Why Your Company Should Sponsor Events

Versão em Português

Let's start by better defining a special type of event: non-commercial events aimed at the developer community. These are events like Tropical on Rails, Rails World, Ruby/Rails Conf, EuRuko, Friendly.rb, and many others. I want to help you—whether you’re a developer, a business owner, or an HR manager—understand why you should encourage your company to sponsor these events.

For Developers:

There are two types of developers: those who have attended a great event and those who haven’t. The first group knows what I’m talking about—they were the ones who sold out Tropical tickets 10 times faster, in just over 6 hours. But what actually happens at these events?

We Learn New Techniques

If you're developing software the same way you did last year, you're likely missing out on productivity, quality, or speed. Rails 7 and 8 have introduced various tools that impact one or more of these pillars. Technical events are where you learn new ‘tricks’ or meet people who are solving similar problems in different ways.

Access to Real-World Problem Solving

Hearing how other developers are tackling similar challenges can bring immediate value to your work. Events address real-world problems and solutions, shared by experienced developers who have tested various approaches and can help you solve challenges you may be facing right now.

We Meet Inspiring People

At events, you meet inspiring people, and—whether for better or worse—the people you choose to connect with have a greater impact on your life than you might think. The connection you create with someone after attending their talk and chatting in the hallway is incomparable to reading a blog article.
You leave the event motivated to learn and to become like that amazing person you met at the conference. It’s common to see stories of projects, whether open source, companies, or even other events, that emerge after these encounters.

For Companies

Who has been questioned for choosing Ruby on Rails in recent years? Who has struggled to find good developers? Events are a key factor in strengthening the community.

Motivated Developers

The most common feedback I heard from companies that participated in Tropical was that employees returned from the event eager to make things happen. Some organized internal workshops to share the knowledge they gained, while others adopted new practices they learned. Collectively, we’ve seen several meetups revive across Brazil, and according to Rafael França (Rails Core), more Brazilians have started contributing to the Rails project. For business owners, having motivated developers is essential for success. Motivated professionals are the ones who become seniors faster and produce more.

Employer Branding

Building your employer brand is essential. The best developers aren’t chosen by you; they choose your company.
This choice happens daily, whether during hiring or when deciding to stay with the company.
Attendees will have the chance to get to know your company and your team members. In a future hiring process, this will be remembered. The best developers I know are not only driven by salary; it’s important, but not decisive.

From the Organizer’s Perspective

Organizing an event, like contributing to open source, is a gift. To organize Tropical, I need to dedicate about 15% of my annual work time. Tropical is a 100% pro bono project. I've already talked about the challenges of organizing a conference and that Tropical came from my perception that the Ruby community in Brazil needed a large-scale event more than ever.

The challenge of events like this is that, in my case, ticket revenue only covers 50% of the conference costs. The other 50% I need to obtain with sponsor support. This isn’t different for Rails World or RubyConf: tickets are subsidized, and they also need the support of companies. Here, we have three types of companies:

1. There are companies like AppSignal, the first sponsor of Tropical in 2024, which sponsors events worldwide; CedarCode, a small company from Uruguay that not only sponsors various events but also supports the Rails Foundation; and Brazilian companies like SmartFit, Agendor, and others that proactively reach out to sponsor the event because they know the importance of these events for the community and want to give back to the ecosystem.

2. Then, we have companies that still don’t understand the importance of events. These are companies that have never had the opportunity to participate or have a very commercial view. Their first reaction is to calculate the return on investment (ROI). Of course, we need to generate value for sponsors, but this ROI isn’t easy to calculate. It manifests as strengthening the “Employer Brand,” “Motivation,” and “Training” of employees and has the collective impact of events, which help attract and retain Ruby developers, ultimately benefiting the sponsor. Some of these companies sponsor the event, while others don’t.

3. The third type of company understands the importance of events but opts to gain the benefits without effectively contributing. They buy tickets and encourage developers to submit talks but don’t sponsor. It’s okay for these companies to exist; what matters is that we have enough companies of types 1 and 2 to keep conferences like Tropical viable.

I need your help to convince companies about the importance of sponsoring events, not just Tropical. If you think your company needs a better understanding of the importance of events, share this text with leadership or try to explain it to them. If you’re interested in supporting Tropical, send me an email at sponsors@tropicalonrails.com