WordCamp Brighton is one month away and we’re all getting very excited!
Still, if we’re really going to organise this event in the open, it’s time you knew about the budget. And it’s time you knew, we need to raise a bit more sponsorship.
[Update, 2nd August 2017: We’re very pleased to say we’ve now reached our target. Thank you everyone for spreading the word and thank you again to our wonderful sponsors.]
What we’ve raised so far
How is it going so far? Not too bad, actually.
Here’s the money we’ve raised at the time of publishing this post:
| £5,000 | Global sponsors |
| £9,250 | Local sponsors |
| £500 | Micro sponsors |
| £3,060 | Tickets |
| £17,810.00 | Total |
We’ve reached our target of raising £500 from micro sponsors and are just £750 off our target of raising £10,000 from local sponsors.
Pretty good. And with a month to go, I’m feeling optimistic.
Our original budget was £22,614 and you can see we’ve not raised that.
When you start organising something months in advance, things change, and the budget included a lot of guesswork.
So we’ve cut it back a little.
What is the real budget?
This is our actual budget breakdown based on real quotes:
| £12,000 | Conference venue |
| £1,000 | After party venue |
| £4,330 | Catering (lunch x 2, dinner x 1, staff) |
| £1,327 | Reusable cups |
| £701 | Reusable water bottles |
| £150 | Contribution day food |
| £150 | Volunteers dinner |
| £100 | Other little things |
| £19,947.00 | Total |
This means we need to raise a bit more from sponsorships.
Where is the budget being spent?
Our biggest cost is the conference venue, the next highest is catering.
While reusable cups and water bottles technically fall under ‘swag’, they’re also saving a lot of waste. On that note, our caterer is using biodegradable containers, cutlery and napkins too.
Many of the measures we’re taking to create an inclusive event (or as inclusive as we can within a budget) are free. Our super low ticket price certainly isn’t free so much of the budget goes on making sure we aren’t putting barriers in the way of attending.
Our budget has changed and shifted as we’ve worked through the year to organise this event. We’ve added some things, we’ve taken others away.
It’s also important to point out we’ve negotiated on Every. Single. Quote to achieve this revised budget.
We’re now in a place where we’re feeling comfortable with where we’re spending money vs the benefits.
We need your help
I could go on and on, but all of this adds up to one important fact:
We need to raise some more sponsorship money.
I’m very proud of the organising team for their hard work so far and for managing to bring down our budget.
The schedule is so, so good (have you seen?), and now it’s just the last details that need sorting.
We’re nearly there. But there’s still a month to go!
We did this whole thing in 4 months last year, so I see no reason why we can’t find another couple of grand in 1 month.
So go ahead and sponsor….remaining sponsorship packages range from £100-£1,500. We promise it’s going to be a brilliant event, and it’ll be even more so with your help!
And if you’ve already sponsored: thank you so, so much. We love you ❤️