On Jul 31, 2012, at 3:53 PM, Nóirín Plunkett wrote: > On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 6:35 PM, Leif Hedstrom <[email protected]> wrote: >> On 7/30/12 11:26 AM, Nick Burch wrote: >>> >>> * Free tickets for all speakers? >> >> >> +1. Honestly, I think not providing free conference tickets for all speakers >> is a little weak. This should not include any training sessions of course. >> > > +1, I think it would be very poor show not to provide a free ticket to > speakers. I understand this is the PyCon model, and didn't just come > out of nowhere, but I don't support a conference that asks its > speakers to pay, and I think we need more discussion before we make an > executive decision that changes our long-established model this > drastically.
A further data point, now I have had time to revisit our budget for ApacheCon NA. The current budget assumes that there will be five tracks with 24 talks each over three days. We plan to subsidize each talk by offering the speaker a $250 honorarium and one free night's accommodation (to a maximum of three talks). I just wanted to be clear that "no free tickets for speakers" does not equate to "no support for speakers." I personally believe that declining attendance (which ASF members have expressed some concern about) might be associated with the price, so this year's proposed downward price movement will to some extent test that theory. If everyone feels like you I suppose I could lose a lot of money ... regards Steve -- Steve Holden [email protected], Holden Web, LLC http://holdenweb.com/ Python classes (and much more) through the web http://oreillyschool.com/ Conferences and technical event management at http://theopenbastion.com/ Next: DjangoCon US Sep 6-8, Washington DC http://djangocon.us/
