They possibly will. But I for one have no idea what the sponsorship is for, and thus there is no way I can approach anybody about it. There is only a certain level I can take this bid to personally on my own, and I've reached it. Tell me what we need money for and I'll try my best, as can everyone else with limited time, resources. bla bla... :) On 9/3/07, James Hardy <wikimediauk(a)weeb.biz> wrote: -- Gary Kirk

Gary Kirk wrote: no :-) But, a few suggestions 1) every year, we contact the sponsors of the previous years. The global ones are often willing to give again. 2) you should contact major charity organizations that could give to the organization of Wikimania. In particular if they have a big location in London... 3) same for big companies located in London. 4) companies to focus on are those involved in high tech (cell phones, computers, wiki services), news and education. All might get happy to benefit from rather cheap indirect advertisement A good idea is to have most sponsors with "no string attached". There are however some specifics that sponsors love to pay for. Example * for the past three year, OSI donates money for scholarships. This is particularly interesting to make sure people from very far away, or isolated, or poor countries, can come. In the past few years, we were able to fund travels for some africans, south americans, ex ussr countries, asia etc... Google provided funds for the travel of some tech support. * funding the big Wikimania party. Typically, might be covered by a cell phone company :-) * funding the VIP party. * funding with the drinks, breakfast food, finger food during the day (Coca Cola etc...) * funding tee-shirts, totbag, badges, wikireader, puzzle, little presents for everyone, banners etc... with the name of the sponsor on it of course ! * funding for child care facility for participants. It may be providing a professional child care person and toys. Other types of sponsors can help in providing stuff (such as video system, laptops, cell phones, sim cards etc...). Or in providing human help (volunteers to do boring stuff, or professional stuff). A good idea is to first to work on a list of things to be provided to the participants. Then identify what sponsors might desire funding. When you look for sponsors, either propose "no string attached" funding, or propose to participate to a certain thing. Once you know you want a sponsor to fund the food or the drinks, it is much easier to think "what about asking Cola Cola ? ", or "what about asking this famous "ready-to-eat food service" for help ? ant

Thomas Dalton wrote: probably. it certainly makes more sense for you to focus on local sponsors. Ant