I honestly don't think it's a disaster if registration fee approaches 
$200 either. (I realize you said $200 in _addition_ to the usual $125, 
I'm saying $200, heh).

I think $200 is about the max that seems okay to me, but $200 does. 
That's still a good price for the conf, and still fairly affordable, and 
with inflation from the original $125 like five years ago not totally 
out of line even.

$300 would be really unfortunate though. But $180? We'll live.

On 6/14/2011 7:42 PM, Kyle Banerjee wrote:
>> The third code4lib conference was hosted in Portland, and the venue was a
>> hotel. Costs were **much** higher in Portland, due mainly to the type of
>> venue (hotel) and Portland being a larger city. To keep the registration
>> fee at $125 (which I think it was, if memory serves me correctly), we
>> needed to get $40k worth of sponsorships, which was about 4x the amount of
>> either the previous two years. It was hectic and a bit nerve-wracking, but
>> we hustled and worked hard and brought in the necessary sponsorships
>> without the need to provide any special events - all of the sponsors we
>> willing to sponsor us based on the general sponsorship levels that we've
>> put out each year.
>>
> This is exactly what is going on in Seattle.
>
> If we can attract $40K in sponsorships, the registration fee will be kept
> low. But that gives people an idea of what is being dealt with in the
> background as that works out to nearly $200 per attendee. Not trivial to do
> in today's climate, but you can be sure everyone will try their best.
>
> kyle
>