Re: GUADEC registration fee

[Danilo Segan <danilo gnome org>]

Yesterday at 18:00, Leslie Proctor wrote:

> James makes some excellent points and I agree with
> them.
>
> I am disturbed by this entire discussion line,
> however.  What are we saying here?  That you like and
> want the conference, but aren't willing to support the
> organization and running of it?  That you aren't
> willing to pay the cost of three beers to support
> GUADEC?

Where I live, this is not "cost of three beers", but rather, cost of 
20-80 beers in a store, or 10-30 beers in a bar (depending on the
beer and on the bar), or even 8 whiskeys in a not-so-cheap bar.

I believe you misunderstood the "discussion line" here.  It's not
about whether we're willing to support GUADEC, it's about whether
we're able to afford the fee at all.  "Low" from one point of view is
not very low from another.

Granted, this fee seems reasonable considering travel and
accomodation costs, but that doesn't mean it's /a priori/ reasonable
in absolute sense, simply because travel and accomodation costs are
*unreasonable* in case of Norway (what will probably be the main
reason for many missing the GVADEC, including me).

This fee probably won't stop anyone travelling to Norway this time
around (because Norway itself is very expensive), but it may and will
stop students and locals in the future if it's on the same level (as I
said, not many of my fellows are able to afford 23 euros for a
conference entry -- I could be able to find 3 or 4 friends willing to
pay that amount of money if GUADEC was hosted in Serbia, while I'd
easily find tens of interested folks if it was for free, or
"reasonable" in Serbian sense: 2-8 euros).

So, if this fee is going to be aligned with other conferences (others
seem to give out examples of them, comparing GUADEC fees as being
much lower, but with a factor of 3 or 4), then I think many will have a
problem paying them.  Gnome community is simply not the
conference-visiting community, so I see no need to compare these two.
Also, it's not *local* conference (such as LCA), so prices need to be
arranged such that they're accessible to others (reasonable price for
Australia is not reasonable price for Serbia).

Yet, I suppose this price is going to present a problem only for
locals and students coming from nearby (eg. from neighbouring
countries), where this will significantly affect the total cost.
I believe that this "student/hobbyist" fee should be made according
to local prices, and not according to other conference fees.  Based
on that, 23 euros is probably reasonable fee this time around.

Also, I would extend Mikael's (I believe it was him, sorry if I made a
mistake here) invitation to hold next GUADEC in more accessible place
(price-wise) than Norway.

Cheers,
Danilo