[Inpycon] Opinions needed : Sponsorship requrements

[Noufal Ibrahim]

On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 10:54 PM, Gora Mohanty<gora at srijan.in> wrote:
[..]
> Could you ask them to clarify what they will do with the
> addresses, and also ask whether they are willing to provide
> a privacy policy in writing? With all due respect to the
> company in question, this sounds fishy.

That was what I felt too but on reflection, it's a little more nuanced
than 'fishy'.

We emphasise (in our brochures and site) the the *main* thing a
sponsor gets is access to a pool to talent where they might be able to
hire people. This translates into freedom to host a stall at the
conference (asking for contact information) and handing out their
brochures as part of the swag kit (spam?).

The email addresses is the next step in this and while my gut reaction
is rejection, I'm not totally sure about it.

[..]
> Since I have put in no effort for this conference, you can take
> my opinion for what it is worth, but I would be very much opposed
> to allowing sponsors access to delegate lists for a community
> conference.

It's a question of tradeoff. I would be *much* more comfortable had
someone with more experience with conferences brought this up at the
beginning so that we could put a privacy policy on the site upfront.

Given that we didn't, we have to make a decision right now. I don't
feel strongly about either choice to make a decision myself which is
why I'm soliciting your opinions. In this day and age, we need money
to get things going and money never comes for nothing. Sponsors have
needs and the question is whether this is justified.

> So much so that I would not normally attend a
> conference where I was aware that such a policy was in effect.

Suppose I told you right now that sponsors might have access to the
details on the site, would you cancel your registration and not
attend? I'm not asking you this confrontationally but I want to know
how strongly people are against this.

-- 
~noufal
http://nibrahim.net.in