Laurie Davison

Creating lasting sponsor partnerships is more than just putting logos on your website! Truly effective sponsorships are relationships that balance the needs, values and attributes of your event with the goals and objectives of the sponsor. Creative partnerships can last decades – but where do you start? In this session I will help you go beyond the “Your Logo Here” approach to sponsorships and learn to assess your event for creative opportunities to engage with corporate partners. Where are the hidden assets in your event that a sponsor would love to have? What are they worth? What is the value of in-kind support? Together we will look at how to build sponsorship packages that actually pay the bills, where to find alignment with potential partners and what to include in your sponsorship package or pitch. Learn how social media, in-kind partnerships and measurable data can help you build sponsor relationships and keep them.

Outcomes:

Guests will leave the session with a framework for building sponsorship opportunities and their assessing their value, an understanding of how to present a sponsorship package vs a pitch, and guidance from real life case studies of successful sponsorships.

BIO:

Laurie Davison loves nothing more than a whiteboard and a good old-fashioned brainstorm. With creative, outside-the-box thinking, Laurie has spent the last 18 years celebrating the Spirit of Gemuetlichkeit at Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest, where she has worked with hundreds of sponsors from across Canada to create lasting partnerships. Laurie held her first unofficial role of Oktoberfest tour guide when she was only 19 years old. It was completely self-appointed. She joined the K-W Oktoberfest team in an official capacity in 2008 and quickly began working with festival sponsors. Over time and many years of learning, she evolved into the role of Business Development Manager where she develops revenue strategies from sponsorships to merchandise, and manages over 200 partnerships annually. In her early career, Laurie worked for the Ottawa Marathon and the Embassy of Taiwan, in roles supporting marketing, event and sponsor management. Career highlights for Laurie include creating events for the Prime Minister, and the time she got to lower a keg of beer from a helicopter...entirely sponsored of course.