Gary has raised some great points over here.
Without thinking about any specific developer conferences that you’ve attended recently or are about to attend…
…would you be willing to pay a small sum of money, say £5 to £10 to attend a large scale (300+ attendees) full-day conference?
Yes, I know that they then aren’t free, but the monies raised would be used to help cover travel expenses for speakers and for subsequent events, etc.
Remember, this is a hypothetical question.
Technorati Tags: Gary Short, developer events, fiver, tenner, free conferences
I think I would – £5/£10 isn’t really that much. If the event had some big names it would also be more likely to be recognised by the firm – it’s hard to get covered expenses on a free event!
I have been in the position of both sides of the argument and problem in this debate. I for one would be happy to pay a nominal amount of money as I appreciate the costs behind hosting, speaking at, attending events. Especially as with attendance at DDD it incurs a 600 mile round trip from the North East for me. I appreciate all sides of the problem.
“it’s hard to get covered expenses on a free event” – good point
I would be willing to pay a £5 or £10 fee for something like DDD. I think the problem for organisers is that given the low cost is the time and effort in collecting that money.
I paid £54.99 for the Fest07 one day bash organised by NxtGenUG, as I was not a NxtGenUG member. I considered that a pretty reasonable price for a weekday conference. Compared to off site training or DevWeek that’s a bargain.
I swagged a Microsoft MSDN jacket as well ….
Anything below £20 would be fine. Would have a number of benefits – only people who really wanted to be there, less dropouts.
Yes; for ben’s reason; if people pay they’re less likely to drop out.
Obviously I’d pay even more to see myself speak *ego*
I’d pay a reasonable fee to attend an event, probably up to £100 for a weekend event and £50 or £60 for a day event. It would have to for something like DDD or NxtGenUG though, where I could be assured of the quality of the speakers. If charging a reasonable fee is going to make it more attractive for speakers so that they are not out of pocket then I’m all for it. Call it a token of appreciation, if you will. My other criteria is that the organisation taking the money must be a not for profit outfit so that any surplus get ploughed back into the next event.
Cheers
Barry
It seems that Richard Fennell has picked up on this topic too: http://blogs.blackmarble.co.uk/blogs/rfennell/archive/2007/10/18/a-long-day-of-seminars.aspx