Comments on: Exploding the confab

By: jeb

jeb — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:19:13 +0000

Event organizer here –
Space is not free.
Time to create the event is not free.
Creating the platform for the exchange has logistical costs:costs for creative thinking (who speaks? on what theme? who’s invited to attend? how do we organize the exchange to the audience, between the speakers, in an interesting way…)
If the event works, it’s because some good thought & planning went into it, with a good technical support team on the ground. Let’s not let our joy at free content & (nearly free) communications pipelines get the better of our good sense. Not everything can be free, or even should be.

By: Old Grouch

Old Grouch — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 05:27:32 +0000

Setting a high price insures that the attendees will be either (1) really interested or (2) on expense account (that is, gainfully employed by an organization that’s willing to send them). Either way, it keeps the riffraff out.

By: Marina Architect

Marina Architect — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 16:51:16 +0000

It’s about manufactured credibility. Speakers pad their resumes with “award-winning” and “speaker engagements” and as long as that derived credibility trend persists, their will be a premium built into the margin(ticket price). It’s simple reciprocity.

Conferences are about awakening synapses and not profit margins. Design Conferences (Awards, etc.) are a good example where it’s not worth paying $1200 for a 2-3 day event. I’ll pass, oh the company will cover it, let’s go. Yeah, it’s lame.

Advertising awards are an egregious example of this. Do we really need to applaud someone for selling more Pepsi and Diapers: that’s why I got out of advertising. As you get older, the intellectual rigor that consumes you can’t be satisfied in advertising. It’s as cushy a job as you can imagine, but then some people were born to live sleeping on a hard concrete floor: you get the idea.

Conferences should be break even endeavour or done at at a loss for organizers as publicity. Doing conferences for profit is a racket. As the snowboarder Jake Burton has adopted as a company saying: “Keep the focus pure”. I grew up in Colorado: lot of boarding and getting high/getting green in the clear mountain air. It changes you long after you health nut.

By: Boyd Neil

Boyd Neil — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 16:01:03 +0000

Citizen Journalism

At a presentation on blogging and citizen journalism I gave last week at a media relations conference,…

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 12:43:04 +0000

Science Fiction conventions have faced the cost/no-cost issue for a long time, since many fans are not wealthy. What DW did is known as a “Relaxcon” in that convention parlance. But the economics don’t really seem to be in conflict. There’s always a luxury market, and a value market.

After all, if it’s about “community”, high admission price is a form of “snob zoning”.

By: jonny goldstein

jonny goldstein — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 04:38:36 +0000

Vloggercon and Vlog Europe conferences were free. OK, they were small, but they were free. The major cost is space…If that can be donated, then there are few costs. But even if you are paying for space, 695$ per person is crazy, unless they want to keep an exclusive vibe going.

By: JennyD

JennyD — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 02:34:11 +0000

The $700 covers the speaker fee for Al Gore. That’s my guess. And actually, that’s the most useless part of the shindig.

By: Ed Cone

Ed Cone — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 00:57:24 +0000

http://2005.convergesouth.com

Free is doable if you really care to try.

By: Nick Douglas

Nick Douglas — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 23:20:08 +0000

Seriously. By June I’ll be in either NYC or Toronto, and either way, anyone willing to stand on a stool in a park is invited to my conference.