SharePoint Saturday DC is collecting canned goods for donation to charities in the northern Virigina area. The organization is sponsoring an event on May 2 for developers, architects and anyone else who is interested in SharePoint.
The event itself is free, but the food drive is a competitive event.
The top 20 donators buy themselves access to the speakers, who have each volunteered to spend on hour of their time with a winning contributor. The highest donator gets first choice from a list of 20 speakers. Then that speaker is struck from the list, and the next highest get to choose. And so on and so forth through the speaker list.
For a local event, this is a terrific idea. Everyone loves competitive chartible-giving, right? The donors are encouraged to increase the size of their contribution in return for a service which is also donated.
But this has a special twist. Attendance is not required to either contribute or to win. Huh? Okay, so I can talk to a speaker without being physically present, that makes sense. But what about contributions? Believe it or not, the organizers are accepting contributions through the mail, according Dux Raymond Sy's video explanation.
The winners will be announced, on twitter via @SPSaturday_DC, at 6 PM on May 2.
One does have to wonder, though, whether mailing a substantial quantity of food is such a good idea. The money for mailing might be better used to buy more food, donated to your local food pantry.