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Wedding Woes
VarunaTT
member
I'd like to pick your brains
in Wedding Woes
At my little Pride, our booth space is tight and getting tighter, b/c of limitations of our location. So, booth spaces are 10x10 for almost all sponsorship levels, with 10x20, 10x30, and 10x40 booths spaces as benefits for the big money sponsorships.
I have a vendor (and they did this last year), who basically wants to buy two of the lowest business sponsorship, so that they can have 2 booth spaces (I wasn't involved in the decision last year). They have contacted us again, trying to get the same deal.
For info: the sponsorship they want to buy 2 of is $150 (so they would pay $300) and a 10x20 is a benefit to a $2000 sponsorship; this vendor is a business that also makes a lot of money at our festival, so I find this especially shady behavior from them.
My thought process is that a new vendor in that space is actually more valuable to me for future sponsorships and community interest. I also don't think that $300 for a benefit given to a $2000 sponsorship is equal and should be expected by this festival. I'm inclined to charge them $750-$1000.
But I'm interested in other opinions and thoughts.
I have a vendor (and they did this last year), who basically wants to buy two of the lowest business sponsorship, so that they can have 2 booth spaces (I wasn't involved in the decision last year). They have contacted us again, trying to get the same deal.
For info: the sponsorship they want to buy 2 of is $150 (so they would pay $300) and a 10x20 is a benefit to a $2000 sponsorship; this vendor is a business that also makes a lot of money at our festival, so I find this especially shady behavior from them.
My thought process is that a new vendor in that space is actually more valuable to me for future sponsorships and community interest. I also don't think that $300 for a benefit given to a $2000 sponsorship is equal and should be expected by this festival. I'm inclined to charge them $750-$1000.
But I'm interested in other opinions and thoughts.
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Re: I'd like to pick your brains
But thats an answer ignoring everything else in the process. They were allowed to do this last year- by whom? Do you have support for charging more from others in the organization?
If they want them side by side, I'd tell them they have to rent a larger booth at the rate that you charge for larger booths. If they want two separate booth locations...I think I'd go for the higher rate ($750-$1000).
How I'd handle this has everything to do with how easy they are to work with, how much good business they bring in and what your rules state.
I'm far more inclined to make deals with customers who recognize that they're asking for a lot vs. those who simply do not value my time or the time of my team. How much money they have and make wouldn't factor into this but what would factor into this would be how well they paid (did you have to chase them down for payment), did you remind them about rules and regulations, did they push the envelope and set up late or too early and break other rules? Were they ones to offer anything to you? Those would all be key factors that tell me how much I wanted to work something out.
So I would consider
1) In the future there needs to be something stated about the booth sizes. Put it in writing about what you can and can't do.
2) If they were a great vendor and easy to work with I'd consider a deal where they don't get two booths at a 2 x 1 booth price if they want to make two booths into one. However because they were such a great client in the past, yadda yadda you're going to offer them a deal of X.
Should they not like that deal then you can advise that you can at least offer one booth and will notify if a second space becomes available however they will not be together.
But above all I think future handling of the event needs to state what will and won't work or other businesses will just try to do the same thing.
To be fair, I can understand where they are coming from. Unfortunately, it is a "loophole" in the pricing that should be corrected for next year. Why rent a much more expensive large booth, when they can rent two smaller ones for cheaper. BUT, those are single booths, so they won't necessarily be together. I'd give them a few choices:
And, for NEXT year, make sure that situations like this are already listed in the pricing. Like one small booth per vendor=$150. But a second small booth for the same vendor=$700 (or whatever is decided).
Equality Level -- $150
and the others follow the same pattern, with increasingly larger benefits for each increased level. Is that clear enough? (not being snarky, there's some good brains in here and extra eyes help, so if there's something better, please let me know). This is also followed up with the same verbiage by an immediate e-mail when we receive their app and another document with the same verbiage is attached to their invoice from PayPal, verbiage specific to their sponsorship level.
We state we don't differentiate between "sponsors" and "vendors". Everyone is a sponsor and they have to tell us in their app if they want a booth at the event (not every sponsor does, they just want their logo on stuff).
The vendor is an asshole. I was not involved in the decision last year (my co-chair simply made it w/out speaking to me and he basically caved immediately B/C the vendor is an asshole and difficult to work with and he didn't want to deal with it), but I would've refused last year just b/c the vendor is an asshole and difficult to deal with ever year. But I didn't want that to be too heavily influencing my thought process.
They want side by side so they can make a mega booth.
I think I answered all the questions.
Thanks for the various inputs, I appreciate it and will keep reading.
ETA: All booths can only be 10 foot wide b/c of location logistics, so it's always 10x10, 10x20, 10x30, etc.
If the vendor is an asshole and just out for their own profit then I think you can be really clear to this person:
"I understand that Anus Company want the space of two booths. To do so will be a cost of X. If Anus Company team members would like to set up two booths located separate from each other at the event then the cost to do so will be Y."
The goal is to come up with something that's mutually agreeable but if there's no benefit for your group to meet halfway then I would be rather strict and then make sure that no one deviates from decision making without the approval of you or others.
That said, I would also change your system so booth space can be priced differently. Ultimately I can't blame them for the attempt here so I would actually write out that you can't get a medium booth for the price of a single one.
The vendor is Pride schwag crap. I'm not a fan and we always have plenty of vendors with that stuff. The only thing better about this one than the others is that they're local. And last year, they were shown up HARD by a new vendor who came in that had great product and was AMAZING to work with and is regional.
I'm really not inclined to start piecemealing the sponsorships out. At the end of the day, all of my committee is volunteer and this is a lot of hardwork. I need to find the balance between meeting Pride's needs and not burning out my commmittee. Trying to keep track of piece meal packages will be hard. Also, this is really how every other Pride I see, of all sizes, mostly does their packages. I've only seen one that differentiated between sponsors/vendors and it's a HUGE Pride, with a paid committee.
I think the fact that they want their two booths together is the key here. That's the larger booth that comes with the higher level sponsorship. Period.
If they want two booths at the low price, they won't necessarily be together. And then **cough, cough** I'd make sure the slots assigned for the two booths are far apart.
Hee, hee, hee. I'm glad I'm not the only one, lol.
Nope nope nope.
There's a healthy balance to the corporate need. As long as a corporation is actually putting it's money to use to protect LGBTQ+ folx (like the 2 I'm talking about), I'm a supporter.
A lot of Prides want to be a destination Pride and that's what corporate sponsors can help them be. Kylie Minogue ain't cheap and is headlining NYC Pride. And a lot of people love going to destination type Prides. I'm not in the business of slamming either one.
Our city's Pride would not be as big and as wonderful without support from my company and others like it. I think we'll actually be in town this year during Pride and I may volunteer to help with the festivities.
You need corporations like mine to spend the money and provide the support to make the event.
And you know what? Commercialization is not *always* a bad thing. Yes, Pride started from grassroots efforts. Having corporations throw their support and money behind these events increased exposure. And more exposure and events leads to more acceptance. And the end of the day that's one of the goals, right?