Would you like to support a local software user group or community event? I have begun a speaker sponsorship program with a twist: free consulting.

When you support a local software user group by sponsoring me to speak at their meetings or conferences, you receive a sponsorship package including a half day of remote consulting, coaching, pairing or training. All this for only CAD 495. (Canadian sponsors pay GST.)

Most local software user groups have to raise money to invite well-known out-of-town speakers. They have a few avenues: local fundraisers, local benefactors, and the Agile Alliance speaker reimbursement program. Most such organizations, however, don’t have fundraising experience, and the Agile Alliance’s program still has a relatively limited budget. The people who started these groups didn’t plan to become expert fundraisers, so let them benefit from your sponsorship to bring me to speak to them.

The Speaker Sponsorship Package includes

• two 90-minute remote consulting sessions on the topics of your choosing
• acknowledgement on the user group or event web site of your sponsorship
• acknowledgement on jbrains.ca of your sponsorship
• acknowledgement during my talk of your sponsorship
• acknowledgement during all my 2009 conference talks of your sponsorship

Acknowledgement includes your (or your company’s) name, logo and a link or pointer to your website.

I will conduct your consulting sessions with Skype (http://www.skype.com) and its screen sharing feature. You need a headset, a webcam and a high-speed internet connection. You can use your sessions to do the following:

• work with me as a pair partner: programming, writing stories, designing business tests, personal planning, and more
• map your value stream, identify bottlenecks, and devise plans to deal with them
• run a code review or planning meeting
• ask for my advice on issues of design, testing, planning, teamwork, communication, installing practices
• suggest your own session, and as long as I believe I can help you, I will do it

Upcoming sponsorship opportunities:

• Sponsor the Agile Bazaar, the top agile user group in New England, where Niraj Khanna and I will explain on March 26, 2009 why Your Agile Sales Approach Sucks!
• Sponsor my appearance at Code Retreat 2, where I will help Patrick Wilson-Welsh and his crew give programmers a place to practice their technique.

Unfortunately, you cannot use your sessions to do classroom training. If you would like to hire me to train your team or organization, please read about my training services.