I spoke to Jimmy about this quite a while ago with the idea of setting up
some kind of group which would seek out such international companies -
actually find and define those that could be approached and willing to
support Wikimania, rather than just a mumble here and there, and he said it
was a good idea and put me on to Delphine, who I believe agreed, but no
further action seems to have taken place yet.
--
Gary Kirk
2008/7/22 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com>om>:
Last time
around (two years ago?) when we were trying to put a UCL bid in
place (which, by the by, got absolutely no votes in the final
decision-making process after reaching the shortlist) we found that the
large organisations which might be anticipated to be able to offer
sponsorship (BT, IBM, etc) were unable to put anything in writing or even
give a verbal assurance until such time as we have been awarded the event
and/or would not let us state their name in any way in advance of being
awarded it. Horse and cart, etc.
I've never understood why individual bids are expected to contact
large international organisations for sponsorship. Shouldn't the WMF
do that and tell all the bids that they have $X to spend from
international sponsorship and if they need any more they should get
local sponsorship. Having half a dozen people all contacting the same
companies for sponsorship for the same event (just hosted in different
places) seems like a really bad system.
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--
Gary Kirk