in Canada, Events |

Shoestring budgets & sponsorship

We continue to run DemoCamp on a shoestring budget. Sure it sucks that it’s during the day. Sure it sucks that it costs $15. But we run these events at cost recovery. Sometimes we lose money (uhm, StartupEmpire anyone).

Venue, food, Audio/Visual, and special things like a movie. They all cost money. BTW don’t forget the tax. The ticket price reflects the maximum we think people are willing to pay plus the maximum sponsorship amount we think we can cover. Did you know that a theatre + A/V + special feature + lunch is about $30/person+tax, almost $34/person. So we reach out to the community of companies and include the least amount of advertising and sponsorship. Make sure you check out:

  • Anand Agarawala and Bumptop! This is an EPIC sponsorship. You have to be at DemoCamp from 4pm-6pm to find out what it is.
  • Eqentia builds the a semantic publishing platform for knowledge tracking & competitive analysis
  • XtremeLabs is hiring agile engineers and ui designers for the hottest mobile development company on the planet.
  • Microsoft BizSpark jumpstart your startup and speeds up your time to market.
  • FreshBooks is the fastest way to track time and invoice your clients.
  • Mercanix develops tools that enable organizations and their people to do good work.
  • Rob Hyndman is the bee’s knees & the cat’s pajamas. Startups looking for a lawyer: Start here.
  • Rypple builds social software that makes workplace feedback easy and fun.
  • Dayforce is the hottest enterprise software company in Toronto. Hiring dev, qa, ui and sales ninjas.
  • Kontagent is a Facebook Fund funded startup that is hiring rockstar developers in Toronto.
  • OCE is helping commercialize the next generation technologies like Bumptop & Sysomos.
  • KPMG Information, Communications & Entertainment (ICE) practice helps startups to succeed in turbulent markets.

These are organizations that are looking for funding, PR, and they are hiring. Are you a developer? designer? marketer? pr professional? Are you looking for a job? Make sure you check out each of these companies. They are part of our ecosystem. They support events like DemoCamp. And they make it possible for you to have a great experience. These folks essentially cough up a relatively small amount of money for a logo, a blog post, and the hope that events like DemoCamp make Toronto a great place to find and retain talent.

David Crow focused on product design, customer development and go-to-market implementation on $0. He is available as a consultant. He is a mentor at UW VeloCity, Jolt and FounderFuel. Follow him on Twitter @davidcrow or at DavidCrow.ca

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13 Comments

  1. I figured that someone lost money on StartupEmpire but was it ever good, wow! Sponsors are appreciated for DemoCamp, without them it wouldn’t be possible so thanks to all. Can’t wait to see Fred and everyone else tomorrow at DC!

  2. I figured that someone lost money on StartupEmpire but was it ever good, wow! Sponsors are appreciated for DemoCamp, without them it wouldn’t be possible so thanks to all. Can’t wait to see Fred and everyone else tomorrow at DC!

  3. I will second that. Events are painful and only possible with the support of great sponsors. Their support underpins a lot of the social entrepreneurial efforts that go on in this community. Show them love.

  4. I will second that. Events are painful and only possible with the support of great sponsors. Their support underpins a lot of the social entrepreneurial efforts that go on in this community. Show them love.

  5. David, you and the team do an incredible job and I understand why you are very sensitive to the cost and time of the event. Here is my read – this event is killer and 15 bucks and an few hours during the day is nothing for the kind of content delivered. If the value of these types of programs is not evident, the wrong folks are considering this event. I am in the air tomorrow otherwise would be there in a blink – thank for the hard work

  6. David, you and the team do an incredible job and I understand why you are very sensitive to the cost and time of the event. Here is my read – this event is killer and 15 bucks and an few hours during the day is nothing for the kind of content delivered. If the value of these types of programs is not evident, the wrong folks are considering this event. I am in the air tomorrow otherwise would be there in a blink – thank for the hard work

  7. David, that was a great show, thanks again for setting it up. We have an awesome group of people here in the GTA doing amazing things.

  8. David, that was a great show, thanks again for setting it up. We have an awesome group of people here in the GTA doing amazing things.

  9. Hey David, how about some tickets made available at true cost. I’m sure you’d get some takers.

  10. Hey David, how about some tickets made available at true cost. I’m sure you’d get some takers.

  11. Hey David, next time allow us to pay what we would like, I would have paid much more than $15, I think most would.

  12. Hey David, next time allow us to pay what we would like, I would have paid much more than $15, I think most would.

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