I have looked at past editions[1]. In general there have been differences of registration costs for participants (mainly a difference between Wikimedia contributor with username or not), but the registration cost never covered the actual cost per participant (including catering, participant package and parties - the costs that normally registration costs cover).
personally I think: * attending the conference and its sessions should be free (it is the Plato legacy and also in Italy universities do the same: you don’t pay to listen, you pay for additional services :) The only payment which might be necessary is only if an insurance is needed (and the cost would be the cost of the personal insurence only). * services should be covered by the registration fee: catering, participant package and parties. This also means that there should be much more scholarships available (for volunteers, contributors, people we want to target specifically). * general costs (i.e. venue, technical, promotional materials, communication, keynotes) should be covered by sponsors and donors. this system is much more transparent. People can attend the conference without having lunch in the venue (a sandwich in a cafe or a self-service menu is always cheaper than the catering), without a printed booklet and t-shirt and without going to the party. Also if they do not use those services, in any case they will have to register (this facilitates the planning). At the same time scholarship and institutions normally cover registration costs; this means that staff from chapters, WMF, universities and institutions attending Wikimania will cover a reasonable cost per person (and indeed they will not benefit from not covering those costs). Registration could be 200 $ (for 3 lunches 30$ each, the participant’s package 10$, and two parties 50 $ each). Higher registration costs (differences between pre-registration and registration and between institutions and volunteers/contributors) can be used to contribute to scholarships. iolanda / iopensa [1] The data available are not very precise but here is a comparative summery https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Comparative#Registration and you can find in the upper menu the details for each conference when information are available. Il giorno 23/mar/2014, alle ore 00:21, Samuel Klein <[email protected]> ha scritto: > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l _______________________________________________ Wikimania-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
