Re: [guadec-list] Registration fees

[Dave Neary <dneary free fr>]

Hi,

Murray Cumming wrote:
> The poll survey wasn't very useful. However, in general the response to
> the Stuttgart Fees, even after we'd fixed the communication problems
> was:
>
> 1. Enough speakers complained about paying (or even the suggestion that
> they might want to pay) that it's clearly very bad PR to even suggest
> it, so we shouldn't do that in 2006. However, a completely separate
> Donation button would allow speakers to support the event financially
> without being able to complain that they were being asked directly to do
> that.

I agree. Speakers and press don't pay registration fees.

> 2. Quite a few people complained about paying for anything. We need to 
>
> 2.1 Make it very clear where the money goes.

We can publish the semi-detailed GUADEC accounts before announcing 
registration fees this year. And we can make the extra effort to contact 
ad board members early to sound them out on company registration levels.

> 2.2 Aim for free registration. Try to budget for this and try to get
> enough sponsorship for it, but don't promise it unless it's likely.

The key word here is budget. The baseline is the cost of infrastructure, 
labour, equipment, and then we need to decide how much to spend on 
travel. That gives us a minimum break-even mark. If we can get to that 
with sponsorship only, then we can do a FOSDEM style donate-registration.

For info: FOSDEM get gifts sponsored for conference attendees - a free 
subscription to Linux Magazine France, a t-shirt, an O'Reilly book, a 
ticket for the conference dinner, etc - which get given to people who 
donate €50 (and most do). If you don't donate, you don't get the pack, 
but you're free to attend.

> 3. We must make it very clear that support is available for
> registration, travel, and accommodation for GNOME Foundation members.
> That's never been offered enough, and even the board doesn't know who
> actually got financial support in the past, though we know that it cost
> us tens of thousands of Euros. Transparency would be a big PR win.

It's a little unfair to say that it's never been offered enough, when 
we've spent (according to published figures) over half the budget on 
travel and accommodation over the past two years.

Cheers,
Dave.

--
David Neary
bolsh gimp org