Microsoft Rewrote the “Rules” of Conference Sponsorship

, I learned that Microsoft took a softer, lower-key approach to marketing at Gnomedex, a tech conference held just a few weeks ago and amply sponsored by Microsoft. In a July 3 posting, Gnomedex founder Chris Pirillo praised Microsoft for rewriting the rules of conference sponsorship: Pirillo wrote: “Microsoft (as this year’s diamond sponsor) did not have any scheduled time on stage. By this action, they have set the bar incredibly high for conferences the world over. No longer need conference coordinators be pressured by

Microsoft staff were there and made their presence known – but qualified it in Scoble fashion by acknowledging they were there “on their own behalf and professional development”. I REALLY respected that.

Kudos to both you and Microsoft – for developing a successful formula for other conferences to follow.

The linux bangalore and foss.in series of conferences have never given sponsors stage time. They’ve been doing this for several years now.

I’m fairly sure we’ve had top level sponsors at Search Engine Strategies who have not spoken during the content sessions. I can’t say for certain, because it’s not something I track. And I don’t track it because whether you are a sponsor has never had an impact on being able to talk, since we began the shows back in 1999. I assume that’s also always been the case with Gnomedex. I know it is NOT the case with many shows. But for us, having a disconnect between sponsoring and speaking isn’t a pivotal change. It’s standard practice and has been since Day One. I can’t think of any other way to do a show that’s going to be good unless you put the attendees first.

Another point: MS had staff there, and sponsored the event, even though as a crowd of geeks we were often slamming Microsoft (and, to be fair, Intel, Google, Yahoo!, and others) much of the time. That DVD of Vista Beta 2 was a nice touch too. Too bad I can’t get it installed on my MacBook yet. :)

Channel9 Guy slipped in a Keynote when no-one was looking…

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=210752

[...] Chris Pirillo Applauds Microsoft Chris Pirillo took a moment today to post a nice post applauding Microsoft’s attitude at Gnomedex this year and the way Microsoft went about in attending as both as a sponsor and attendees. “Their name was there, their teams were listening,” Chris says. “They will always be associated with Gnomedex 6.0 and its varied successes. They recognized that smart conferences cater to attendees through their support – not the other way around. Conferences that don’t pay attention to their users deserve to die – and the users who continue to support those conferences need to wake up and realize that they (the users themelves) are in control.” I agree that Microsoft did the right thing at Gnomedex by sitting back and listening. Listening to the discussions at Gnomedex was very important. But I strongly feel specific teams from Microsoft did not take advantage of Gnomedex for listening to such a important crowd. One of those teams is Windows Live. I know some of the Windows Live team couldn’t make it due to personal issues, but there was a significant void of Windows Live folks at the conference. When attendees walked in and saw the “Windows Live Lounge” – the first thing that came out of their mouths was either a laugh or a “what is Windows Live again?”    The Windows Live Team could have certainly benefited by listening to the feedback and perhaps taking some time to help clear up confusion folks may have on Windows Live in general. Another team missing was Internet Explorer. I think with just having released Beta 3 of IE 7, this would have been the perfect environment to hand out Beta 3 and get feedback and to LISTEN. By the way, Chris forgot to thank Nick White. Our bud Nick did alot of the planning on getting things set up for Microsoft at Gnomedex. With help from both Terri and I, he also helped stuff all the Gnomedex bags with Windows Vista Beta 2 and the Windows Vista Product Guide. [...]

I agree with Chris that it was nice Microsoft wasn’t throwing their stuff down our throughts but think that Microsoft and several teams from Microsoft (like Windows Live and IE) could have been at Gnomedex to do much more listening.

Listening to the discussions at Gnomedex could have been very useful feedback and seeing as the IE Team just launched Beta 3, would have been nice to see them listening in. And don’t get me started on the Windows Live side of things. Their lounge had nice couches though.

Sidebar Geek,

I was able to spend a lot of time with reps from Microsoft. I spoke for almost a half hour with Ryan of the Digital Media Group during the preconference party. Lilly from the Vista and Microsoft Research Teams sat next to me in the conference the first day. Both were very easy to talk to and asked a lot of questions about my experiences with the products they work on.

I would assume that there was someone from the teams you were looking for, but maybe not. I wonder if they would respond to a post on the live.com ir IE blogs from you asking if they had reps from their teams there? My experience with Microsoft over the past decade is that they bend over backwards to support the community.

My previous company, Thunder Lizard Productions had a strict policy of seperation of sponsorship from editorial. We lost a few sponsors over ten years because they assumed they got podium time and we had to inform them that wasn’t the case. Most of the dozens of Platinum/Diamond sponsors over the years never got their hands on a microphone. I guess the “rules” were rewritten long ago….

[...] “Gnomedex” is starting to appear in a few BlogHer posts – a couple of them related to how Ponzi and I handle sponsors. Microsoft’s Conference Marketing, Part 2 and Definitely Femtastic should take a look at Microsoft Rewrote the “Rulesâ€�? of Conference Sponsorship. It’s not easy to do a conference – but I must congratulate the entire BlogHer crew for pulling it off. I’ll be picking up Ponzi from the airport at Midnight tonight. blogging, blogher, blogs, conference marketing, conference sponsorship, independent thinker, microsoft [...]

We produce the HostingCon conference (industry tradeshow for people in the hosted services business) and one of the first things companies which are interested in sponsorship opportunities mention is that they’d like the “opportunity” to deliver a keynote address or be involved in the conference program.

Our answer has always been and will always be that we welcome session proposals from everyone, including our sponsors, and weigh them all based upon their merit and their fit for the program. We have never, and will never, tie participation in our conference program to sponsorships or exhibiting.

I think it’s great that companies who sponsor events such as Gnomdex, Search Engine Strategies, HostingCon, etc. are starting to realize that they actually LOSE value if it appears they “paid for” inclusion into the conference program.