If this is your first time here, why not consider subscribing to my RSS feed?

Good News! PodCamp Boston Charging $50 A Head

Posted on April 15, 2008
Filed Under Podcasting, Web 2.0 (Observations) |

News from Penn and Brogan that the upcoming Podcamp Boston (July 19-20) will be charging attendees $50 per head.

Do I agree with the decision? As someone who has organised big events, rationally I do. Attendance at any conference should be worth something, and $50 seems about right as a ‘token’ payment given that a good Hotel room is going to be $100 a night for potentially three nights, alongside some drink and food budget. Getting over the no-show problem, especially when a lot of sponsorship will be predicated on having a certain number of people attending. The last Boston Podcamp had 1500 sign ups, the staff budgeted on 1000 turning up, in the end just over 750 made it. 50% no shows. Ouch.

So the application of an “I’m really coming” charge makes a lot of sense…

Yet the second you pay for something, perceptions change. You are expecting to receive a certain level of service, a certain expectation of content and how it is delivered. The nature of the game changes ever so subtly. And that’s before considering the response of some, which will be ‘well, in my day, Podcamps were as free as the sun shines down.’ The team is hoping that as well as having a solid base of numbers and attendees, the numbers will be slightly down to give it a more homely feel. All the time with a raised expectation now money has changed hands. That’s the big challenge I think the Podcamp Boston team are going to have.

I await the results with keen interest.

PS: Although I don’t see myself as a Grandpa Simpson here, a $35,000 budget event with a target of around 300 attendees does seem to be at odds with the spirit of the Bar/Pod/Gnu|Camp movement around the world.

Comments

5 Responses to “Good News! PodCamp Boston Charging $50 A Head”

Doug Haslam on April 15th, 2008 20:22

I can only speak for my minor supporting roll in PCB3, but I would agree– organizers and attendees will feel a sense of raised expectations. I think that will make for a good conference, un.

Good point about content expectations. No LOLSaurs then :).
Linda on April 15th, 2008 20:37

Why don’t they take it as a deposit? Show up, and you get your money back.

Of course, then there’d need to be another policy for walk-ins.
-L.
Whitney on April 16th, 2008 1:24

We’ve talked about the refund idea before but honestly, keeping cash around gets to be a hassle, checks are impractical, and this way, we also have an investment from the community saying that this is worth it to them to attend, even if they had to pay. I can’t wait to see the results.
Chris Brogan... on April 16th, 2008 5:15

Totally right on all counts. It’s going to be a little different when people feel they’ve put their money in for an event. Last year, I paid over $20,000 for events and travel (a chunk of which I got back from my company, but a larger chunk that came out of my pocket).

Did I get what I paid for? Not always.

Will we exceed expectations? It’s still YOUR event. If you bring great presentations, yes.

Our feeling is that $50 ensures a level of participation, commitment, engagement in the process, and a much larger interest in what comes next.

There are plenty of free events around. We’re taking Boston in a direction that we think will better serve the people. For those who are complaining and criticizing, I only want to know one thing: have you attended a PodCamp?

If no, how could you have an opinion on whether it’s worth the expense?
Ewan Spence on April 16th, 2008 9:32

Doug,

The LOLsaurs is a good question - I’m sure that I’d still have the hard neck to do that sort of thing at any conference, but would the changed expectations of a paid-for event dull that?

Linda & Whitney

I think the deposit idea is a good one, after all the indivudal registrations all show up in the company books - there shouldn;t be that much of a hassle to post out cheques *after the event* if that was a route you wanted to go down. Less a $5 handling charge would be fair in my mind.

Chris

The challenge is managing erxpectations of a Bar/PodCamp style event while charging as if it was something more mainstream

To both Chris, though, a simple question. As you rightly point out, there are a lot of Pod/Bar/* Camp events, and they all run on a free to enter basis. I understand your thinking behind charging for the event, but I have to ask this. If the community has decided that Pod/Bar events are free, and you are charging, then why not change the name to respect the much larger, global community?