2011 Sponsors Packet
Sponsor Kit
 
 
 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

1. BIL Basics

 

 

 

Everything a Sponsor Would Want to Know About:

BIL 2011

A free interdisciplinary un-conference designed to expand minds, share ideas and make friends.

 

March, 2011 * Long Beach, CA: Queen Mary

 

DONATE HERE

 

Increase your exposure to motivated people spreading great ideas!

 

 

BIL who BIL is an un-conference -- organized and observed by the participants. At an un-conference, you might be the famous keynote speaker setting up chairs, doing AV, or serving coffee, because there is no particular distinction between speaker, sponsor, audience, AV tech, or janitor. BIL emerged from a community, and each person was responsible for making it great. Everyone at BIL shares a common trait: BILders are the everyman thinkers and doers.
BIL what BIL started as an unaffiliated satellite to TED.org. In 2011, TED is coming to Long Beach, and so is BIL. BIL is an open, self-organizing, emergent, arts, science, society and technology conference. Anyone can come, and anyone is able to offer a talk. Because this is an unconference, no one receives special treatment, everyone is encouraged to participate where they can, whether that's clean up, set up, getting coffee, listening, AV work, blogging the conference, registration etc. Because people are different, everyone will find their comfort level with the amount of participation in making BIL happen.
BIL when March 5-6, 2011, BIL takes place just after the TED conference. This helps maximize BIL's exposure and increases our value to our participants and sponsors, as well as increasing the value of TED by providing additional free resources to TEDsters.
BIL where Queen Mary  1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach.  
Attendance BIL expects 500+ attendees this year.  We've had anywhere from 200 to 500 attendees with less than a months notice, every year. This year, thanks to the Queen Mary, we have a lot of capacity. Attendance at BIL is open to everyone. This openness makes BIL a wonderful interdisciplinary resource that aides in a cross pollination of ideas. Our attendees are our organizers. Our attendees are our speakers. Our attendees are our audience. Our attendees are experts and every day Janes and Joes. Our attendees are active consumers of ideas that will help improve their lives.
Speakers

BIL speakers are not invited, but asked to step forward the day of the event to spread their ideas.  We have a wiki for people that are already willing to step forward and give talks.  There is never a shortage of amazing talks.  For previous talks, click here


Other speakers can be found on the speaker/attendee page.

 

 

2. Sponsors

 

Being a sponsor at BIL is more than just donating money for advertising space. Sponsoring BIL is connecting with BILders. BIL looks for sponsors who want to engage in, support and be a part of community, in addition to being seen by the community.

 

 

BIL sponsors in 2008, 2009, and 2010 were great. BIL had a number of companies step forward, including The Creative Space, Qtask, Microsoft, The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Fast Company.com, Joyent, Meraki, Social Media Club. They generously covered costs for the event, such as facility rental, food, t-shirts, and other logistics. Not only did sponsors donate their time, they also became a part of the community. Some examples:

 





Some Former Sponsors

 

The Singularity Institute gave money and their executive director in 2008, Tyler Emerson, participated in the BIL conference. Tyler brought to the table his energy, his desire to connect with others, and his ideas.

 

Qtask gave money and their CTO, Baron RK Von Wolfsheild, contributed his time, effort and energy preparing the projector screen and helping with other logistics.


Barney Pell, from Microsoft, was a speaker and a sponsor, brought a great creative energy and informative talk. 






 

Over the years, all of the sponsors involved themselves with the community, and this connection with the community is part of what it means to sponsor BIL. Participation puts sponsors in direct contact with attendees, speakers and other sponsors. Sponsorship of BIL is as much about donating money as it is connecting with BIL's community.

 

While it is not required that a sponsor participate in the community, it is a wonderful opportunity for the sponsor and the community.

 

 

2.1 BIL 2011 Sponsorship

 

There are several ways to be a sponsor of BIL. Donate your time, physical resources or money and BIL greatly appreciates those donations. Right now, BIL is needs more money to cover basic costs in order to keep the event free.

 

Sponsor With:

  • Monitary contribution through WePay, bank transfer, or in person
  • Tangible Items: tables, chairs, sofas, rentals, a/v equiptment
  • Lunch, breakfast, coffee, drinks, other food stuffs
  • BIL t-shirts, stickers, trinkets

 

 

There are three levels are Bronze ($250), Silver ($500) and Gold ($1,000)

 

Below are guidelines regarding what is tax deductible:

 

Tax Deductible

Not Deductible

Donation of money/Financial Sponsorship

Donation of time

"Donated property may generally be deducted at the fair market value of the property at the time of the contribution. However, there are special rules for the donation of cars and other vehicles." For more info Give.org

Lending of property

 

Monies given to BIL are considered a donation and are tax-deductible. Donations in any form are NOT required for attendance, and are appreciated non-the-less.

 

BIL is able to work its non-profit magic through Open Science Summit. Open Science Summit is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Their tax ID # is 20-5912017. With Open Science Summit as a "Supporting Organization" for the BIL conference, BIL is able to keep the flat hierarchy that helps BILders keep their focus on community.  Open Science Summit has a "BIL Fund" in which to put donations received and to write checks on behalf of BIL.  You can donate directly here.  Or contact Joseph P. Jackson at joseph.jackson@gmail.com

 

Financial Sponsorship of BIL is tax-deductible through Open Science Summit to the fullest extent of the law in the U.S.  Open Science Summit will send electronic tax receipts to individual donors and sponsors less than $999. Sponsors of $1000 or more will receive an invoice, unless a sponsor specifically requests otherwise.

 

Please make your donation via wePay here.

 

BIL needs $6,000 more dollars to pay for our expenses.

 

3. Sponsor Benefits

 

Expose your products, services and ideas to a world wide community.

-Your logo will be listed on the BIL website, blog, and at thanked at opening & closing.

-Your logo may be added to large banners hung behind each speaking area.

-Give out samples of your products and services to BIL participants.

-Video of the event may be available.  Often times the participants either set up live streaming themselves, or make and edit video themselves, see our video section

 

As this is an unconference, we are open to unique ideas you may have for getting your company's name out there to our audience.

 

4. Where The Money Goes

 

Anything someone does not volunteer to do.   

 

Currently our budget is going to the

  • Venue, security, insurance, permits - $6000
  • Chairs, Tables - $500
  • A/V Equiptment - $400

 

If you wish to sponsor something else, like an open bar for two hours Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening, where everybody knows *YOUR COMPANY'S NAME* . . . please contact Simone Syed directly at simonesyed (at) gmail.  At one BIL, Joyent sponsored lunch via pizza delivery for the entire conference.  That was awesome. 

 

5. Current Sponsors

 

This year our sponsors include:

 





2011 Sponsors

 

Platinum 

QTask - Web Based Team Collaboration Software, Team Home, use of their CTO, Baron RK Von Wolfsheild. 

Ask.com - Sponsorship, Friday bar tab, Living Space

ElectronVault - Lunch on Sunday via Souplantation

D. Alex Rochestie - TV Free Media- Live Streaming, Video

 

Gold

Open Science Summit - Supporting Organization

 

Silver

SENS and Aubrey de Grey- Signed copies of books

 

Bronze

Primal Alchemy- Flavored Waters

ProjectFresh - Promotions 

 

 

 

 

 





 


 

 

6. Media

 

BIL has been a huge success in the social media sphere, with numerous blog posts, outreach via FaceBook, and a growing collection of twitter followers.  Video of the event is often available.

 





Past BIL Media Coverage

 

*The Wall Street Journal: For BIL, Tagging Along with  TED Proves to be an Excellent Adventure

*Wired: Informal Conference Borrows TED’s Big Ideas,  Not Its Pretense

* NPR: Bryant Park Project interviews Brad Templeton:            BILOn the Road, There Will Be Robots

* BoingBoing: BIL is to TED as BarCamp is to Foo Camp

* Huffington Post: A BIL and TED Excellent Adventure





 

Want more information on who has written what? Check out BIL's media page.

 

7. Thank You!

 

 

 

Your commitment to helping our community is sincerely appreciated.

 

Each year BIL continues to advance the open, self-organizing, emergent, arts, humanities, science, society and technology conferences.

 

We hope to see you there!