Meeting Notes 3/24/09

5:30pm – 7pm/ 3-24-09

@New Work City http://nwcny.com/

200 Varick St, Room 507B

Map: http://bit.ly/zPB9D

Subway: #1 to Houston Street, ACEBDFV to W. 4th Street

(Join the organizers Google Group, review postings and RSVP to the list if you plan on attending)

Attendees:

Chris C

Sara L

Peter C

Nate H.

Wilis

Matt M.

Dwight W.

Peter: General report/update

Peter: Discuss intent of each committee

Committee reports

- Venue

• May have to hold the event in two different venues due to scheduling conflicts
• Additional options to look into: City Winery (big venue, good vibe), make-shift store next to Sports Authority and Penn Station

- Marketing

• Materials requested by Outreach committee - pending items to be completed by next group meeting
• Press release draft -  need to fill in details re: date, location and appropriate contacts
• Media list for press outreach - national and local MSM and online contacts (executive and calendar editors); suggestion to add in NPR-style outlets
• Logo - Chris H. gave permission to move forward with creating a new logo that can be used for national LaidOffCamp events (look at BarCamp for an example); Chris C. to start on design this week
• Collateral - rather than flyers, Marketing will design informational postcards that can be handed out/posted prior to the event (committee members can distribute them at networking events to get the word out), as well as during the actual conference - TBD: design, # to be printed, estimated budget
• Signage - during the event, group consensus was to create a PowerPoint presentation that can be projected on a screen with sponsor logos, welcome message, etc. in place of creating a banner

- Outreach

• Three-tiers of media outreach - print influencers, mainstream bloggers and niche bloggers
• Two audiences for the attendee outreach - need a targeted message for individuals we want to attend the event, and a message for individuals to pass on to others they think would benefit from the event
• Waiting on email templates from Marketing to begin heavy outreach
• Big need - getting the message to financial services space
• Working on a list of recruiter email addresses (specifically in the financial space, once again)

- Sponsorship

• Estimated budget - $10-16,000
• Hoping to get two anchor sponsors at $3,000 each, then multiple levels after that down to $500 minimum sponsorship
• Targeting two types of sponsors: 1. Companies that are directly benefitting from the economic crisis (Ladders.com, Sunshine Suites, Monster, LinkedIn), and 2. Companies that may feel a bit guilty (those that have had to let employees go)
• Focusing on cash sponsors since its more difficult to find uses for in-kind donations
• If we can get companies (i.e. restaurants) to offer discounts for attendees, idea to text message a discount code to those who attend a specific session
• Non-profit status - Grassroots.org can help us gain 501 (c)(3) status so that sponsors can write-off donations; the organization also offers advice for free phone/web services and legal tips for early stage non-profit companies

- Content

• Plan to seed the event with scheduled expert presentations
• Could use help reaching out to recognized individuals who may want to attend and run a session
• The Monday prior to the event, we will organize a conference call for all those who would like to present, offering tips on what has worked, things to avoid, helpful hints. These thoughts are also to be posted on the website.
• Important to remind people that there are no speaking spot guarantees
• Need a recorder for each session to organize main points for posting on the website

- Resources

• Website - want to keep the wiki as main hub for LOC but create a squarespace page to act as the front door for information; squarespace is willing to comp us many fees and is just asking for co-branding on the site

Action Items for each committee

- Venue

• Continue looking into low-cost options and finalize location/date

- Marketing

• Emails to participants and companies
• Media list and press release (pending until location/date finalized)
• Logo
• Contact Us information (who do we go to for what?)
• Postcard design
• One-pager fact sheet

- Outreach

• Locate additional contacts in the financial space
• Continue gathering recruiter contact info

- Sponsorship

• Continue adding to list of potential sponsors
• Work with Grassroots.org to gain non-profit status

- Content

• Continue adding to list of session ideas
• Contact recognized individuals to gauge interest in holding a session

- Resources

• Work with squarespace to design the website

Schedule next meeting

Next general meeting to be held Tuesday, March 31. Online & conf call information TBD