I've just subscribed to the mailing list and I can't insert myself in older discussions, sorry for this new thread.
Last year me and my girlfriend participated to the Florence conference. We paid 340€ (early bird, 100 for a lite ticket and 240 for a standard ticket). This year we should pay 600€. Now I read on this list that the prices are "comparable". I can't see how. Maybe these prices are driven by the costs of living in Berlin and the organizers have done their best, but I find them unaffordable. The fact that other conferences cost more doesn't change much, and we should compare the costs only between Europython editions (every conference has different policies about volunteering/launches/etc.). I suppose that the main problem is that the Berlin conference is "all inclusive", with trainings included. Last year I had an hard time choosing between the standard and lite ticket, giving that if you follow a training, you miss the conference, and the opposite is also true. But while I could gain something from a couple trainings, my girlfriend, neo programmer, would just throw her money away. This year I wouldn't pay for the trainings, because my last three year experience tell me that I like more to follow the conference, but I can't choose anymore, and my girlfriend neither. The result is a disheartening huge increase in the cost of our participation. We may ask for a discount for my girlfriend "because she's a woman and does some coding", but we both find it immoral. The result is that we will probably not participate (unless my boss is struck by lightning (in a positive way)), quite certainly not her. I can't see how beginners can justify such prices, and I don't think that the Europython want to be for seasoned well paid pythonistas only. On another note, I'm dubious that it's possible to offer trainings to everybody. There must be a maximum number of seats and ratio people/trainers to receive a quality teaching, and a free for all will probably means early assaults to take a reservation, or loose the training. I can only hope that these prices don't end up as a reference for next editions, unless to set the top of the bar. I wish also that the trainings will be optional again in the next editions. Wish you all the best for the conference, Riccardo Galli
_______________________________________________ EuroPython 2014 Berlin, 21th27th July EuroPython mailing list EuroPython@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/europython
