sponsorship update Dec 15

[Peter Baumgartner]

Hi all! I'm taking on the sponsorship chair this year and wanted to
give you a brief update on what's happening. I've been waiting to see
how things shake out with the business organization so I can tell
potential sponsors where the money is going and how it will be used.
It sounds like we're getting close there so I'm hoping to hit the
ground running in January.

My short-term plan is:

* Contact previous sponsors to understand what they want and how we
can make the prospectus appealing. (early-mid Jan)
* Draft prospectus prior to site launch (late Jan)
* Make the case for sponsorship and post it to the site. Jesse
Noller's post [1] will be my blueprint (Jan/Feb)

Long-term, I plan on simply reaching out to industry contacts as well
as past DjangoCon/PyCon sponsors. Barbara passed along the names of a
number of local Austin companies that may be interested as well. My
hope is that having a community run conference with profits going to
the DSF makes it an easier "sell".

I'll also be looping Heather at 791 Technologies into the process as
she has expressed interest in helping out with sponsorships as well.

I'll try to post these updates every few weeks. If you have any
feedback or suggestions, don't hesitate to contact me.

[1] http://jessenoller.com/blog/2011/09/23/pycon-2012-sponsorship-making-the-case-for-sponsorship

Thanks and happy holidays!

-- Pete