Un-Sponsorship and Making All About People happen. Everyone plays a part, including YOU.

Inspired by a TED Talk and some alternative perspectives, I created Un-Sponsorship, a new way to make better things happen. I’m asking for your help.

Hi, I’m Andy. This is me.

In early 2014 I decided to create an event celebrating, discussing and contributing to the rise of amazing, people-focussed workplaces. In three months from idea to occurrence, we put All About People on and although there’s a post to be written sometime soon on what we did right and wrong, something happened.

Partly by design, partly due to naiveté and circumstance, All About People 2014 became an event that fostered togetherness, inspiring emotional responses from everyone involved – attendees, speakers, organisers.

It was important.

Taking it Forward, Paying it Forward.

We need to do it again, we need to do more. This isn’t just about an event – it’s about the ideas and the actions they can inspire and the belief that everyone should have access to them.

So we have a plan and some great ideas for what to deliver next year, from events to media production. But in the intervening months since the first event, a few things have happened…

Changing Our Worldview.

1. We now have hindsight and vision. The ideas for #aapcon2 are exciting and ambitious – we’re going to keep the things that worked, introduce new ideas and break the concept out in some exciting ways.
2. I had a conversation with my friend Gwyn Jones about sustainability, transactions and the restrictions of traditionally commercial deals.
3. I watched a TED talk by Amanda Palmer.

All of these things have changed our worldview a little. So here’s where our thoughts currently lie…

I use the term ‘we’ as I look on All About People as a collective, but realistically it’s me. This year my credit card was bashed into submission to make it happen, while I worked 70+ hours a week to get there. I’m happy to do all of that, in fact it’s a privilege, the bank however puts stupid things like credit limits in the way, so next year AAP has to cover itself.

Goodbye Sponsorship, Goodbye Transactions.

To find a way to pay for it, commercial sponsorship is the obvious choice. We can offer engaging value to brands by association, but, as Gwyn pointed out to me, traditional sponsorship is so restrictive. As a transaction, it dictates that if you give me X, I’ll give you Y.

What if there was a better way for everyone?

Amanda’s TED talk answered some of those questions. It’s ok to hold out the hat, to ask for what you need. Your work creates value for others, accept the gifts it inspires with no guilt and give gifts yourself.

If you’ve watched Amanda’s talk, you’ll know she’s run successful Kickstarter campaigns, but for All About People, crowdfunding isn’t necessarily the way for us to go. We have ideas, but we want to remain fluid on what we’re delivering (that’s one of our major successes) and by running a KS campaign, we’d have to be clear on the detail at this early stage and deliver specific rewards for specific donations. That doesn’t sit well with our purpose of avoiding the X for Y transaction.

But what if we take the best of those ideas and create a new approach? Let’s call it Un-Sponsorship.

It’s OK to Ask.

We need to put on a programme of All About People events next year and we need to cover the costs. If we can do that, we can share the ideas and spread the inspiration in new and wider ways. Being comfortable holding out the hat, here’s the ask…

We want to run a programme of All About People events and projects in 2015. It’s going to cost us £400k. If we get more we can do more, less… you get the idea. We’re doing it because we believe it’s important.

If your organisation can help fund us and you can see the value of what we’re doing, please contribute. It doesn’t need to be money… much of what we’ll use our finances for is tangible (printing, venues, catering, etc) and the essence of the gift-giving idea is that its flexible and based on value.

In return, we’ll give you a gift of anything in our power to give. From more traditional sponsorship/ brand associations, to gifts of time, effort, joint working, projects and events. It could be anything from writing a research or insight paper with you, to operating an AAP event in a different part of the world. Maybe we could run a people/ work experiment together. Instead of being transactional, this can be a genuine process of two-way gift giving where the only limit is ideas. We’ll all win!

I know it’s not the way things traditionally work, but I believe it’s better. The opportunities for value, creativity, collaboration and innovation this Un-Sponsorship offers are massive and exciting. Let’s see where it can take us.

What All About People Needs.

This is us holding out our hat. We need your help.

Even if you don’t make the financial decisions in your organisation, please take some small action:

1. Read this.
2. Share it with the world – on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, email, in conversation, anywhere you can.
3. Share it with and within your organisation and associated organisations, customers and suppliers.
4. Share it with reporting/ media outlets who may run the story and spread the word.
5. Share your thoughts and ideas with us, stimulate some conversation.

And if you are able to take the financial decision to help us, however big or small:

Get in touch – we’d love to talk about what we can do together.

The Why.

If for no other reason, please help us because everyone deserves to work somewhere amazing and every organisation deserves an inspired, inspiring and successful future. The more we can do with All About People, the more we can share with the world.

The message is simple. We want to make All About People happen in 2015. We need your help and we’re not afraid to ask for it.

If you’d like to see more about the Un-Sponsorship idea or our plans, head over to the All About People Website.

We’re on Twitter @AAPConf, I’m @AndySwann, you can find us on LinkedIn and Facebook too.