful. (As nice as it is to have signage, in my experience it’s even more important to have people stationed in designated areas to direct people on the day of the event.)

Agenda

A print agenda is particularly useful in a multi-track event where there are many sessions happening concurrently. For this audience, however, it might make more sense to invest in an app that manages conference scheduling, and skip a printed agenda.

Pro Tip: A clever place to put the event schedule is in the name badges. You can insert a condensed version of the schedule in the plastic name tag holder.

Scheduling Apps

Another “nice-to-have” is a mobile-friendly agenda. BusyConf is currently in beta but has a very nice scheduler that looks great on a variety of mobile devices. They recently published the agenda for RailsConf if you want to get a feel for their service. Guidebook, which I first encountered at PyCon last year, offers an iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry app for conference scheduling, feedback, interactive maps, and more.

Swag

I could probably write a blog post on swag, but for this post I will focus on the two most common promotional items in the tech sector: stickers and t-shirts.

If you want to offer a memento from your event without breaking the bank, stickers are a great option. They can be produced with fast turn around for a few hundred dollars. IMHO Sticker Mule has the best quality stickers, but if you’re on a budget 4over4 will do the job (but the design will scratch off over time!).

T-shirts are often the go-to form of swag for a conference. For this audience, high-quality t-shirts are a requirement. If you want American Apparel tees, for example, you will need to spend $11+ per shirt (unless you are ordering in enormous quantities). One way to reduce costs is to have a company sponsor the tee shirts in exchange for their logo on the sleeve or on the back. Another idea is to have a ticket type that is $10-15 over your standard fee that includes the event t-shirt. (Eventbrite’s ticketing tool lets you do this easily.) Just don’t forget to ask for t-shirt sizes at registration!

Photographer

A professional photographer is a nice touch for your event. They can capture the energy of the conference, and if you chose to continue to organize your conference annually, the photos can be invaluable marketing assets for your website or future email campaigns. I prefer to hire someone to take photos (usually only for a few hours) rather than relying on the staff to take pictures. In my experience, I’m always too frantic on site to take anything other than a few iPhone snapshots. To simplify things, we use a service (Orange Photography) across all of our events, and they subcontract to freelance photographers. We spend <$750 per event on photography, which includes the photos, processing, and posting online. And I’m sure that with some research, you could find an excellent semi-professional / good amateur photographer for a few hundred dollars.

Videographer

Capturing the conference on film can be a way to make the experience of the event extend beyond the audience that is able to attend. For most of our events, we record ourselves. We purchased a basic video camera package for about $1,500, and set the camera up to point and shoot. After the event, we hire a contractor who edits the talks on a per presentation basis.

For our largest events, we hire a professional film crew to record the event, edit slides with video, and post online. We also wanted to post videos online quickly. To increase turnaround time for the bigger events, we had the shooters do live switching between the presenter and the slides. We work with several contractors for these events, and while it can be expensive, it is worth it for the number of views the videos get.

This is also another great opportunity to engage sponsors. Ask someone to cover the cost of filming in exchange for their logo on the videos.

Social Events

A networking or social part of your event is, in my opinion, a really important aspect of your conference. This is the opportunity for your guests to talk to one another, discuss what they learned, share ideas, and generally have fun. This is where the whole event really gels for me, and it’s also where I am able to get lots of anecdotal feedback on the conference.

There are a few approaches for organizing a social event at your conference:

  • Bar minimum: Many bars will let you use their space for a large group in exchange for a minimum spend at their bar. In my experience, the minimum requested is usually $2,000-$3,000. If you are on a budget, you can simply arrange for space at the bar and let guests buy their own drinks. You will, however, be responsible for making up the difference for your bar minimum if your guests don’t drink enough.
  • Open bar: Most bars will offer private groups a per head cost for an open bar for a certain amount of time (e.g. $30/person for two hours). To decrease costs, when we organize open bar events we typically offer wine and beer only. Another trick is to offer a one hour open bar to get people to attend the after party, and then convert to a cash bar.
  • Drink tickets: Another way to control costs is to purchase drink tickets at a fixed price. Once at the event, you can have your staff give away the tickets. This is a great way to get your staff to mix and mingle with the attendees.
  • Sponsor: The after-party is another great opportunity to get a sponsor involved!

Your Emergency Gear

There are a few random items that I strongly recommend that you have on hand for your event. At 10gen we have a conference kit that we bring everywhere. You won’t regret bring over-prepared. Something always goes wrong the day of the event, so you want to have the right tools available to fix things quickly and efficiently!

  • Mac Adaptors: Conference venues simply don’t have these and you can’t rely on your speakers to remember to bring them. I always bring a Mac Adaptor for each session room, with a MongoDB label on it.
  • Slide Clicker: A Logitech clicker costs about $35 and is another nice item to have on hand in each presentation room.
  • Power Strips: In case you need to make an emergency power up station.
  • Sharpies: These permanent markers are always useful to have around in case you need to make an impromptu sign of some sort.
  • Packing Tape: Tape is just useful stuff to have around.
  • Labels: In case you have any problems with your badges, it’s good to have some back up, blank labels.
  • Batteries: For your slide clickers and any other devices you will have on site.

Misc. Costs

Here are a few final items that might land in your budget:

  • Shipping or storage costs for the gear you are bringing to the event.
  • Travel for speakers and staff.
  • Temp staff to assist with registration, set up, or directing people, to supplement any volunteer staff.

Sponsorship

Offering sponsorship for your event is beneficial for many reasons. Sponsors raise the profile of your event and help drive registration while offsetting some of the event costs. Typically sponsors come in two general categories:

  • Cash: A sponsor will pay you a fee in return for listing on the event website, a table at the event, or some other form of co-marketing.
  • In kind: A sponsor will provide some kind of service — e.g. host the event, buy everyone lunch or beers, buy t-shirts for everyone.
There are many clever forms of “in-kind” sponsorship. Some of my favorites include:
  • Power-up stations
  • Lanyards for badges
  • Wireless network
  • Presentation recording
  • Conference t-shirts
  • Meals, coffee, or after party
While the in-kind sponsorships are fun, don’t be afraid to make the ask for cash. Lots of companies have budget for these types of activities, whether its from their marketing/PR or recruitment department. At the last CLS, Dave Nielson, the prolific CloudCamp organizer, made a great point:

Ask 5 companies to sponsor for $250 and you’ll likely get two sponsors. Ask 5 companies to sponsor for $1000 and you’ll likely get one sponsor. Now do the math. Do you want two sponsors for $500 or one sponsor for $1000?

So how do you find sponsors? Well, start by asking yourself why someone would want to sponsor your event. Typically there are a handful of reasons:
  • The company sells or markets a product to the same audience that your event is targeting
  • The company wants to raise their profile in the community in order to recruit top talent
From there, you can start approaching:
  • Companies that sponsor local meetups
  • Sponsors of similar events
  • Tech partners
  • Companies that make complementary technology
  • Local companies that are growing fast and recruiting
It may be hard to sign on sponsors without a track record of successful events, and initially you may need to spend time approaching lots of potential sponsors.
Don’t forget to list on your website that you are looking for sponsors. Many of our sponsor leads come directly from people who visit our website.

Ticket Fees

I strongly recommend charging a nominal fee for your event. Obviously some ticket revenue helps to offset your costs. But it also makes the attendees feel invested in the event, reduces the number of no-shows, and helps give you an accurate attendance count. And with tools like Eventbrite, it’s dead simple to set up registration and collect fees.

At our MongoDB events, we have established a pricing model that works very well:

  • $50 early bird (ends 4 weeks prior to the event)
  • $100 general admission
  • $75 “come as a group” discount when you register 4 or more (ends 1-2 weeks prior to the event)
  • $30 student rate

This pricing works for a few reasons:

  • It’s inexpensive enough that it’s not a barrier for most professionals. Yet, it costs enough to make people think twice before registering, and discourages those that aren’t serious about attending. At a free event we typically see 50% attrition. At an event where we charge using the $50/$100 model, we typically have <15% attrition.
  • While most attendees get their employer to reimburse them for the cost of the ticket, it’s inexpensive enough that many just pay out of pocket.
  • The early bird pricing serves as a forcing factor to motivate people to sign up in advance.

I’ve found that without incentivizing people with early bird discounts, it can be a major challenge getting people to sign up for an event any earlier than a few weeks in advance of an event.

Wrap Up

This post has been in progress for many weeks, and it ended up a lot longer and more detailed than I expected. I hope that you find the details beneficial, and as always please feel free to add your suggestions in the comments section.

Apr 19 2012
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NYC, Startups, User Groups

Building a Venue Directory for NYC Tech Events

As a co-organizer of the NY MongoDB User Group, NYC Python Meetup Group, NY C/C++ Developers Group, and Prince Building Tech Talks, I know how tough it can be to find a space to host a meetup in NYC. I’ve made some great contacts over the past few years, and as a result people frequently ask me about finding a venue to host their meetup.

Rather than fielding these requests in an ad hoc manner, I’d like to put together a directory of venues for tech events and meetups. Right now I’m in the research phase of this project, and I’m starting to compile a list of companies interested in hosting. To that end, I’ve put together two simple webforms: One where companies can express interest in hosting events, and one for organizers that are looking for space.

Initially, I’m happy to act as a matchmaker to connect meetup organizers with potential hosts. I will not share contact information without confirming with both sides that there is a potential match. Over time, I would like to make this directory public, with the permission from the hosting companies.

Looking forward to your thoughts and feedback on this project!

Apr 03 2012
2 Comments
Recruiting, Startups

The Recruiting Funnel

Over the past two years at 10gen, we’ve hired a lot of people in a very short period of time, mostly people with technical skills. And we’re not the only company in a hiring frenzy for technical talent. Almost every tech meetup or conference that I attend is packed with people trying to recruit engineers.

I spend most of my time thinking about the sales and marketing, and lately I’ve been contemplating its similarities with recruiting. In sales and marketing, you have a funnel of leads, and some expected conversion ratios at each stage: raw leads to qualified leads; qualified leads to opportunities; opportunities to closed deals.

In recruiting, you have a similar funnel, with some expected conversion rates from resumes / applications to phone screens, from the phone screen to the in-person interview, from the in-person interview to an offer, and then the candidate’s decision to accept:

In sales and marketing, you can build your pipeline by driving either inbound or outbound leads into the top of the funnel. Like many open source companies, we have a very high volume of inbound leads from people who have downloaded the software, signed up for our newsletter, attended a MongoDB conference or webinar, or contacted us directly. Our sales team also does some outbound prospecting, but these cold calls have a lower conversion rate to opportunities than the warm inbound leads. In fact, our challenge within sales and marketing is prioritizing the overflow of inbound raw leads and identifying which ones are qualified for sales. (I’m working on a blog post about how we use marketing automation to accomplish this, but in the interim you should read about how JBoss did it.)

In technical recruiting, the funnel also contains inbound leads and outbound leads. In the recruiting world, inbound leads are applicants from your careers site or jobs board — people looking for work. Outbound leads or “passive candidates” typically include employee referrals and prospects identified by internal sourcers or placement agencies.

On the surface, driving lots of inbound applications through job boards and other forms of advertising seems like a great way to build a recruiting pipeline. This is how we build a great sales and marketing funnel. But the big difference is that the best software engineers are never on the market. More inbound flow usually means lots of low-quality resumes, and more noise for your recruiting team or hiring manager to sift through. The best candidates tend to be passive, rather than candidates from your inbound lead flow. This is contrary to the sales and marketing funnel, where inbound leads are the warm ones with a higher conversion rate.

Once you start to understand your conversion rates, you can work backwards to understand what you need to pipe into the top of the funnel in order to hit your targets. Let’s look at a hypothetical example. Say that your target is to hire one person:

  • Assuming 50% of offers made will be accepted, you will have to make two offers to make one hire
  • Assuming you make offers to 20% of the people that you interview in person, you will need to interview 10 people to make two offers
  • Assuming 30% advance from phone screen to in-person interviews, you will need to phone screen 33 people to schedule 10 in-person interviews

In this case, we’ll also assume that all passive candidates are “pre-screened” as part of the search, and that all of them will get a phone screen. So, to fill your phone screen funnel entirely with passive candidates, you’ll need to find 33 candidates. This is where recruiter efficiency becomes really important, as cold calling has a really low conversion rate. A really good sourcer might convert 10% of the people they contacts, meaning that they will need to reach 330 people to get 33 phone screens set up! Increasing that initial conversion rate can make a huge difference in your recruiting pipeline.

Whether it is the hiring manager or an executive or an in-house sourcer, the cold caller needs to genuinely believe in the company in order to get a candidate (who isn’t looking for work) excited about a new opportunity. A slight increase in the number of passive candidates entering the top of your funnel can make a huge difference in your ability to hire. This is why referral bonuses can be so effective. It turns your entire staff into sourcers, and helps build the top of the funnel with passive candidates.

So how do you build a pipeline of passive candidates? Well, it’s hard work. There is no magic bullet and it takes a lot of time and effort. (Mark Zuckerberg, for example, spends 25% of his time recruiting.) You need to spend hours searching LinkedIn and cold call dozens of people. You need to have a staff networking at technology meetups and events. You need to encourage employee referrals through referral incentives. You need to remember that any interaction is potentially a recruiting opportunity.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that 10gen is hiring?

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