[OSGeo-Conf] Open open source, reduce registration fees.

[Darrell Fuhriman]

100% agree. We played around with the numbers and determined that the amount that we could adjust the registration cost without putting at risk of losing money was dwarfed by the travel costs for all but local attendees. 

It was also part of the reason we felt the travel grants were so important.

Darrell



> On Feb 6, 2017, at 09:15, Paul Ramsey <pramsey at cleverelephant.ca> wrote:
> 
> Regular reminder:
> No doubt a $100 drop on registration would be determinative for a few, but it will not do much to change the equation for even a backpacking overseas traveller, who will pay (from Vancouver) $1000 to get there and $600+ in accommodation and meals, depending on how long they stay (doing workshops? doing code sprint?)
> Using second-city sites (Victoria instead of Vancouver, Lausanne instead of Geneva) can shave registration dollars at the margins, but they'll get eaten up instead in travel costs. 
> Local regional conferences (Foss4g.nl) should probably aim to go low and hyper-accessible, since they draw from a population that can economize on all aspects of the conference experience (stay at home, get up at 4am and walk to the venue from Haarlem, bring a bag lunch). Foss4g international is... international, there's going to be a minimum spend to get there and do it, no matter how few coffees are served, how spare the venue, or how much volunteers are used and abused.
> P.
>