On 9 April 2013 12:43, Rob Lister <[email protected]> wrote: > I guess I wasn't paying attention when this was previously announced, > then. Otherwise I would have taken care to register a bit sooner, perhaps. > :-) > Since I live in London, I tend to avoid registering until later anyway > until I know I can make it for sure nearer the date, rather that reserve a > space and then not be able to attend. > So it's "register earlier because it's free, and then maybe not show up" > or "wait until you know you can/want to go, but then pay £50" > Seems that policy will cost £50. > Surely you want to find a way to discourage people from registering, but > then not showing up. > ...Or do you have stats that show that late registrants are particularly > unreliable people and less likely to show up? > Or is no-shows not a problem, but the sudden influx of people nearer the > date which is breaking things e.g. available capacity?
It is a combination of things.. and we do factor in no-shows in our figures - we have noticed a pattern over the years. The main culprit has been sudden influx of people closer to the date, some even emailing or calling me after registrations have closed (ie the day before the meeting) and either turning up or not turning up. In a lot of cases they have only been interested in the curry evening and not turned up at the meeting itself. Has happened multiple times. We have to give final figures to the venue, caterers, badge producers etc etc a number of days before the event. Sometimes they are flexible, sometimes they are not. So we would prefer people to register sooner. With the upcoming meeting the response has been phenomenal. We only received sponsor funding for a certain number of people and we hit that limit just over 2 weeks before the meeting itself. TBH we did not expect to hit the limit until about a week prior at which point we would have closed free registrations and switched on paid registrations. I guess we need to specify 200+ attendees for the meeting in Spetember and get enough sponsorship in to cover the costs. Mind you, we have been receiving paid registrations since the free ones closed. The discounted registration is not a bad price for a decent lunch, drinks throughout the day, after event drinks and nibbles and the education you will receive and the networking opportunities. I'm sure you will agree. :-) Regards Denesh > > This will be: > > - £50 (+admin, VAT) = £63.65 between now and 12th April > > - £100 (+admin, VAT) = £126.65 between 13th and 17th April, > > and for walk-ins on the day. > > > > If you didn't register early, and still want to attend > >
