Committee Events

From DataSelf: Hi Wayne, You're right. We paid for the membership renewal, 1 ticket and 1 webinar in 2016. Thanks for confirming. We'd like to maximize our experience at the meeting and offer a training to our resellers. We were thinking about renting a hotel event room to meet them before the conference. Is that ok doing that? And also, do you know if other members are doing the same? If so, how are they promoting it? We couldn't find any information on 90 Minds website or on their own. Any help is appreciated! Thanks, Simone

Question here is do we have any prohibition against them renting a room at the hotel and providing demos? I think we wouldn't have a problem so long as the room is not one of the regular conference rooms and they are not advertising a session against MOTM. I'm not quite sure how to phrase that

If they want to rent a suite and host demos or have a demo out in the open area I don't think that's an issue. I think I'd prefer that it not be advertised as a session against regularly running sessions during the day.

there are 2 or 3 small conference rooms that are available . We can got on or 2 of them and charge them for it

I don't see any conflict with this. If this is earlier on Thursday, it would be concurrent with the last part of the Kless/Baker class, but that only affects a small group of members and the other attendees would need to arrive early if interested. I'm impressed they are taking the initiative to do this, and would plan on getting there early to support this effort.

I an thinking of having a hospitality suite in one of them? (Our Candy bar!!)

If it is ONLY training for their current resellers, I am good with it. Could be a slippery slope if they start marketing to non resellers. I like Jim's idea of having them pay us for the room. Gives us more control over their message.

I think they are free to do what they want. If they rent a room directly and announce a schedule that does not compete, why should we control their message? I am not a current reseller but am interested in attending. It's one of those products that most of us probably don't know enough about.

Then why even become an affiliate? Figure out when our meeting is, rent a room and put up signs. New products is what drives our Platinum, Gold, etc sponsorships.

I agree with Jeff, why have an affiliate program if they can come to SD during MOTM, rent a room and market for free?

In this case they are an affiliate. You cannot stop this type of activity. Vendors can rent a room at another hotel close by and invite people. Dawn Jaeger has mastered this at Sage Summit.

Perhaps we should be thinking bigger and offer more opportunities for showcasing products while collecting for it. Every vendor that is there wants a chance to show off their product beyond just having a table, yet there are limited time slots.

Yes, they are an affiliate but what would stop them in the future? We have not sold out our affiliate time slots. I'm not sure why they wouldn't do that instead?

Good points. We NEED to continue thinking outside the box and change if we are to be successful for another five years. Wayne is constantly thinking about this. How do we continue to provide value that we can charge for? The price of our success is costly.