Events

Chambers are revolutionizing sponsorship offerings and recalibrating to member needs.

• Many chambers are offering sponsorship of virtual events at a lower rate than their in-person events, for example, at a value of about 1/3 of prior sponsorship dollars.
• Others are creating umbrella sponsorships for an overall fee for a year, which include digital advertising on all media within a niche of programming, for example, all Workforce programming.
• Consider realigning sponsorship dollars from canceled or postponed events. For example, pivot those sponsorship dollars to providing a grace period for members struggling to pay dues.

The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber has converted two of their large signature events to virtual formats for 2020. The below product sheets describe the original in-person sponsorship options and their digital counterparts. 

The Robins Regional Chamber (GA) transformed its largest in-person event of the year - the State of Robins Air Force Base luncheon - to a virtual format. The Chamber communicated early and effectively and was able to retain all sponsorship revenue commitments. Realigning sponsor benefits included shooting video content of sponsors and base leaders for a virtual premiere. Average attendance of the event has been 350-400 in-person and the Chamber had 267 attend virtually. The Chamber maintained the original ticket price, and reduced expenses allowed the Chamber to create revenue from the event. The Chamber gave a surprise $1000 bonus to the caterer, who in turn will make the funds available to a local nonprofit for future catering orders.

In addition to working advocacy support into tiered dues or larger investment level marketing, here are a few examples of stand-alone sponsorship and event revenue.