A good amount of time and effort will be required to secure appropriate sponsorship for your meeting or corporate event. This being the case, it is important to start your planning process early. Beginning this process as much as 18 months in advance of a planned meeting date is not unrealistic. You may want to consider aligning potential sponsorships with your corporate vision, values, strategy, brand promise and reputation.

Where to look for sponsorship - Your strongest prospects are going to be the people you do business with. When you are ready to make contact do so by going through the person who manages your vendor account. Once they have put you in touch with the person within their organization to approach, focus first on building a relationship. Become a friend before asking for funding. Have a plan in place for getting to know your prospective sponsor. In this plan you should clearly state what you have to offer, how the sponsorship will be implemented and what is in it for the sponsor.

There are three key areas to focus on when evaluating your sponsorship. The first area is being in agreement on all aspects of the sponsorship. The second area is implementing the sponsorship and the third and final area is measuring satisfaction and performance.

Reaching Agreement

Get to know your potential sponsor. Develop an understanding of your prospective sponsor