Chris Reed
Sponsorship & Advertising Manager
Chris has been in the sponsorship industry for over 30 years building sponsorship experience within the municipal, professional sports, agency and entertainment industries. His time includes close to 20 years with MLSE along with time in Financial Industry with BMO managing sponsorships and naming rights and on the agency side with Partnership Group managing asset identification and valuation and most recently/currently with the Town of Milton (Ontario) overseeing their sponsorship portfolio for the last 7+ years.
Specialties: Sponsorship valuation, sales, promotional activation, partnership servicing, negotiation, strategic direction, project management, analytical approach, competitive analysis.
Sessions
MUNICIPALITIES AND SPONSORSHIP – A DEEP DIVE INTO VALUATIONS AND MANAGING COUNCIL
Pre-Forum Workshop, October 11
This three hour municipal focused workshop is designed to appeal and deliver results to a cross session of municipal employees who are either new to sponsorship or have been involved in sponsorship for many years. It has been designed to accommodate all levels if experience within this one workshop.
The session will touch on a wide array of topics, but the two key focus elements will be:
Understanding your inventory and how best to value it.
How best to navigate sponsorship with Council and be set up for success along with ensuring that you treat sponsorship differently that donations or cost recovery arrangements.
The session will also touch on the best approach to sales including a quick dive into discovery sessions and bundling of assets. Ideally this all prompts great discussion and many questions along with sharing of success stories from colleagues in the audience. Truly this will be a fully interactive session with a lot of “ask me anything” moments!
MUNICIPALITIES AND SPONSORSHIP
The Main Stage, October 11
Breaout Session, October 12
Sponsorship had become a much more recognized revenue stream for many Municipalities over the last 10 years. Some do it really well and some still look at it as cost recovery. Sponsorship is meant to be a reciprocal relationship and not one of funder.
To build a successful sponsorship program with proven sponsor retention you will have to benefit from substantial internal buy-in and support. This starts at the top with Council, CAO, Commissioners but trickles down to program coordinators. Flexibility is key and that includes associated fees, package bundling and benefits as well as payment schedules. This session will review at the macro level all of these elements. Whether you are just building your program or looking to enhance it this review will be applicable.