I was just looking over some of the upcoming conferences, and was a bit shocked at the DX3 pricing. $1,499 at the door!!! $1,099 early bird pricing. Wow. There’s also a $100 community pass which lets you into the expo hall, tech showcases and one night time event.
FlashForward, also put on by Lynda.com, has similar pricing. A full premium conference pass is $1,499. The minimum you are going to pay to get in is $899 early bird. Or you can pay $50 to go to the exhibits and Film Festival. What’s with this charging people to see exhibitors, which are just there to sell you stuff?
FiTC is far more reasonable. You’ll wind up paying between $275 and $975 Canadian, which seems to be about $230-830 USD. Interesting to note that FiTC also includes student pricing, which is pretty cool.
FiTC is historically a great quality conference. I haven’t been to a FlashForward in a while, but its reputation seems to be suffering in recent years, and DX3 is an unknown. I can’t see that charging up to $1,500 is going to help either one do well.
Flash on the Beach last December, probably the best conference I’ve been to, was £199-499, or about $260-660 USD. Rumor has it that the conference just about broke even, which is pretty awesome for a first time conference. And they gave out awesome schwag including laptop bags and tshirts to every attendee. They also paid speakers twice what FlashForward does, covered full expenses, and provided over the top speaker schwag. It makes you wonder what the $1,500 pays for.
Although both FlashForward and DX are in Boston this year, I have not been invited to speak (definitely won’t be now :)) and I’m probably not going to dish out that kind of cash for a conference. I can’t imagine that either one is going to be 2-3 times better than FOTB or FiTC. I guess a lot of people will get their companies to pay or write it off or whatever. Anyway, it will nice to have Flash friends in town, and I’m sure I’ll hang out with people at any parties that don’t require a badge to get in.
Of course, I could not fail to mention 360 Flex which is $100 for a 3-day conference. Now we are talking!
Advice to conference creators. Cut it back. Don’t worry about super fancy venues. We just need a place with decent sound, video, and above all, wireless. Forget about lavish conference-sponsored parties. They usually suck. Honestly. We can find clubs and restaurants on our own. The best times are when a group of people leave the main party and wander around, ending up someplace together, eating and drinking and talking.
People go to conferences for two reasons:
One, to see good speakers with good content, to learn and be inspired.
Two, most importantly, to network and meet friends, talk geeky Flash stuff over excessive amounts of food and alcohol til daybreak.
Make those two available, cheaply, and you’ve got a success.