[foss4g2014] Setting Conference Pricing

[Eli Adam]

On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 11:34 AM, Darrell Fuhriman <darrell at garnix.org> wrote:
> Yah, I totally agree on that front. Travel costs probably dwarf the actual cost of the conference for most attendees, and as conferences go, $700 for three days isn't that expensive. But still, the lower we can keep the barriers the better...
>
> I think part of it for me is the stupidly high cost of catering -- it just annoys me.

Same here, but I also think it is sort of what we are tied into.

FOSS4G with major sponsors has a certain feel, typically including
catering at what might be an offensive cost to some people.  We could
do a very different conference with a different feel, entirely at PSU
and eat off the carts, however, that is not really the FOSS4G feel.

>
> However, maybe we can use any data we can gather as a stick to beat the OCC without about their pricing. If we can confidently say "Our attendees only value catering at $X, so give us Y% discount, or we'll just not do it at all."

Negotiation is always worthwhile.

Also, if we bring carts or other catering to a site not owned by OCC,
then they have no say over the matter.  Tanya mentioned a privately
owned property.  There are also nearby parks which can probably be
permitted for events.

Despite what seems to be the unreasonable cost, I'm in favor of
typical expensive catering.  Not opposed to other options but not my
first choice.

Eli

>
> Hmm.. maybe I spent too much time reading economics in grad school. :)
>
> I don't think we've approached Metro yet. Trimet has already demurred (nothing specific to us, just general policy). I don't know that Metro would get any particular discount with Trimet, but I could be wrong.
>
> d.
>
>
> On Feb 20, 2014, at 11:14, Chris MacWhorter <cmacwhorter at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I agree with the survey of the peeps;  some thoughts are that from a local viewpoint $200 seems significant,  but from traveling viewpoint $200 might be under 10% of the actual cost of attendance or under 5% with lost wages/productivity taken into account.
>>
>> Sponsorship question: is metro able to sponsor?  If not, will metro consider in kind donations of transit passes?
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Foss4g2014 mailing list
> Foss4g2014 at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foss4g2014