Hello,<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2009/8/11 Noufal Ibrahim <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:noufal@gmail.com">noufal@gmail.com</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hello everyone,<br>
I hope this mail finds you all in good health and spirits.<br>
<br>
I haven't sent any mails to this list before so I'll start by<br>
saying that my name is Noufal Ibrahim and I'm heading the organisation<br>
of the first Indian Pycon scheduled to take place at the end of<br>
September 2009.<br>
</blockquote><div><br>Good luck with this! <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
We're looking for corporate sponsors ie. companies in the country<br>
that are into Python and who we can make part of the local Python<br>
community. We have a couple of people who are interested and we're<br>
following up.<br>
<br>
One of the things that a potential sponsor asked for is the list of<br>
delegates along with their contact information (email addresses). We<br>
never anticipated this and didn't put up a privacy policy on our site<br>
when we first launched. The support of this sponsor would go a long<br>
way in covering our costs and actually making the conference a<br>
success. They promise that they won't spam people. I presume that<br>
they're going to use it for their recruiting. I'm in a bit of<br>
dilemma whether to accept or not.<br>
</blockquote><div><br>I suggest that you tell them that if they attend and take part in the conference then they will learn the contact details of all the people they are interested in anyway. This is what Google do, using sponsored conferences as cheap targetted recruiting exercises. They collect personal details using incentives like a prize draw, and no one seems to be offended by this. Other companies do the same (Oracle and Ableton at EuroPython for example).<br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
A couple of the more experienced people tell me that this is a<br>
standard practice during most corporate conferences. I wanted to know<br>
if any of the other PyCon organisers faced such a situation and if<br>
they did, what was their course of action.<br>
</blockquote><div><br>We have not been asked for this at PyCon UK, nor at the EuroPythons with which I've been involved. I think that we would refuse.<br><br>Best wishes,<br><br>John<br>--<br></div></div><br>