Proposal

Photo by Albert Chau 2004.

It all started with a phone call from a colleague at another organization:

day1: A phone call.
Colleague 1: Xcompany is interested in working with NAATA, C2, and C1
me: That's great. Thanks. I'll e-mail some info to you, if you're speaking to them now. (Send an e-mail 3 hours later)

day2: A phone call.
Xcompany: Hey we're interested in working with NAATA and C1 said I can contact you and ask you some questions.
me: Okay. What can I do for you?
Xcompany: Well we're interested in the young demographic of 21-29 and we're interested in hosting a music event, so what do you have?
me: Wow, that's great. We have this music showcase (blah, blah, marketing pitch).
Xcompany: And where will X company branding be?
me: It is on posters, blah, blah... Why don't I send you the proposal, a detailed demographic breakdown, and type of marketing we do for the DIS event?
Xcompany: Oh that would be great. Can you send photos too, so we can get a feel for how your festival feels?
me: Yes, I'll send the packet to arrive by tomorrow and I'll send the photos electronically.
(goodbye pleasantries, hang up phone.)

I hurriedly rush to format a new DIS proposal, get all marketing materials together and FedX the package to arrive the next afternoon. Next day - get photo disks from the 2004 SFIAAFF and sort through for photos of DIS that show either the crowd or the branding from last year's sponsor. Create a slideshow of highlights of the DIS events using Flickr. Then create tinyurl.com links for the longer links to the professional photographer's online albums of opening and closing night, using the slideshow functionality. Send Xcompany a nice e-mail an explain that she should click on the links to see slideshows of the music events, plus ON and CN. Then everything is sent off by 1pm.

day 2: A phone call at 2pm.
C2: Hi Mai. Did you receive a call from Xcompany?
me: Yes.
C2: What did you talk about?
me: We spoke about sponsorship, blah, blah...
[back & forth about how C2 can pitch their music event, etc...)
C2: Funny thing, she's my neighbor!
me: Oh. What a small world.
C2: I wonder if I should send her materials directly.
me: When I spoke to her, she wanted the packet, so I already mailed it off to her.
C2: Maybe I should mention this to C1?
me: Yeah, that's probably a good idea, I think C1 is traveling now...
C2: I'll send my materials separately then.

day 3: An e-mail between C2 & C1, I'm copied.
C2: Hey C1, funny thing Xcompany is my neighbor! Blah, blah..
C1: What a small world. why don't you steer this relationship then? I'll send my packet to you for drop off.
C2: Okay.
me: Hey guys. I just wanted to let you know that as I was speaking to Xcompany, she had a lot of questions and then asked for a packet so I sent that to her last Friday afternoon. She has photos of our events as well.

day 4:
e-mail from C2: Hey Mai, how were you able to send Xcompany your photos electronically, we're having a lot of problems with dealing with photos for our events.

I sent an e-mail explaining what I did and sent her the links, so she could see the outcome.

With the internet and knowledge of free tools on the web I was able to send my proposal and all accompanying marketing tools and photos of the event within one day of Xcompany's request of it. And in the for-profit world we deal with (as opposed to the npo world that C1, C2 and I work in), time and follow-thru is infinitely important. Sending the proposal and all accompanying requested marketing materials within one day is not too much to ask for. Additionally, though we have technology constraints related to onhand resources - there is a wealth of free webtools on the internet that we can utilize to achieve our desired results.