VMworld 2019 is approaching soon. For the fifth year in a row, the organizers of the most successful VMworld community events (VMunderground, vBrownBag, Spousetivities, and vRockstar) have collaborated to create the vCommunity Sponsorship Program.
Our objective is to make it easier for our collective sponsors to be able to find and sponsor multiple events. Utilizing these combined sponsorship packages will provide you discounts off all events and a single payment approach, along with all the advantages each individual event provides. Outlined below are what we hope will be attractive packages to you.
All of these events are completely run by community members, and are therefore dependent on the generous support of their sponsors. While all of the individual events will provide a range of great benefits, all of them will show your support of the VMware community, increase your buzz on social media, and help drive awareness of your brand.
We have simplified your sponsorship options for this year:
- Silver ($30,000) – VMunderground, vRockStar, and Spousetivities at both VMworlds
- Gold ($40,000)* – VMunderground, vRockStar, plus Spousetivities and vBrownBag TechTalks at both VMworlds
* Gold sponsorships are limited, and available on a first come, first served basis.
If you have questions or are interested, please contact us at sponsorship@vsquaredb.com if you have questions or wish to take up sponsorship. An official commitment email will be needed to secure your spot and we will invoice you shortly after that. Announcement of your sponsorship will be handled differently for each event, but will not occur until after payment is received.
While we hope you’ll find the best value in these packages, each group will continue to sign-up sponsors individually.
VMunderground
Termed many things over the last decade, including WuPaaS (Warm-up Party as a Service), the Unofficial Kick-off for VMworld, and THE Party to Attend at VMworld, VMunderground is the original and longest running VMworld event put on exclusively by and for the #vCommunity. Originally started as a “let’s get to know each other” event in the early days of VMworld, it has now become the annual vFamily reunion held the Sunday night before VMworld.
This year we are going retro and planning a smaller, more intimate event. This will not only give sponsors better one-on-one time with attendees, but also allow us to limit the number of sponsors.
Sponsors of VMunderground get a lot of attention and good will, a prominent position on vmunderground.com, a noisy lead up to the event on Twitter, signage at the event, exclusive VIP tickets, and maybe a few other surprises.
Sponsors also get recognized as sponsors of Opening Acts, the panel-session learning event put on Sunday afternoon by the organizers of VMunderground and vBrownBag.
Given this is a pure community event, we do not provide an attendee list, nor will you have an official opportunity to collect leads. Instead, we encourage our sponsors to get their company name out there and show that you like to play hard. Create incentives to draw attendees to your booth so you can collect business cards at the party and throughout the week in your booth. We’d be happy to help you be creative and maximize everyone’s fun!
For more information, please reach out to Brian Knudtson (brian@vsquaredb.com).
Spousetivities
Spousetivities provides organized activities for those who are traveling with a conference attendee to technology conferences. It began in 2008 at VMworld with 25 participants. Spousetivities has grown to include hundreds of participants annually at VMworld events. For more information and to see past events, check out the Spousetivities website.
Corporate sponsorship of Spousetivities means a lot of different things. First and foremost, support of Spousetivities delivers a message to employees and customers that your company goes beyond the workplace to support a balanced work/life environment. Supporting Spousetivities reaches into the community and amplifies your business as a company with which people want to do business and a company in which people will want to work. Companies sponsoring Spousetivities show the community that they are active in offering a family-friendly corporate image.
Sponsor benefits include:
- Company Name and Logo on famous Spousetivities T-Shirt
- Company Name and Logo on Giveaway Bag
- Joint Event Signage (signage provided by Spousetivities)
- Expanded Social Media Coverage
- 2 tickets per event (2 for US and 2 for EU VMworld) for a customer or employee spouse to participate in Spousetivities events. (Can also be used by marketing personnel to evaluate the value of the sponsorship.)
- **Joint Lead Generation with Giveaway (provided by Spousetivities)
- **Branded Giveaways (provided by Spousetivities)
- **Exclusive Activity Sponsorship with Signage
**These are reserved for Gold Sponsors only
**Joint Lead Generation with Giveaway – Sponsors have the opportunity to drive conference attendees to the sponsor’s booth at the conference through joint lead generation activities. Spousetivities will provide lead generation documentation to participants, which in turn will be given to conference attendees to be submitted at the sponsor’s booth (for a giveaway to be provided by Spousetivities). Sponsor also has the option to do joint lead generation activities via Twitter or other social media channels for giveaways to be provided by the sponsor.
**Branded Giveaway– Sponsors will be advertised as being the sponsor of a larger giveaway item (iPad, VR headset, etc) in all social media posts including blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.
** Exclusive Activity Sponsorship – Sponsors will be listed as the exclusive sponsors of specific tours and activities provided by Spousetivities during the conference event. This leads to even more coverage in the media about the sponsor including immediate attention of the conference attendees which helps drive traffic to your booth and/or website.
What is required of the sponsor? This is the best part! All that is needed from a sponsor is the sponsor fees and an updated corporate logo in .eps, .jpeg, and .pdf formats. Spousetivities takes care of the rest!
For more information, please reach out to Crystal Lowe (crystal@spousetivities.com, @spousetivities)
vRockstar
#vRockstar has grown into the biggest community organized event at VMworld Europe. The concept for the #vRockstar party was for it to be the first party in the VMworld calendar for the European show to fill the demand for a community warmup/meetup event. So far we have held 6 sold out parties at the central and famous venue of the Hard Rock Café in Placa de Catalunya!
Each year we are looking to make the party even bigger and better with 2019 looking to be the biggest yet!
Why Sponsor & What you get
- Sponsorship of the coolest party at VMworld Europe!
- Lead list for all attendees (usually 400+)
- Your company name and logo on signage
- Your company logo on exclusive limited run vRockstar t-shirts
- Your company logo on the vRockstar guitar that will be given away as a prize
- Short speaking spot to the whole party
- Ability to give away prizes
- The ability to mingle with VMworld attendees and begin to generate a great level of product awareness even before the conference begins
- To be a vRockstar!!
For more information, please reach out to Patrick Redknap (Patrick.redknap@red-track.co.uk) or Marco Broeken (marco@brkn.nl).
vBrownBag TechTalks
vBrownBag Podcast
The podcast is where we started, a small group of people coming together to help one another study new technologies. The podcast has grown to have shows in different time zones and even different languages.
We now have European and APAC podcasts in addition to the original US based show and an additional US show in Spanish. Each podcast is recorded in front of a live online audience and presented by a community member. Most shows include demonstrations of the technology or technique being covered, so the format is video. Podcasts are posted to iTunes, Vimeo and YouTube for easy access after the live show.
Our back catalogue of shows is helping hundreds of people pursue skills and certification around virtualization. The main podcast feed has around 14,000 downloads per month and individual episodes can have over 10,000 downloads. This is a massive audience and we are amazed how far our shows reach. Even material we recorded two years ago is being viewed and is helping people achieve new skills and certifications.
vBrownBag TechTalks
Our TechTalks are ten-minute presentations by community members at an industry conference. They originated with our friends sessions not being accepted for the main conference catalog. We know we want to learn from the community so we arranged an alternative forum. TechTalks are limited to ten minutes; they deliver the very core of an idea. Keeping presentations short also means we can do a lot of sessions in a day. TechTalks are delivered to a small live audience at the conference and then posted to YouTube. We like to live stream the video from the conference, you know what conference Internet is like so there are no guarantees of streaming.
The sponsorship opportunity is twofold, branding on the videos and a double length session of your own. Each video has an introductory and closing graphic, this is branded with a sponsor logo as well as the event and presenter details. The double length session is an opportunity to address the community through the TechTalks. We combine two slots into a 25-minute presentation for the sponsor. While we don’t want any editorial control over your sponsor session we do recommend technical content rather than marketing. Send an engineer to talk about something they love, which is what makes the TechTalks special.
For more information, please reach out to Alastair Cooke (alastair@vbrownbag.com)
#VMunderground 