Thanks Ed.  Since I know your team has thought a lot about who you want to
attract: a restating of Lodewijk's Q: how do you expect your pricing to
influence who attends, from the city / region / around the world?
On Mar 23, 2014 9:24 AM, "Edward Saperia" <[email protected]> wrote:

> A word from the trenches;
>
> I am very keen to keep Wikimania prices low. It's not quite decided yet,
> but I think our ticket prices will be less than $100, which compared to any
> conference of comparable size is absurdly low; it would be worth buying a
> ticket for the catering alone. It's not unusual for large conferences to
> cost fifty times this.
>
> However, for the past six months a significant amount of the (volunteer)
> Wikimania team's time has been dedicated to fundraising, so there is a cost
> to this.
>
> *Edward Saperia*
> Chief Coordinator Wikimania London <http://www.wikimanialondon.org>
> email <[email protected]> * facebook<http://www.facebook.com/edsaperia>
>  * twitter <http://www.twitter.com/edsaperia> * 07796955572
> 133-135 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG
>
>
> On 23 March 2014 22:03, Lodewijk <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> As Wikimedia movement, we have the luxury to approach this question
>> backwards. Instead of thinking about how we will pay for the event (we have
>> many sponsorship opportunities and even a good amount of donations), we can
>> look at who we would want to attend the event. We could design our pricing
>> system such to accommodate that.
>>
>> So, maybe we should first answer that question - what would our ideal
>> attendance look like?
>>
>> Best,
>> Lodewijk
>>
>>
>> 2014-03-23 13:48 GMT+01:00 maarten deneckere <
>> [email protected]>:
>>
>>> Two general thoughts that I think are important.
>>> Firstly, most attendees will pay the conference fee themselves. You
>>> cannot compare with the general conference where those (high) fees are paid
>>> by the university or company of the attendee.
>>>
>>> Secondly, selection of Wikimania 2015 location is a voting process with
>>> the public, as such bidders will try to keep to conference fees as low as
>>> possible.
>>>
>>> I personally support Chan's "four group" hierarchy: Non-Wikimedian
>>> price, Wikimedian price, Partial scholarship, Full scholarship, and his
>>> hesitance to raise general prices.
>>>
>>> Maarten
>>> Wikimania Cape 
>>> Town<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015_bids/Cape_Town>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2014-03-23 2:54 GMT+01:00 Deryck Chan <[email protected]>:
>>>
>>> Wikimania indeed has a tradition of setting artificially low entry
>>>> prices for the reasons Nicholas described earlier in this thread. Of
>>>> course, there's nothing to stop Wikimania 2014 from raising ticket prices.
>>>> I should remind though that until 2013 we basically have a hierarchy of 4
>>>> ticket prices:
>>>>
>>>> 1. Non-Wikimedian price: supposedly the full cost (but is still
>>>> effectively slightly subsidised)
>>>> 2. Wikimedian price: substantially subsidised entry and food, for those
>>>> who've paid a lot to travel to the venue from the other side of the world
>>>> 3. Partial scholarship: for those who can almost / just about afford to
>>>> attend Wikimania on their own budget, but would use up their savings unless
>>>> their air travel was subsidised. The partial scholarship encourages them to
>>>> go to *more* Wikimanias.
>>>> 4. Full scholarship (for those who simply can't afford Wikimania)
>>>>
>>>> In 2014, the partial scholarship is removed, so I would hesitate to
>>>> raise the Wikimedian ticket prices, lest we disincentivise "medium-income"
>>>> Wikimedians (particularly students) from attending. However, by all means
>>>> consider raising the non-Wikimedian price, or even have a "donor price"
>>>> (full cost + £100, say?) with a shiny badge to let generous attendees pay
>>>> more!
>>>>
>>>> Deryck
>>>>
>>>> Deryck
>>>> On 23 Mar 2014 08:07, "Charles Gregory" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> My impression was that the prices took into account that (a) most
>>>>> members of the Wikimedia community are volunteers (b) most attendees have
>>>>> paid many hundreds, if not thousands of US$ in airfares/accommodation 
>>>>> costs
>>>>> to attend, on top of the ticket price.  Volunteers also have to use up
>>>>> their own annual leave (or forgo wages) if their Wikimedia activities are
>>>>> not on behalf of their employer.
>>>>>
>>>>> You could get away with having separate rates.  The other conference I
>>>>> have experience with, Linux.conf.au, has rates which differ by almost
>>>>> an order of magnitude: Professional $899, Hobbyist $399, Student $99.
>>>>>  (These prices are Australian dollars, which is approx USD +/- 10%)  (IMHO
>>>>> the Hobbyist rate here is still a bit high for a volunteer.)  This
>>>>> conference is, however, a major source of income for Linux Australia,
>>>>> whereas Wikimania is indirectly supported by donations to WMF.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>
>>>>> Charles
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 10:34 AM, Nicholas Bashour <
>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> For Wikimania 2012, I remember that we wanted to make sure the
>>>>>> largest number of people could attend. DC was an expensive enough city 
>>>>>> that
>>>>>> we felt if registration prices were too high, it may discourage some of 
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> people who didn't get scholarships from attending.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That being said, there's no reason why future Wikimanias shouldn't
>>>>>> offer various pricing options, like higher "individual sponsorship"
>>>>>> registration for those who want to sponsor on a smaller level, student
>>>>>> registration, etc.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>>> Nicholas Michael Bashour
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>>
>>>>>> > Am 22.03.2014 um 19:21 schrieb Samuel Klein <[email protected]>:
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Proposed prices for Wikimania tickets continue to seem artificially
>>>>>> > low.  I'm not sure what the benefit to this is. Could people who
>>>>>> have
>>>>>> > run events in other contexts comment on how you set ticket prices?
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > In my experience, tickets are set at roughly what it costs for each
>>>>>> > person to attend. Then there may be different sorts of tickets: for
>>>>>> > local supporters & volunteers, for school groups, for students &
>>>>>> > community members, presenters, VIPs & sponsors. Sponsorship helps
>>>>>> > ensure how many tickets of each type there are.  Last-minute tickets
>>>>>> > are more expensive.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > This has a few benefits:
>>>>>> > * tickets fully cover the cost of food and materials
>>>>>> > * tickets contribute significantly to covering the cost of the event
>>>>>> > * scholarships and reimbursements for attendance (for scholars,
>>>>>> > professionals, academics all getting covered by their home
>>>>>> > institutions), in paying for tickets, cover the full cost of those
>>>>>> > people attending the event.
>>>>>> > * more accurate headcounts in advance.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Warmly,
>>>>>> > Sam
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > _______________________________________________
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