Sponsorship Chair Handbook
Current Chairs:
| Name | Affiliation | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Raffaella Bernardi | University of Trento | raffaella.bernardi@unitn.it |
| Thomas Scialom | MetaAI | tscialom@meta.com |
| Chris Callison-Burch | ACL Sponsorship Director / University of Pennsylvania | ccb@seas.upenn.edu |
Overview of Responsibilities
The Sponsorship Chair is responsible for collecting funding from two kinds of sources: granting institutions and corporations. additionally, the sponsorschip chair is responsible for obtaining hi-res and low-res logos from every sponsor, for use in print publications and on the conference website.
The following are the main responsibilities of the Sponsorship Chairs:
1. Early Preparation
2. Sponsorship Outreach & Negotiation
3. Benefit Fulfilment
An example spreadsheet for tracking sponsors is available here.
Breakdown of Responsibilities
1. Early Preparation
This responsibility includes early‑stage work, preparing sets the revenue targets and the packages that will be marketed all year.
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contact Previous Year's Chairs | ASAP | July 2024 | - | (1) Past sponsor lists & lessons learned; (2) Additionally contact Chris Callison Burch. |
| Work on Sponsorship Booklet | November 2024 | December 2024 | - | Include benefits matrix & refund policy. |
2. Sponsorship Outreach & Negotiation
This responsibility focus on contacting and collecting funding from two kinds of sources: granting institutions and corporations.
For granting institutions, the lead time of institution grant is approximately 1 year. A formal proposal is usually required. Many funding institutions are unwilling to fund a conference more than once. Examples: + National Science Foundation + Sloan Foundation
Corporations must be approached several times:
- the first time more than a year in advance, to ensure that the sponsorship is included on the budget for the next year;
- six or so months before the conference, to re-awaken interest and stress the advertising potential
- three months in advance, to handle the funds
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Send Sponsorship Booklet to Known Companies | January 2025 | April 2025 | - | Personalised follow‑ups |
| Send Sponsorship Reminders | April 2025 | June 2025 | - | Drive late sign‑ups |
| Send sponsorship booklet to Potential New Companies | April 2025 | May 2025 | - | Identify fresh sponsors |
| Receive Sponsorship Request | January 2025 | June 2025 | - | Identify eligible funding |
| Send Invoice | May 2025 | August 2025 | Sponsorships agreed | - |
3. Benefit Fulfilment
This responsibility focuses on delivering promised visibility and maintaining relationships with sponsors.
The sponsorship chair is responsible for obtaining hi-res and low-res logos from every sponsor, for use in print publications and on the conference website. Advertising that corporations may be offered:
- Logos on proceedings and fliers, etc.
- Logos on banners and signs at conference and social events
- Logos on freebies and t-shirts
- Short statements at reception, opening, etc.
Corporate sponsors have very tight restrictions on the use of their logos. Last-minute sponsors may not be able to get all the advertising promised.
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collect Sponsors' Logos | April 2025 | June 2025 | Contracts signed | (1) Ensure optimised sizes; (2) Provide assets to Web & Publication Chairs |
| Share Logos with Conference Webmaster | May 2025 | June 2025 | Logos collected | |
| Integrate Sponsors' Logos on Website & Proceedings | May 2025 | June 2025 | Logos collected | - |