1. Funding partner
Provide monetary support to cover the event cost, and inevitably become the ones you blame for the quality of coffee, the lack of hot rotis, and the sticker you got with your name on it, when you were really looking forward to a lanyard.
2. Knowledge partner
The ‘experts’ from nonprofits, think tanks, and research organisations that end up on all the panels. Can be found having a minor existential crisis on the stage when they are asked questions that makes them question everything they do.
3. Grassroots partner
Sangathans, grassroots workers, and community members that are invited to the event to showcase on-ground impact. Unfortunately, all the panels are in English, and nobody includes them in conversation about ‘development’.
4. Media partner
Meant to market and cover the event to amplify its reach but in reality they just ask people for soundbytes that get published just in time for next year’s event—because no one informed them how long the approval process is.
5. Technology partner
Meant to streamline the event (and no, nobody knows exactly what this means).
6. Policy partner
Typically a government agency or ministry that sends one bureaucrat for a panel. The panelist is informed on the morning of the conference about where they are going, what the topic is, and what they are supposed to talk about—no matter what they’re asked.
7. Logistical partner
Handles the venue, hospitality, and other logistics. They mostly end up running up and down the entire venue to ensure the mics work and the sessions happen on schedule, panic when panelists take too long to get to their point, and give up when the networking breaks start bleeding into the panel time.
