Going Solo

Yesterday mid-afternoon, I had to take the difficult decision to cancel Going Solo Leeds. The reason for this is that a bit over two weeks before the event, there are simply not enough registrations for it to take place under the conditions I envisioned for it.

After discussing the situation with my advisors, I reached the conclusion that the most responsible course of action right now was to cancel as soon as I could.

I’m aware that for some of the people who have arranged to travel to Leeds, it’s already too late to cancel travel plans. If you’re going to be in Leeds anyway, how about doing something together? Let’s gather on the 12th for a free SoloCamp where we will discuss soloist issues amongst ourselves in an informal way.

The Going Solo conference concept and the community around it live on. There will be a third edition of Going Solo — I’ve learnt a tremendous amount of things preparing both the Lausanne and the Leeds editions, and will be taking advantage of those lessons to do things slightly differently. How, when and where are still unknowns, but if you are subscribed to the newsletter you’ll be informed in good time.

I’d like to extend a huge thanks to all the people who took part in the Going Solo Leeds adventure: people who registered, sponsors and media partners, bloggers who promoted the event though blog posts or badges on their sites, advisors, speakers, and friends who helped out. To all of you who believed in this project: thanks so much for your help.

I’ve included below a mini-FAQ and will update it if other questions show up.

Why did you cancel?

Two weeks and a half before the event, just over 25 people are registered to be present at the event. Even though Going Solo aims to be an intimate event, I don’t consider it is fair towards the attendees, sponsors and speakers to run it with such a thin crowd.

There were 60 people in Lausanne, which made for a good audience. A conference with 25 people present is not the event I designed and advertised — and not what people paid for.

I considered giving it another week, doing the maximum to drive registrations, but in all honesty time was getting too short. Expecting another 25 registrations in 3-4 days was utopian. If the event has to be canceled, I would rather do it two weeks and a half before the date than 10 days or a week.

What about the people who had paid a registration fee?

People who paid the registration fee will be refunded. They will also be given a 50% discount if they sign up to a future Going Solo conference, when time comes.

Are you doing anything instead of Going Solo Leeds?

Yes. As we’re in town, we’ll meet up to talk about freelance issues, but in a very informal way: that’ll be SoloCamp. I’m not sure exactly what shape it will take, but it will be free and I’m hoping we can have a venue for it at OBH, where Going Solo Leeds was to take place.

It would be nice to have a sense of how many people will be present (5 or 30 makes a difference!) so let me know if you think you’ll be there, and if you want to get involved.

Will there ever be another Going Solo conference?

Yes. I still believe in the concept and format of the conference. The Lausanne event was a success, and the general enthusiasm for Going Solo has been huge (media partnerships, coverage, post-event feedback and general comments).

That it did not translate into actual registrations is more a question of circumstances. We learn as freelancers that how well you do does not necessarily reflect how good you are at your actual job, and I think the same is true everywhere. Having a good idea is not an immediate recipe for success — other ingredients are needed.

There will be future Going Solo conferences. I will approach the organisation differently, based on what I’ve learned over the last year. I’ll be writing more about what I’ve learned over the next weeks.

Why didn’t people register this time around?

That’s the big question, and I’ve spent the last month banging my head against the wall (not literally) trying to answer it. I think there are a bunch of reasons we can identify, and probably another bunch which are just “random” (having read Fooled by Randomness recently, I’ve come to understand that there are no absolute recipes for success or failure — chance plays a part in both). Here are some ideas.

I think the Leeds event was too close (in space and time) to the Lausanne event. People came from Lausanne from all over Europe. Those who wanted to attend Going Solo did so in Lausanne. The first event “exhausted” the pool of potential attendees, in a way.

The word “recession” has been showing up regularly on my radar over the last months. Though not everybody is hit, of course, I think freelancers are particularly vulnerable when the economy starts wavering: it’s easier to cancel the freelancer or not hire her than fire an employee.

The pound has gone down. I don’t know exactly how much impact that could have, but it does mean that the British economy on the whole is suffering a bit (just like we’re all feeling the rise of oil prices).

What about you? Do you have any ideas? If Going Solo seemed interesting to you and you are a freelancer, what kept from signing up?

I’m fallen a bit behind on introducing our sponsors for Going Solo Leeds, and as you can see in the sidebar or on the Sponsors page, the list is growing fast.

I’d like to start by pointing out some of our recurring partners.

Expectnation

Expectnation were our first partner for Going Solo Lausanne, and I have to say that all through the preparation of the two events, Edd Dumbill (the brains behind the machine) has offered support going way beyond the normal “tech support” one would expect in such circumstances. So, thanks Edd, and very happy to have the opportunity to use Expectnation and contribute in a small way to making it an even better service.

SmallBizPod

If you remember well, last time around Alex Bellinger of SmallBizPod recorded some great interviews of the Going Solo speakers. This time, Alex will actually be present at the conference and interview freelancers during the day. I’m really looking forward to having him with us!

TheNextWeb

Famous for their “Men in White”, TheNextWeb are with us again this time. A last-minute incident prevented them from being present in Lausanne, but we’re confident we’ll be seeing coverage of our Leeds event on The Next Web blog!

If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor, we still have some sponsorship positions open.

There are also sponsorship opportunities for individuals (not just companies) – there has been a lot of positive feedback about the idea, but we’re still waiting to see who will actually take us up on the offer! 😉

Whether you generously want to support the Going Solo conference or are looking for an opportunity to make your name known, you can now become an individual sponsor a little more elegantly than by sending PayPal money to an e-mail address. (Read the initial announcement.)

We now have buttons for you, and a few tweaks.

Tweak #1: the £200 and £500 packages now include an opportunity to provide business cards that will be added to the attendee packages (being a sponsor is about promoting yourself, isn’t it?)

Tweak #2: you can specify which area of Going Solo you would like to sponsor in priority. There is food, speakers, conference materials, and event organisation to choose from (and also “I don’t really care” if it’s the case).

Here’s what it looks like:

• Name (+link to personal website) on Going Solo site
• Personal slide in the “Thank You” slideshow presented at the event
• Opportunity to provide business cards in attendee package (for £200 and £500 options)

As an individual sponsor, you may also request discount codes or a free pass (for the £500 option). Ask for details.

Become an Individual Sponsor for £100

Become an Individual Sponsor (£200)

Become an Individual Sponsor (£500)

While I was at it, I did a little housekeeping and separated the page listing the sponsors and the instructions and information about the sponsorships.

For the curious, here are the discounts you can ask for when you become an individual sponsor (it’s not compulsive, so don’t be put off if you can’t use them — somebody else will take them). £100: two 15% discounts, £200: three 20% discounts, £500: 1 free pass and two 20% discounts.

Do you know anybody who would be interested in being an Individual Sponsor at Going Solo? Suggest it to them, and send them the link to the individual sponsorships sign-up page. I’m around to answer any questions, of course.

Update: below is the original announcement. Some things may have changed. You should visit the sponsorships page for up-to-date information.

Yesterday, a friend of mine asked if Going Solo was offering any individual sponsorships. I was a bit taken aback at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea.

Going Solo is about people. It’s about individuals. Most of the time, it’s about people building a personal brand. So, it would make a lot of sense for Going Solo to allow individual people to be sponsors too.

As an Individual Sponsor, you of course get a chance to show your support for a great event and benefit from the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with it (and that’s important) — but it doesn’t stop there:

• your name (with link to personal website if desired) is listed as an Individual Sponsor on the sponsors page and in the sidebar
• you will be personally thanked along with the other people who have contributed to making Going Solo what it is in the ‘thank you’ slideshow displayed during the conference

Being an Individual Sponsor also allows you to ask for discount codes to give away, if you know people who might benefit from them. This is completely optional, of course.

So, this is what the package officially looks like:

Individual Sponsor – £100, £200, £500

• Name (+link to personal website) on Going Solo site
• Personal slide in the “Thank You” slideshow presented at the event

As an individual sponsor, you may request discount codes or a free pass (for the £500 option). Ask for details.

I’m going to set up a few shiny buttons to make it easy to sign up for this sponsorship, but until I do that, you can simply PayPal the amount of your sponsorship directly to steph@going-far.com and e-mail me at the same address if you have questions, would like discount codes, or (who knows) would like to discuss a different sponsorship amount.

You can now buy your sponsorships directly through Paypal, with the help of a few handy buttons on the “How to Sponsor” page.

I’m really excited about the fact that we’re giving individual people the opportunity to benefit from Going Solo’s visibility by associating themselves to the event. I’m looking forward to seeing who jumps on the occasion!

If you’re a company, you’ll want to check out our micro-sponsorship offering if your budget is a few £100s, or our standard sponsorship packages if you have a more generous budget or want extra exposure and presence at the event.

Going Solo Lausanne was my first experience ever dealing with sponsorships. And I can tell you, for somebody who is not (but not at all) a salesperson, it was a bit scary. Thankfully I had Lily to help me out.

One of the things I realised the first time around was that we didn’t have an offering which was really suitable for startups or companies with really small budgets. So, for Going Solo Leeds, we added a £250 package which was specially designed for startups or micro-companies who want to be present at Going Solo but might not be able to afford a full sponsorship package (they range from £1,250 to £4,000 — but before deciding that’s a lot, check what’s in them ;-)).

Here’s what the micro-sponsorship package offers you for £250:

• Logo on Going Solo Website
• Logo slide in rolling slideshow presenting sponsors and partners on a screen in the lobby
• 2 special sponsor discounts for the event (30% off ticket price) or 1 minute presentation/video on screen in lobby (rolling)

One nice thing about the Old Broadcasting House, our venue, is that the lobby contains large display screens which we can make available to sponsors.

One of the screens will have a rotating slideshow of all the logos of our partners and sponsors (like we display them all on the website, in the sidebar and on the sponsors page). Some packages allow a customised slide rather than just a logo (check out the sponsorship offerings for details on that).

So, that’s what the second item in the micro-sponsorship offering is. As for the third, well, it’s a choice between two special discounts and a minute of screen time. But actually, it’s way more than a minute of screen time, because it will repeat throughout the day.

A second screen will be used to show a series of trailers, demos, screencasts, films or even slideshows (!), put back-to-back, and which will be on repeat all day. We plan on selling maximum approximately 30 minutes of screen-time total so that the number of repeats throughout the day and the lunch break is worth it. So, the micro-sponsorship offering gives a choice between two discounts or one minute of this screentime.

Screentime is also available as an “add-on” to any other sponsorship (£100 for the first minute, £50 per extra minute — max 5 min. per sponsor). Our offerings also include display tables (nicer than booths because you get more interaction with the attendees), podcast interviews and blog posts, the possibility to sponsor lunch or distribute goodies. Download the PDF detailing our packages and get in touch if you’d like to talk about them (we’re open to being creative, so if you have other ideas, we want to hear them).

• E-mail: sponsorships at going-solo dot net
• Phone: call Stephanie Booth on +41786254474 (GMT+1, CET)

Of course, I haven’t yet come to the meat if you’re a company thinking of becoming a Going Solo sponsor: the audience of the conference is very focused and engaged. We saw in Lausanne that all the people present were freelancers or thinking of becoming freelancers (and no one who just came to “browse” or check us out but were not really our target audience). As a result, there was a lot of interaction, a lot of personal engagement, and a great atmosphere. Everybody was really there to look for practical solutions to real issues.

So, Going Solo is really a unique occasion to contact such an audience. Anyway… There’s more information about all that in the PDF you’ve probably already downloaded ;-).

The event is in just over a month, so now’s the time to talk!

I discovered six groups a few days before Going Solo Lausanne, when Stowe created a channel for the conference. I’m happy to announce that they are sponsoring Going Solo Leeds and helping us get set up with their service, as it was pretty quickly obvious they were a really useful service for an event like ours.

If you already use Twitter (and you should!) you won’t have too much trouble understanding the utility of six groups. The Going Solo six groups livecommunity aggregates tweets from members of the community which are hashtagged #goingsolo. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can of course participate directly on the six groups site.

Six groups also provides code which allows us to display the latest message sent to the Going Solo Livestream, and gives easy access to the functionality:

So, in practice?

• register for a six groups account (you may use OpenID)
• join the Going Solo community
• edit your profile (add your Twitter ID in there so that @sixgroups can follow you!), add a photo, and look through community members to start adding friends
• adjust your Twitter settings so that your tweets are captured into the livestream
• for your tweet to appear in the livestream, use the #goingsolo (that’s a hashtag) somewhere in your tweet
• of course, the livestream is available through RSS.

And:

• you may also post a message directly from anywhere on the Going Solo websites, by using the six groups toolbar which appears at the top of each page
• if you enjoy being identified as something like “Gast88684”, you don’t even have to register! 😉

If you would like to add the Going Solo six groups bar to your site (and become a partnersite), all you need to do is copy the widget code into your template, just before </body>.

Looking forward to having you all take part in the livecommunity! Use the comments here for questions if you have any.

Quite a few bloggers have asked me for a referral code to use on their sites. I’ve also had requests for discount codes for those of you who want to promote the event to your community or mailing-list.

I’m happy to say that all this is now a possibility. Send me an e-mail (steph at going-solo.net) or a tweet (@goingsolo) to introduce yourself and your community. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!