>
> At $150 for registration, I agree with Kyle, that this is a very good price
> in comparison to most technical conferences. Perhaps you could consider the
> extra airfare and hotel room night as the price of the pre-conference.


The extra airfare and hotel, in this case, is $320 per person.  Hardly a
reasonable comparison.

I realize that I'm now looking at this from a different perspective than
when I was a first time Code4Libber, when I was simply try to soak it all
in and build a network of people I could work with on projects that I and
my library were interested in.  Now I have to be concerned with budgets,
and getting people other than myself to C4L so they can join the community
and contribute.

If the price points of rentals goes down because of the preconf day where
the costs are mostly a wash, then that's great, but then let's not separate
the two parts of C4L conf like a traditional conference, or put such
emphasis on the "participation" in a preconf that undermines or undervalues
the participation of someone coming to the conference days themselves.  We
can't have it both ways.  Code4Lib conferences *ARE* unique and they are
invaluable to many, many, many people who are fortunate enough to A)
register in time and B) can afford to come at all.  So let's not diminish
this by presuming or assuming anything, rather take extra care in
protecting this event as a treasure, lest all of the tireless efforts the
conference planners put forth be for naught.

The last thing I'd want to see is C4L be under attended because people
couldn't justify reasonable costs to their organization due to lack of
information, openness, or mere confusion.

Tim

-- 
Tim McGeary
Team Leader, Library Technology
Lehigh University
610-758-4998
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On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 6:26 PM, Fowler, Jason <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> >  let people completely fend for themselves w/r/t to food/drink on the
> preconference day.
>
> Coders consume from the "flat" food group.  Anything that fits beneath a
> door…
>
> ..jason
>
>
> On 11-11-09 3:12 PM, "Kevin S. Clarke" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:
> [log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 1:41 PM, Kyle Banerjee <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> Yes, we have.  We've even had people want to come to the preconference
> (and pay the preconference charge) but not attend the regular
> conference.  :-)
>
>
> They've wanted to do it, but have they actually been able to? What makes
> c4l worthwhile is the ability to mix it up. If people attend with the
> intention of just receiving specific training, they're not contributing and
> that undermines the experience for everyone.
>
> Yes... at least at the Asheville conference (though there were just a
> couple).
>
> C4l has seen both free and paid preconferences and it's easy enough to
> rationalize either.
>
> Having put on a paid preconference, I think if I were to do it again
> I'd make it free.  We received several comments about the lack of food
> at the Asheville preconference (though we had coffee).  I think having
> a price attached to it leads to expectations like that.  Perhaps it is
> better to just say "The preconference is free... the price for the
> conference is $150" ... let people completely fend for themselves
> w/r/t to food/drink on the preconference day.
>
> Fwiw...
>
> Kevin
>