LugRadioLive 2009 entrance charge

[BigRon]

Looking forward to next year, how much should we charge for admission?

If we keep it the same we have to find sponsors - which could be much harder without the podcast.
Or do we increase the entrance fee to replace sponsorship - which could prevent some people from attending.

Your thoughts and opinions please.

[mrben]

I've always thought that £5 was overly generous.

If there is some sort of pre-registration (which was dropped this year) then you could maybe do a staggered pricing that increases as we get nearer to the event. Or you could charge separately for the 2 days? These things tend to help, but do increase the complexity of the ticketing systems and the job of the door people.

Another option is to maybe introduce an additional revenue stream to fund the event - like selling t-shirts or something like that. You could maybe do something like:

Super-pre-order: purchase before March 09 - 2 days £15, 1 day £7.50
Early Pre-order: purchase before July 09 - 2 days £20, 1 day £10
Pre-order: purchase before the day - 2 days £25, 1 day £15
On the door: 2 days £30, 1 day £20

T-Shirts: £20 each, or £15 if you pre-order with your ticket

I'm picking these figures out of my head, but you get the idea.

[No']

I've answered 15, but I'd pay up to 20 anyway. I'd pay any price... errrr... no, not any price. I'm not sure, I'm confused by your fake money...

I think that as long as it's a "fair" price that allows the whole organisation to balance expenses and incomes, that'll be fine.

[moreati]

I voted to keep it at £5, but I'm not the one trying to find sponsorship. £10 I wouldn't blink at, £15 would be fine, £20 pounds is still a bargain but 300% is a big jump.

Alex

[popey]

I'd be happy to pay 20 quid, 10 quid per day, 5 quid for half a day is really quite the deal.

If you want additional promotion I'm sure the Linux Outlaws Podcast and Ubuntu UK Podcast (myself included) would be happy to promote the event and provide an outlet for you guys to talk about the event next year.

Just let us know how we can help.

[GingerDog]

I think if you charge much more than £5 for plain entry, you'll probably put off some people from attending. Yes, consider selling t-shirts, or advance booking / vip status etc to get more money - but I think if you try charging £20 a day many people won't bother attending.

It would be along the lines of : "Why is it worth 20 quid this year, when last year it was 5, and the content is the same.... "

LRL needs a lot of people to attend - if only 100-200 people turn up because the price has risen by x00% then it'll be almost a failure no matter how good the talks/stands are.

[slef]

Keep it low and keep it open to as many as possible. If the price rises, there will be pressure for lower part-time entry fees and the administration of those (or the lost visitors if refused) will probably eat much of the increase.

[msemtd]

If the price is kept low then there's a tactical advantage of lowered audience expectations

[pinkoi]

Hey!

I think going back to the idea of cheaper if you book earlier is a good idea... Say 5 quid per day if you book early (which also gives us a lower bound of how many people we have to cater too) and 10 quid on the door on the first day for the weekend and 5quid on the door for just the second day.

Keeping the price low is pretty important as so many conventions you dont get people turning up cuz they cant afford to, particularly those in academia who often are the people doing the interesting stuff that you want to hear about...

xxx

[barbie]

I voted to increase to £20 for the weekend (though personally I would pay more), but not everyone attends the full weekend. The majority of people only attending on one day come on the Saturday. I think that as long you explain the reasons for the rise in ticket price, then most will understand. Currently the YAPCs (the Perl conferences) that I deal with are suffering with lack of sponsorship. Myself and JJ recently organised a Perl QA Hackathon in Brum and got turned down by all the corporates, even though a few hundred quid would have been great.

Tshirts are a nice to have, but are a headache. You either have to have a system that allows you to specify the tshirt size you require well in advance of the event, or guess-timate the allocations, and you will want to include Small to XXXL. Otherwise choosing only M/L/XL sizes will mean people will get pissed off that they've paid for a tshirt in the price of their ticket, but fail to get something they can wear. If you choose to have a tshirt add £10 to the price (e.g. £30 weekend or £15 single day) to budget for the extra tshirts you'll need to order for on the door attendees. Or better yet the tshirt is ONLY for advance ticket sales before a certain date.

I would also make the door price more expensive, as this encourages people to book in advance, thus giving you more revenue before the event to pay for anything, such as deposits.

As this is largely a *user* community event, it is often a little difficult to get major corporates interested. Although unintentional, LUGRadio is more associated with Ubuntu than any other Linux OS. Is there any mileage in trying to get any of the others to give themselves a bigger presence to a targeted audience? Offer them promotional slots on one of the stages.

In the current climate, sponsors are unlikely to be willing to hand over much, without a big incentive. However, a lot of smaller donations could equally be helpful. Think about what you can offer a sponsor and put together a sponsorship brochure that lists things that they can be associated with, e.g. room names or special events. Sponsors like to have their logo in view at these kinds of events, as there is a better chance for it to appear on photos of the event that then appear on Flickr, Facebook, etc.

I will sort out some contacts I have, to see whether they are interested in helping out.