Announcing the DEFCON 32 Call for Sponsors!
TL;DR - Email out to [email protected] with Sponsorship Inquiries!
As an expansion to the services and aid DEF CON offers its content creators, we’re very excited to announce our Call for Sponsors. We’re using our reach into the community to help connect DEF CON content creators, such as our Villages, Contests, Parties, etc. with our fantastic community of potential sponsors!
As a content creator sponsor, it’s important to know that you won't actually be sponsoring DEF CON itself (you can find out ways to support DEF CON through our Call for Exhibitors.
What we aim to do is to find and qualify individuals and companies who reach out to us to become sponsors of our content creators, and then help facilitate the conversation between those creators and potential sponsors. Two of the most difficult parts of sponsorship pairings are the creators being upfront and honest with what they need, and the sponsors receiving the appropriate value add to their organization. Our Sponsorship department aims to help guide the conversation and work out a deal everyone can benefit from!
Interested in being a Sponsor? Reach out to [email protected] to start that conversation. Please provide the answer to the following questions, just to get things started:
- 1. What is your name and your organization's name?
- 2. How familiar are you with DEF CON? If you’ve never heard of us, I strongly suggest you watch the DEF CON 20 documentary to get an idea of the amazing people you’ll be supporting!
Parties - Starting at about $500, you’d probably get your image on signage, you may get a special thank you call out during the party, skip the line access, or maybe some other ‘at the party’ benefits. It’s the lowest cost of entry, but don't underestimate the impact it can have on our community!
Contests - Starting at about $1000, you’d likely get callouts on social media, in closing ceremonies, and maybe logos on shirts or signage (depending on what the contest has). These contests run all weekend and get thousands of eyeballs on them. We have some contests who are mainstays and extremely well known in the community. You’d get some decent advertisement and goodwill amongst the community.
Communities - Starting at about $2000, you’d be helping support sometimes underrepresented demographics, groups who have struggled to find their place in infosec, and also new ideas and events growing under the community banner. Oftentimes these groups are non-profits, so it's possible that your sponsorship could end up being a tax write off. You’d also likely end up on signage, social media callouts, and likely given time in the community room to get your message out there.
Villages - Starting at about $5k (some villages more), you might be able to get some pretty unique opportunities, like being able to volunteer at the village, you’d likely get logos put on shirts and signage, callouts on social media, and thousands of engaged DEF CON attendees. Just to be up front, you can't sell things or have a dedicated booth inside of the village, but if your organization wants to get involved in a hands-on teaching experience that involves something important to you (like your people or your products), it’s possible you could work something out with the village leads.
In the end, we’re going to do our best to get the right sponsors in touch with the right creators. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and ask!