2023 Sponsorship Information

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Fellow .NET Users,

Every year we ask the many businesses in Omaha who value .NET technologies and professionals to help fund the .NET UG for the following year. Every year, this group of organizations step up in a huge way to make our community thrive. We've kept records for the past 11 years and in that time we have enjoyed the support of 40 different organizations; this is phenomenal. We have a strong foundation for our community to grow on, which is why we’re excited for a few changes in this year’s sponsorship drive.

It has always been extremely important to make sure that the Omaha .NET UG remains independent, so it can be community focused. This is why it is important that the group not be sponsored by a single organization. To support this idea, we have always given away our sponsorships on a first come, first serve basis and rarely allowed any single organization to sponsor more than one meeting in a calendar year. This has largely led to a fair system that has brought a lot of diversity to our list of sponsors.

However, sponsorship slots typically sell out in less than a few minutes and leave many companies out of the group. This meant that anyone interested in sponsoring the group had to be ready at 8:00 AM and be very quick with their clicks on our web site. This year, we want to try something a little different for our 2023 sponsorships that will hopefully be less stressful.

The New Process

Instead of forcing an early morning sign-up while clicking as fast as possible through a first-come first-serve process, we’re introducing a lottery system. Here’s how it will work:

1. Any company that wants a chance to sponsor the .NET UG in 2023 can choose from 11 months that they would like to sponsor (January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, and December). Sponsors can select the same month more than once, but can only have 11 total entries. These entries need to be received by November 18th at 5:00 PM.
2. You can sign up by using the form located here: https://forms.office.com/r/3YHcCuUCyV
3. Each entry gives a better chance to be selected for that month.
4. During the week of November 21st, we will go through each month and randomly select the name of a sponsor from the list of entries.
5. Once a sponsor’s name has been selected for a given month, it will be removed from all other months and we will move to the next month.
6. The winners of the lottery will be revealed on November 28th.
7. Winners of the lottery will then pay the $150 sponsorship fee, which needs to be completed by December 9th at 5:00 PM. Details for how to pay will be communicated at that time.
8. Any unpaid sponsorships will result in selection of a new sponsor from the list.

We are excited to select our sponsors in a new way and hope that it leads to a less stressful and more fair selection process.

You might also be wondering what the benefits are of sponsoring a meeting? Here are a few:

• You will increase your visibility to highly talented .NET developers.
• Your company profile will be sent to 1,000+ local .NET developers for the month that you sponsor.
• You will have the opportunity to address the attendees of the meeting and get to know them.
• You build goodwill within the community. Our sponsors are viewed as companies that are connected and have desirable working environments.

There are also a few requirements for sponsoring a meeting. Here’s a comprehensive list:

• For in person meetings, our sponsors provide the food, which is generally pizza but can be anything you like. The cost varies based on what you decide to bring and how many people attend. By using this model, we guarantee that you get what you pay for. Attendance varies based on the topic of the presenter, location, and other community events.
• You can optionally provide a place to host the meeting. Hosting at your location gives people the chance to see your work environment and introduce them to the opportunities you have to offer. If you don't have a room big enough to seat about 50 people, don't worry, we have partnerships with several companies who are very happy to let us use their facility.
• You can optionally provide a speaker for the meeting. There are numerous advantages to having someone from your company speak. The primary advantage is that this person can use the meeting to further describe your company while also providing technical know-how to our members.

I want to reiterate that we are deeply grateful for the excellent support that our sponsors have provided to the user group since it was originally created in 2001. With your help, we’re looking forward to another successful year in 2023.

Thanks,
Matt Ruwe
mruwe@omahamtg.com
.NET User's Group Co-Leader

Brian Olson
bolson@omahamtg.com
.NET User's Group Co-Leader

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