food and space sponsorship notes from bostonrb

[Peter Cai (Boston Ruby Group)]

Couple quick notes as a followup to today's zoom call for ruby meetup organizers regarding food/space sponsorship:

• we got lucky rest of year with a food sponsor at BostonRB - a bigger agency has stepped up to support the group, not a ruby or rails company. I had to put together a proposed budget for the year and share it, but this was straightforward since our goal is to meet twice a month all year (except December).
  
• A handful of organizers had to front money to cover food when necessary, but we're trying to avoid making this a habit. We haven't mentioned food in the meetup announcements - mainly because funding was so dicey that it was never a sure ahead of time. We don't really want people crashing our events for free food, but it does make the meetup way more pleasant if most people aren't famished.
  
• Space-wise: we have very few sponsors or potential sponsors, we're hosting meetups in a co-working space common area right now. The situation for talks isn't ideal but we're making do. I've noticed other meetup groups in the area also use coworking spaces whereas in the past there might've been a single corporate sponsor.
  
• Yes, there's a lot of unused commercial office space, but not a lot of security/admin/event staff at companies who want to hang for a few hours after work to let people in, etc. Usually you need someone persistent from recruiting or marketing to actually get the ball rolling and pull everyone together.
  
• Lots of companies, even the ones who are hiring, haven't responded to outreach on linkedin etc, and overall don't seem too interested (my guess is with the state of the job market, tech employers don't have to look TOO hard to get good candidate pipeline at the moment).
• As I mentioned on the call, Microsoft has been very nice as a host, but as of a few weeks ago, they need 1 week notice for all attendees, and this is strictly enforced now...which is very frustrating -- I'd wager about 40-50% of attendees try to RSVP in the last 48h leading up to an event, and lots of people assume they can just walk in day-of.
  

--------

Here's a blurb i wrote up as an elevator-length prospectus for anyone who wants to borrow:

Boston Ruby Group is seeking corporate sponsors for both pizza and space. Benefits:
- Reach 1000+ Boston-based engineers, students, and ruby enthusiasts
- Your organization name and logo on event collateral, announcement email, and 2min intro slot at event opening
- warm fuzzies
For info please direct the relevant team at your company (probably recruiting) to email me.
====
Details for potential hosts:
Our membership includes ruby engineers of all experience levels, and hosting meetups has historically been a good way for hiring companies to stay top of mind for engineers passively looking for their next opportunity. I'm looking to get in touch with the right person to coordinate events beginning in the spring 2024:
- monthly on first or second Tuesday is preferred, but flexible
- 6-8pm, usual attendance is 20-30 individuals, including volunteers
- ideally a projector and some classroom-style seating for presentations