The Cabana Sessions are a highlight of S4 every year. The social time around the pool in the warm weather gives attendees time to establish and renew relationships and have leisurely discussions. The sponsors who have Cabanas are a part of this as we hope they will show attendees what will coming in the next 1 – 3 years.
We didn’t want the Basic Sponsor fee to prevent attendees from seeing some cool new tech from a cash strapped startup, or a community or industry group effort that doesn’t have an event budget, or a projects from academia who haven’t yet started earning a salary. So two of the five Basic Sponsor cabanas will be provided at no charge to companies, groups or individuals that have something new and important that the S4 audience needs to see.
Here is the Basic Sponsor Application page, and we will be accepting applications from July 1 – July 31. Please let any worthy group or company that should be at S4x22 know that these free Basic Sponsor packages are available.
The three paid Basic Sponsor spots that are available will be selected on the same “what is new and important” criteria. We also will look at whether what would be shown is already being shown by one of the other sponsors who will have cabanas.
As part of our No Limits theme to S4x22, we internally looked at every aspect of the event including the Sponsor Packages. While the money from the Sponsors helps us put on the event, if it doesn’t improve the attendee experience then it’s not a fit for S4. We could easily bring in more money by having a large exhibit hall with tabletop displays and 3x the Sponsors we have now. We don’t believe this improves the attendee experience, and doesn’t fit the creative environment we are trying to put the S4 attendees in.
Another major change is we no longer have a Sponsor Stage with 20 sponsors presenting 30-minute sessions. Some of those sessions were great, and many were not. Beyond the improvement in the room and stage itself, which now seats 200, we have decided to have a Partner take over that stage for a day and put on a compelling agenda. I think the Stage 3 agenda will be competitive with the Main Stage and Stage 2 agendas. We are excited to tell you and show you some of the other changes as we get closer to ticket sales on Sept 1st.