Over the past week, including today I will have delivered three sessions or workshops to three distinct audiences. The first was as a three-hour guest lecture to a fundraising course at McGill University in Montreal. It was amazing. The class was engaged and eager to learn. The session was the launch to their section on sponsorship in fundraising and I referenced Reality Check – Straight Talk about Sponsorship Marketing and designed the “sponsorship overview lecture” from several chapters from the book.
A couple of days later I presented in Moncton NB a three-hour workshop for a collection of municipalities and public sector staff on understanding the role of corporate sponsorship and naming rights for alternate revenue generation beyond taxes and user fees. Again a very engaged group with a desire to learn more and understand better their options and the process to implementing such a sponsorship revenue program.
And finally, today I am in Saint John NB to deliver a break-out workshop session at the PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association) 2023 Canadian Innovation Conference. It is a gathering of business event strategists and the global business events industry. The session today is “Changing the Tide and Adding More Money to Your Bottom Line in this New Event World!”.
All three are unique and distinct groups or industry sectors. Municipalities / Public Sector employees, fundraisers and event professionals. But all are after the same thing. More money. More bottom-line cash. And all three “live” in new worlds. Technology has changed the landscape for all three groups. Post COVID (and ongoing COVID scenarios) “new worlds”. New ROI measurement by sponsors who are truly looking for a calculated and empirical data driven return on their investment.
I am pleased to have shared my insights and knowledge and experience with all three of these groups. Such sharing creates dialogue. Dialogue provides further insights and new opportunities. Too often I meet industry professionals or even post secondary institutions who do not want to “share” knowledge and insights. They claim it is “proprietary” and as one professor exclaimed to me from a Canadian post secondary institution, ‘If I share those insights and knowledge, it will hurt the university and attendance to our programs. Why would anyone want to take our courses if they can get that same knowledge elsewhere?’ I was gobsmacked!
I think it is critically important to share insights and knowledge. Whether that be at a conference or a classroom or a workshop or an online gaming app, we need to share and create dialogue. Our sector will only grow and get better if we continue to share and create dialogue. I am so pleased that so many industry professionals share their time, their knowledge and their insights at events such as the WSC® – Alberta Forum, SponsorshipX and Prime Time Sport Conference . These are the industry leaders who are making a difference and I applaud them.
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