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PyCon 2012 already has a record-breaking 52 spon­sors! I can not thank every one of them enough (but I will give my thanks again at the end of this post indi­vid­u­ally), and we are always look­ing for more spon­sors to join the ones we have.

I wanted to take a moment to explain what makes spon­sor­ship good for the com­mu­nity, and a sound invest­ment for spon­sors new and old, prospec­tive and future.

This year, as chair, I’ve taken it upon myself to push and man­age PyCon spon­sor­ship (cor­po­rate, non profit, media, etc) for a vari­ety of rea­sons. First, as some­one who has been a spon­sor in the past (and present) and as some­one who spends a lot of time “sell­ing” the Python Soft­ware Foun­da­tion, and the com­mu­nity to oth­ers — I feel very closely tied to PyCon and sponsorship.

Not to men­tion — cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship is what allows us to keep this prob­a­bly one of the least expen­sive inter­na­tional tech­ni­cal con­fer­ences you could pos­si­bly attend this upcom­ing year. With­out spon­sor­ship — and the array of spon­sors we have right now for PyCon 2012, the con­fer­ence could sim­ply not hap­pen at the size it has reached, or have a robust finan­cial aid pro­gram, keep tick­ets and tuto­ri­als cheap, etc. We have, once again inten­tion­ally capped atten­dance at a level to allow for this, and to help keep PyCon’s com­mu­nity feel and closeness.

Run­ning a con­fer­ence is, frankly, a dan­ger­ous game. As I noted in my blog post sev­eral months ago dis­cussing some of the finan­cial work­ings of PyCon and its finan­cial phi­los­o­phy. It is very easy to lose a lot of money, very quickly. PyCon is held / financed / backed by the Python Soft­ware Foun­da­tion. This means lack of spon­sor­ship, low atten­dance, etc could — with a sim­ple mis­step — bank­rupt the foun­da­tion. Spon­sor­ship helps shore up the gam­ble you make sign­ing con­tracts on cater­ing, room book­ings, rental of the space where the con­fer­ence is held, audio/video costs, etc. Although, if you make a big enough mis­take — noth­ing will pre­vent things from going south. This means care­ful plan­ning, bud­get­ing and negotiation.

Also, while PyCon has always been, and will con­tinue to be a com­mu­nity focused and there­fore, low cost and inclu­sive con­fer­ence, not really focused on prof­it­ing from atten­dees, any rev­enue that comes out of PyCon (profit, if you will) goes directly to the Python Soft­ware Foun­da­tion. This money, in turn, is used to improve infra­struc­ture of Python resources, pro­vide devel­oper grants for pro­gram­ming work, pro­vide grants to con­fer­ences all over the world and many other com­mu­nity projects.

In the last few months alone the PSF has issued grants to PyTexas, EuroPy­thon, Python Ire­land, PyCon India, and many, many oth­ers. We have issued grants for port­ing mod­ules to Python 3, ser­vice such as Read The Docs, etc. Any revenue/profit is flipped back into fund­ing PyCon, and the com­mu­nity as a whole.

PyCon pro­vides a very tan­gi­ble entity for cor­po­rate spon­sors — it’s an eas­ier “sell” than direct PSF spon­sor­ship, and there­fore is a fun­da­men­tally bet­ter con­duit for funds into the PSF.

That’s all fine you say: those are great things for the com­mu­nity, and con­fer­ence — but why would a com­pany want to spon­sor PyCon? Sponsors receive tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits such as recruit­ing at the con­fer­ence, adver­tis­ing and mar­ket­ing, get­ting com­mu­nity involve­ment known (call it com­mu­nity karma), etc. Spon­sor­ship isn’t just a mat­ter of ask­ing a com­pany to fund the con­fer­ence because “it’s good for the com­mu­nity” — it’s a mat­ter of show­ing them that not only is it good for the com­mu­nity — it’s good for their goals and needs.

PyCon is an excel­lent recruit­ment tool.

If you’re look­ing for Python pro­gram­mers, a venue filled with 1500 Python hack­ers of all types — from web devel­op­ers, to design­ers, to dis­trib­uted sys­tems engi­neers and oper­a­tions peo­ple is an excel­lent place for you and your com­pany to find “that spe­cial some­one”. I know a lot of Python hack­ers out there who have been hired by com­pa­nies they “met” at PyCon. I also know a lot of speak­ers and tuto­r­ial teach­ers who have received jobs or job offers after speaking/teaching at PyCon.

Just as PyCon is an excel­lent venue for com­pa­nies look­ing to hire, robust spon­sor­ship allows peo­ple at the con­fer­ence know what com­pa­nies out there could be hir­ing Python hack­ers. Com­pa­nies like Walt Dis­ney Ani­ma­tion Stu­dios, Google, Drop­box, and oth­ers as well as com­pa­nies that aren’t well known for being Python shops. It’s a great venue for job seek­ers to find employers.

The Jobs Fair page we added this year for spon­sors, and those look­ing for jobs is a log­i­cal exten­sion of this. Any­thing we can do to con­nect peo­ple and com­pa­nies is great.

PyCon is an excel­lent mar­ket­ing tool.

If you are look­ing to sell some­thing — an edi­tor, host­ing, a ser­vice, etc — PyCon’s 1500 attendee pool pro­vides an amaz­ing cross sec­tion of peo­ple. Not just hard core devel­op­ers — entre­pre­neurs and startup founders, IT busi­ness peo­ple and lead­ers. Python is a lan­guage that as time goes by — I am less and less sur­prised where it pops up — and more sur­prised when it isn’t being used some­where within a company.

It is lit­er­ally every­where — a fre­quently unsung hero for many com­pa­nies. Some­times, com­pa­nies use it with­out even know­ing it.

Python — and it’s com­mu­nity — and there­fore PyCon is amaz­ingly diverse. This means when you spon­sor PyCon, you are adver­tis­ing to an amaz­ingly diverse group of peo­ple. Skill sets from all walks of tech­nol­ogy — and a sur­pris­ing num­ber of peo­ple to whom Python is a tool they use pro­lif­i­cally to get some other job done (like say, video ren­der­ing or con­trol­ling robots). PyCon’s atten­dees reflect the stun­ning makeup of it’s com­mu­nity. You can’t go wrong get­ting your com­pa­nies names on attendee’s lips.

PyCon is a great way to raise visibility.

This is as much a sub-point of my pre­vi­ous note on mar­ket­ing as any­thing else but it deserves some atten­tion. If you’re a com­pany who is try­ing to get the word out, try­ing to spread the news about your new prod­uct or ser­vice, peo­ple notice PyCon spon­sors. Not only are you listed on the web­site, you get signs, booths and entries in the pro­gram guide at the con­fer­ence. It can be en excel­lent tool for buzz and dis­cus­sion about and launch­ing a new prod­uct or service.

Even if you’re not sell­ing some­thing — and you just want to get the word out about your company’s open source efforts, opin­ion and ideas and use of Python — PyCon is a fan­tas­tic plat­form to do so. It can lit­er­ally be a plat­form you use to launch you name and brand into the community’s shared mind.

PyCon spon­sor­ship breeds good will.

I wish I had stud­ies to show it, but peo­ple within the com­mu­nity and at the con­fer­ence itself see com­pa­nies spon­sor­ing PyCon and under­stand that while those com­pa­nies might be sell­ing, mar­ket­ing or recruit­ing — are still doing the com­mu­nity a huge favor by act­ing as spon­sors. As I said before — the com­mu­nity ben­e­fits are many, just as the spon­sor ben­e­fits are. I can not stress this point enough — the com­pa­nies that help PyCon via spon­sor­ship or atten­dance do it for many rea­sons — some of them finan­cial, but the social aspects are some­thing all of our spon­sor from the past can attest to. Python is an open source lan­guage, with a strong open source ethos run­ning through its com­mu­nity — and see­ing com­pa­nies give back both through code and finan­cially means a lot to every­one in the com­mu­nity — even other sponsors.

PyCon spon­sors help set an exam­ple for the com­mu­nity in terms of involve­ment and support.

PyCon spon­sor­ship is a good, sim­ple and cost-effective investment.

I wish all con­fer­ence had spon­sor­ship pack­ages as cheap and as robust as the ones PyCon has out­lined in it’s prospec­tus. Heck — a good recruiter to find tal­ent can cost a com­pany $30,000 or more alone — by com­par­i­son, the spon­sor­ship lev­els and prices PyCon has are fan­tas­tic deals (espe­cially when you fac­tor in that com­pa­nies under 25 peo­ple can get a 50% off dis­count on two of those lev­els). For less than a price of a good com­puter and mon­i­tor — you can be a Sil­ver spon­sor. For less than the price if you include the desk and fur­ni­ture or soft­ware licenses? A Gold spon­sor. For less than the price of a good recruiter, or Google Ad cam­paign? You can be a Plat­inum or Dia­mond spon­sor and reach out to not just PyCon atten­dees but to the entire Python community.

PyCon is a pro­fes­sional event.

I swell with pride stand­ing in the shoes of the con­fer­ence chairs that have come before me. PyCon, while focused on the com­mu­nity, the lan­guage, learn­ing, teach­ing, being a ton of fun for all of its atten­dees, and excel­lent loca­tion to hack and net­work is one of the most friendly-yet-professional con­fer­ences I have ever had the priv­i­lege to attend.

PyCon is backed by the Python Soft­ware Foun­da­tion — but it is run by vol­un­teers — even I, as chair, am not paid. For all of us involved, it’s a labor of love. It is a way for us to give back to the com­mu­nity, ecosys­tem and com­pa­nies and spon­sors attend­ing or spon­sor­ing. And while it may be vol­un­teer based — it’s 100% pro­fes­sional. From the web­site, to the pro­gram guide, from talk selec­tion and booth assign­ment — every­thing is treated with sin­cer­ity, respect and trust.

Spon­sors can look at PyCon not just as a good invest­ment, or plat­form — but as a safe one — and if they can not, I have failed as chair of the con­fer­ence. The same applies to every sin­gle attendee.

But too much of a good thing?

As with all things, there is a flip side to this. Spon­sor­ship is great for spon­sors, and the com­mu­nity — but PyCon is fun­da­men­tally com­mu­nity focused, and hence we must walk a line between hav­ing robust spon­sor­ship pack­ages, and going the “full spon­sor­ship monty” so to speak. This means that to this day, I hold firm on the pol­icy that spon­sor­ship does not guar­an­tee or pro­vide tuto­r­ial or speak­ing slots to any sponsor.

At PyCon, we are all equals, espe­cially when it comes to talks. Joe devel­oper from nowhere, Antarc­tica can sub­mit a talk, tuto­r­ial or poster ses­sion as can Bob the devel­oper from a Dia­mond spon­sor and they have equal chances of being accepted. If the talk is good, if the speaker is known to be a good speaker, if the con­tent and sub­ject are com­pelling, a pro­posal will be accepted on its mer­its (but even then we can not accept all the deserv­ing ones).

Other con­fer­ences guar­an­tee speak­ing slots for spon­sors — I feel this runs counter to the PyCon ethos and com­mu­nity phi­los­o­phy. Not only are we open in our source, we treat each other as equals and with respect. Ours is the mer­i­toc­racy of ideas and work — and this point can not get lost or for­got­ten in our — my — work on our spon­sors’ behalf to increase the value and return on invest­ment they see.

We also try to keep the adver­tis­ing and vis­i­bil­ity at the con­fer­ence taste­ful — lim­it­ing ban­ner sizes and loca­tions, focus­ing on the ven­dor area expe­ri­ence while also giv­ing spon­sors free admis­sions to the entire con­fer­ence so they too can par­take in the learn­ing, hack­ing and net­work­ing. We find this to be a good bal­ance between the needs of the atten­dees and the needs and desires of the sponsors.

Trust me, if I thought walk­ing around in a NASCAR-like track suit cov­ered in logos would help our spon­sors, I just might — ask the other staff! But that’s just me.

In clos­ing — I want to encour­age you and com­pa­nies you know or work for, to take part in PyCon and get involved. Even if you can not, or do not want to be spon­sors, I encour­age you to sub­mit pro­pos­als, light­ning talks when the con­fer­ence comes, attend the sprints, and recruit on the “down-low” by just talk­ing and hack­ing with everyone.

I encour­age you, and will work with you day and night to join us as spon­sors — but I value your involve­ment in the com­mu­nity, and the con­fer­ence more. Even by just attend­ing, you are enrich­ing us all. If you have sug­ges­tions on how to make spon­sor­ship bet­ter for spon­sors — or gen­eral com­ments or con­cerns, feel free to email me.

Giv­ing thanks

Finally, I’d like to thank all of our cur­rent spon­sors — and an a yet-to-be-named mys­tery sponsor:

• Dia­mond Level: Google and Drop­box.
• Plat­inum Level: New Relic, Sur­vey­Mon­key, Microsoft, Eventbrite, Nasuni and Gondor.io
• Gold Level: Walt Dis­ney Ani­ma­tion Stu­dios, CCP Games, Lin­ode, Enthought, Canon­i­cal, Dot­cloud, Log­gly, Revsys, ZeOmega, Bitly, ActiveS­tate, Jet­Brains, Cak­tus, Dis­qus, Spo­tify, Snoball, Evite, and Plaid­Cloud
• Sil­ver Level: Imag­i­nary Land­scape, Wis­er­To­gether, Net-ng, Olark, AG Inter­ac­tive, Bit­bucket, Open Bas­tion, 10Gen, gocept, Lex Machina, fwix, github, toast dri­ven, Aarki, Thread­less, Cox Media, myYear­Book, Accense Tech­nol­ogy, Wing­ware, Fresh­Books, and Big­Door
• Lan­yard: Dreamhost
• Sprints: Red­dit
• FLOSS: OSU/OSL, Open­Hatch

And of course, if you want more infor­ma­tion on spon­sor­ship — visit the PyCon 2012 Spon­sor­ship page.

PyCon 2012 already has a record-breaking 52 sponsors! I can not thank every one of them enough (but I will give my thanks again at the end of this post individually), and we are always looking for more sponsors to join the ones we have. I wanted to take a moment to explain what makes sponsorship good for the community, and a sound investment for sponsors new and old, prospective and future. This year, as chair, I've taken it upon myself to push and manage PyCon sponsorship (corporate, non profit, media, etc) for a variety of reasons. First, as someone who has been a sponsor in the past (and present) and as someone who spends a lot of time "selling" the Python Software Foundation, and the community to others - I feel very closely tied to PyCon and sponsorship. Not to mention - corporate sponsorship is what allows us to keep this probably one of the least expensive international technical conferences you could possibly attend this upcoming year. Without sponsorship - and the array of sponsors we have right now for PyCon 2012, the conference could simply not happen at the size it has reached, or have a robust financial aid program, keep tickets and tutorials cheap, etc. We have, once again intentionally capped attendance at a level to allow for this, and to help keep PyCon's community feel and closeness. Running a conference is, frankly, a dangerous game. As I noted in my blog post several months ago discussing some of the financial workings of PyCon and its financial philosophy. It is very easy to lose a lot of money, very quickly. PyCon is held / financed / backed by the Python Software Foundation. This means lack of sponsorship, low attendance, etc could - with a simple misstep - bankrupt the foundation. Sponsorship helps shore up the gamble you make signing contracts on catering, room bookings, rental of the space where the conference is held, audio/video costs, etc. Although, if you make a big enough mistake - nothing will prevent things from going south. This means careful planning, budgeting and negotiation. Also, while PyCon has always been, and will continue to be a community focused and therefore, low cost and inclusive conference, not really focused on profiting from attendees, any revenue that comes out of PyCon (profit, if you will) goes directly to the Python Software Foundation. This money, in turn, is used to improve infrastructure of Python resources, provide developer grants for programming work, provide grants to conferences all over the world and many other community projects. In the last few months alone the PSF has issued grants to PyTexas, EuroPython, Python Ireland, PyCon India, and many, many others. We have issued grants for porting modules to Python 3, service such as Read The Docs, etc. Any revenue/profit is flipped back into funding PyCon, and the community as a whole. PyCon provides a very tangible entity for corporate sponsors - it's an easier "sell" than direct PSF sponsorship, and therefore is a fundamentally better conduit for funds into the PSF. That's all fine you say: those are great things for the community, and conference - but why would a company want to sponsor PyCon? Sponsors receive tangible benefits such as recruiting at the conference, advertising and marketing, getting community involvement known (call it community karma), etc. Sponsorship isn't just a matter of asking a company to fund the conference because "it's good for the community" - it's a matter of showing them that not only is it good for the community - it's good for their goals and needs. PyCon is an excellent recruitment tool. If you're looking for Python programmers, a venue filled with 1500 Python hackers of all types - from web developers, to designers, to distributed systems engineers and operations people is an excellent place for you and your company to find "that special someone". I know a lot of Python hackers out there who have been hired by companies they "met" at PyCon. I also know a lot of speakers and tutorial teachers who have received jobs or job offers after speaking/teaching at PyCon. Just as PyCon is an excellent venue for companies looking to hire, robust sponsorship allows people at the conference know what companies out there could be hiring Python hackers. Companies like Walt Disney Animation Studios, Google, Dropbox, and others as well as companies that aren't well known for being Python shops. It's a great venue for job seekers to find employers. The Jobs Fair page we added this year for sponsors, and those looking for jobs is a logical extension of this. Anything we can do to connect people and companies is great. PyCon is an excellent marketing tool. If you are looking to sell something - an editor, hosting, a service, etc - PyCon's 1500 attendee pool provides an amazing cross section of people. Not just hard core developers - entrepreneurs and startup founders, IT business people and leaders. Python is a language that as time goes by - I am less and less surprised where it pops up - and more surprised when it isn't being used somewhere within a company. It is literally everywhere - a frequently unsung hero for many companies. Sometimes, companies use it without even knowing it. Python - and it's community - and therefore PyCon is amazingly diverse. This means when you sponsor PyCon, you are advertising to an amazingly diverse group of people. Skill sets from all walks of technology - and a surprising number of people to whom Python is a tool they use prolifically to get some other job done (like say, video rendering or controlling robots). PyCon's attendees reflect the stunning makeup of it's community. You can't go wrong getting your companies names on attendee's lips. PyCon is a great way to raise visibility. This is as much a sub-point of my previous note on marketing as anything else but it deserves some attention. If you're a company who is trying to get the word out, trying to spread the news about your new product or service, people notice PyCon sponsors. Not only are you listed on the website, you get signs, booths and entries in the program guide at the conference. It can be en excellent tool for buzz and discussion about and launching a new product or service. Even if you're not selling something - and you just want to get the word out about your company's open source efforts, opinion and ideas and use of Python - PyCon is a fantastic platform to do so. It can literally be a platform you use to launch you name and brand into the community's shared mind. PyCon sponsorship breeds good will. I wish I had studies to show it, but people within the community and at the conference itself see companies sponsoring PyCon and understand that while those companies might be selling, marketing or recruiting - are still doing the community a huge favor by acting as sponsors. As I said before - the community benefits are many, just as the sponsor benefits are. I can not stress this point enough - the companies that help PyCon via sponsorship or attendance do it for many reasons - some of them financial, but the social aspects are something all of our sponsor from the past can attest to. Python is an open source language, with a strong open source ethos running through its community - and seeing companies give back both through code and financially means a lot to everyone in the community - even other sponsors. PyCon sponsors help set an example for the community in terms of involvement and support. PyCon sponsorship is a good, simple and cost-effective investment. I wish all conference had sponsorship packages as cheap and as robust as the ones PyCon has outlined in it's prospectus. Heck - a good recruiter to find talent can cost a company $30,000 or more alone - by comparison, the sponsorship levels and prices PyCon has are fantastic deals (especially when you factor in that companies under 25 people can get a 50% off discount on two of those levels). For less than a price of a good computer and monitor - you can be a Silver sponsor. For less than the price if you include the desk and furniture or software licenses? A Gold sponsor. For less than the price of a good recruiter, or Google Ad campaign? You can be a Platinum or Diamond sponsor and reach out to not just PyCon attendees but to the entire Python community. PyCon is a professional event. I swell with pride standing in the shoes of the conference chairs that have come before me. PyCon, while focused on the community, the language, learning, teaching, being a ton of fun for all of its attendees, and excellent location to hack and network is one of the most friendly-yet-professional conferences I have ever had the privilege to attend. PyCon is backed by the Python Software Foundation - but it is run by volunteers - even I, as chair, am not paid. For all of us involved, it's a labor of love. It is a way for us to give back to the community, ecosystem and companies and sponsors attending or sponsoring. And while it may be volunteer based - it's 100% professional. From the website, to the program guide, from talk selection and booth assignment - everything is treated with sincerity, respect and trust. Sponsors can look at PyCon not just as a good investment, or platform - but as a safe one - and if they can not, I have failed as chair of the conference. The same applies to every single attendee. But too much of a good thing? As with all things, there is a flip side to this. Sponsorship is great for sponsors, and the community - but PyCon is fundamentally community focused, and hence we must walk a line between having robust sponsorship packages, and going the "full sponsorship monty" so to speak. This means that to this day, I hold firm on the policy that sponsorship does not guarantee or provide tutorial or speaking slots to any sponsor. At PyCon, we are all equals, especially when it comes to talks. Joe developer from nowhere, Antarctica can submit a talk, tutorial or poster session as can Bob the developer from a Diamond sponsor and they have equal chances of being accepted. If the talk is good, if the speaker is known to be a good speaker, if the content and subject are compelling, a proposal will be accepted on its merits (but even then we can not accept all the deserving ones). Other conferences guarantee speaking slots for sponsors - I feel this runs counter to the PyCon ethos and community philosophy. Not only are we open in our source, we treat each other as equals and with respect. Ours is the meritocracy of ideas and work - and this point can not get lost or forgotten in our - my - work on our sponsors' behalf to increase the value and return on investment they see. We also try to keep the advertising and visibility at the conference tasteful - limiting banner sizes and locations, focusing on the vendor area experience while also giving sponsors free admissions to the entire conference so they too can partake in the learning, hacking and networking. We find this to be a good balance between the needs of the attendees and the needs and desires of the sponsors. Trust me, if I thought walking around in a NASCAR-like track suit covered in logos would help our sponsors, I just might - ask the other staff! But that's just me. In closing - I want to encourage you and companies you know or work for, to take part in PyCon and get involved. Even if you can not, or do not want to be sponsors, I encourage you to submit proposals, lightning talks when the conference comes, attend the sprints, and recruit on the "down-low" by just talking and hacking with everyone. I encourage you, and will work with you day and night to join us as sponsors - but I value your involvement in the community, and the conference more. Even by just attending, you are enriching us all. If you have suggestions on how to make sponsorship better for sponsors - or general comments or concerns, feel free to email me. Giving thanks Finally, I'd like to thank all of our current sponsors - and an a yet-to-be-named mystery sponsor: Diamond Level: Google and Dropbox. Platinum Level: New Relic, SurveyMonkey, Microsoft, Eventbrite, Nasuni and Gondor.io Gold Level: Walt Disney Animation Studios, CCP Games, Linode, Enthought, Canonical, Dotcloud, Loggly, Revsys, ZeOmega, Bitly, ActiveState, JetBrains, Caktus, Disqus, Spotify, Snoball, Evite, and PlaidCloud Silver Level: Imaginary Landscape, WiserTogether, Net-ng, Olark, AG Interactive, Bitbucket, Open Bastion, 10Gen, gocept, Lex Machina, fwix, github, toast driven, Aarki, Threadless, Cox Media, myYearBook, Accense Technology, Wingware, FreshBooks, and BigDoor Lanyard: Dreamhost Sprints: Reddit FLOSS: OSU/OSL, OpenHatch And of course, if you want more information on sponsorship - visit the PyCon 2012 Sponsorship page.