thanks

The social atmosphere is quite unique and for myself is almost a “religious” experience.

http://www.esug.org/conferences/

Highly recommended

-Francisco

Also, I find that more local conferences are really productive and the cost is significantly less. The focus is usually on the learning and networking, and not making money to run the organization. It seems organizations like ACHE, with more balanced revenue streams can afford to do the right thing!

As for the large traditional conferences - it seems during any given year, the same industry experts are giving the same less than substantive presentations, content is either too general or just plain tired.

I agree with other posters - create models that will cause like minded knowledge seekers to gather - provide someone to share and draw wisdom from the room- virtual or other wise. There’s nothing like a great facilitator or speaker with a focused energetic message that really sparks the attendees

As for the panels, I agree they are mostly boring — I think you might get far better learning using a Business School case method.

One _could_ try to run a conference built just around the stuff that really matters, but without employer reimbursement or even tax deductability. it’d be a lot harder to find people willing to pony up the cost of burning vacation days, flying themselves in, and staying in a hotel in order to have those conversations. Eventually I suspect you’d slam into a kind of inverse network effect.

Costs for attendees are low (~US$85) and the organizers are part of the community and receive little compensation except profound respect for their massive work. While there are several tracks of talks (put on by folks who get their attendance fees waived), one of the main points is the hallway/mealtime chatter among peers.

I completely agree with this metaphor. I founded Open Source Events on the pure premise of educating attendees by the leaders in the industry.

By doing so, this does not involve me charging them $1000+ USD. I simply charge what makes sense for the occasion. The first conference I held, I charged around $100 and $75 early bird. This is CDN funds by the way.

The second conference I held, I decided I would give the attendees lunch as they complained about having to walk a few blocks, find food, wait for it, eat it, which resulted in being late for the talk after lunch. So, lunch was thrown in, for a marginal cost. So this second conference, I charged $125 early bird and $150 regular. Attendance was adequate, seeing as this was really the second large event I had put on. There were only 5 speakers for this event, and all but one really made it worth while. Everyone praised the event, well organized, cost friendly, and the content was great.

Third event came along, which is actually still in the works (Canada on Rails YVR06 here in Vancouver) happening on April 13-14. This event is a two day conference, with 15 speakers, spanning over two days, at a hotel. This event has increased the cost by nearly 4-5x the last two events. Simply because as you mention, when you target anything near 1,000 (I am targeting 500 for this event), the costs go way, way up. You need to get a hotel, they have rules on in-house catering which are incredibly expensive, speaker flights, etc. Simple point is that yes indeed, the costs do go up substantially. But guess what? The cost of the conference is only $250 CDN. Which simply equates to at least 6x cheaper than all of the major US conferences. And what is going to be the difference between this event and theirs? Hopefully nothing other than a significantly less expensive ticket. BUT. And this is a big but. I fly the speakers in, provide them a nice hotel room (4 star plus), definitely don’t charge them to attend the same conference they are helping to put on, and they get to enjoy a free vacation to the city which the event is at.

Major conference organizations are looking at figures in the million dollar gross. Their base profit (minus hard costs like catering, room) are quite close to their gross. They don’t fly in speakers, they make money off them purchasing a ticket to attend the conference, leave them on their own for hotels, and basically use them to build up an event.

This doesn’t work for me. At all. Speakers need to be treated with more respect than what they have been given at these major conferences. It is ridiculous to invite them to submit a proposal and expect them to come on the premise of being charged.

My goal is simple with OS Events. I don’t plan to make it big off one event. And I do plan to pay gratitude to those that help make the event a success. Right now Open Source Events at just under two years old is still in its infancy, but it’s a organization that I hope will grow into something that becomes invaluable to the Open Source community as a whole. And I am eager to help those that make it happen.