We’ve always had sponsors at our conferences - they’re quite welcome beyond necessity. However, we’ve never incorporated sponsorship like other conference coordinators have done. Microsoft could have demonstrated a month-old product this year, but instead opted to debut news that caused the content community to shoot milk out of its nose (in a good way). Yahoo! had a wonderful set of furniture in its designated area at the conference, but we were pointing people to Flickr from day one. Audible started talking about its entry into the podcasting world at the conference, Google had a Blogger corner at its party, Ignition Partners crafted an awesome mFoundry app for cell phones, PubSub tweaked its tracking feeds for Gnomedexers, etc. The conference was made complete with truly integrated involvement.

We strive to go beyond mere banner placement - and we don’t sell content. This philosophy stretches beyond the conference, as witnessed in just about every episode of our show. Everybody walks away a winner; sponsors get exposure, attendees get information, and Lockergnome is able to produce a fantastic experience for everyone involved. It is my hope that we made all of our 2005 sponsors proud to be associated with the conference.