360Flex recap, money, transparency
6 Comments Published by John Wilker Monday, September 24, 2007 at 6:58 AM .
If you've missed the other times we've said it, "We're all about transparency... there's nothing we won't share with the community." Conferences shouldn't be a black box where those in attendance cough up a ton of money, and get X number of chochkies back, plus a badge, and a shirt, and go home. Conferences don't need to cost $1,500.
So before we start up in full swing for Italy, and East Coast (City, still TBD) we wanted to post a sort of wrap up on Seattle. If you were there, you saw the Wednesday Keynote, if not, here's some of what you missed.
First, what came in:
Sponsors: $56,000 (You guys rock, can't wait to work with you again)
Attendee registrations: $ 83,000 (what can we say? This is for you!)
Total: $139,000
What went out:
Food: $94,000 (it was yummy too)
- Sample cost - Soda: $4.25 each (How many have you had? And did you finish them?)
- Sample cost - Power: $2,400 for three rows in each room
- Sample cost - Shirts: $8,000 (But they sure were nice)
- Sample cost - Temps: $2,500 (Those surveys are worth that much and more)
Total: $149,900
Net Loss: $10K
That's only a few highlights... The point is things cost money. We have no problem spending it to make our events kick ass, but we gotta spend it wisely.
You can see that (right now) 360|Flex isn't a money maker. We're okay with that. We're approaching conferences as we would a project, iteratively. What didn't work last time isn't repeated. What did work, gets improved. Costs get refactored, trimmed and reworked.
So what did we learn?
- WiFi at conferences is whack. We knew that going in, we tried to fix it, hopefully it was at least more usable than at most other conferences. We're still working on it. We're thinking we may need to invest in our own gear, since hotels swear they'll be able to handle it and then really can't.
- Nice shirts are sweet, but really should have a sponsor to offset costs.
- We're looking at purchasing some A/V equipment to offset costs. $24K to walk away with nothing? That's a bit whack.
We know of other developer events (no longer being held) that lost over $100K per show. Other bigger events lose between a quarter of a million to a million dollars per show. Yeah, 1 million clams... Not only do we think that's retarded, but we promise that never has been or will be our goal (Not the losing 1 mil, the doing an event that even COULD lose 1 mil).
There you have it.
Attendees, this is where your $360 went. Thanks for coming
Sponsors, this is where your money went. Thank you for your support, since without you guys, our little conference would not be possible.
I for one would be happy to have paid an extra $43 or whatever to prevent you guys from losing money. It was an awesome event and I can't wait for East Coast TBD.
@Ben,
Thanks! Comments like that make it all worth while. We want our events to be worth more than we charge, so that our attendees leave feeling they got their money's worth.
See you at the next!
The polo shirts were really sweet, and the conference did rock. I'm with Ben...if you guys need to charge a bit more to break even, then do it. $4.25 for an 8oz. soda??...what a racket, Godfather. See you at the next US city.
Shirts: $8,000 for how many? 360 attendees + 40 or so auxilliaries. I've printed shirts once. It was done by a christian commune in Chicago. The quality was great... I did get a great deal because it was for a related event.
Here is their website...
www.bellyacres.com
(I don't know if they do the polo style shirts or not. I can find out. Not sure what they'd charge you for 1,000 shirts. If you can reach Don Hill you can mentioned that Jason "The Saj" referred you. )
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I think buying your own video gear is probably a good idea. I mean you can get those nice Canon semi-pro digital video cameras for like $1,000-$2,000.
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Food...man, did it really cost $94,000 for the food for only 400+ people. *ponders*
You've just made me realize what an unbelievable deal I got on my wedding. One of my best friends, who happens to be a Chef and graduate of the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) catered the food at my wedding. I had 100-125 people. And she did it for me at her cost (ie: food, warming oven rentals, etc). I wound up spending around $700 on some of the best food anyone ever ate at a buffet.
I'm think we need to get you guys connected. *lol*
(That said, I do understand the problem isn't really that sodas cost $4.25 but rather the hotel won't let you provide your own food service, etc. Otherwise you could go to Costco and pick up cases of soda. Hire my friend Tracy to cater. And for $40,000 have better food.)
This does make me wonder if perhaps a hotel is not the best place for such a conference? What about some facility you could rent. Perhaps a ski lodge in summer. Or anywhere that would allow you to bring in your own food provisioning. This could potentially cut food related costs by 50%.
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One thing I think you are missing in your business planning is missing. Is polling people for resources. I don't know how many T-shirts you guys bought for $8,000. Maybe you actually got 4,000 shirts @ $2. But $8K seems like a lot to me. Hence, I sent you the link to belly-acres.
Who knows, maybe one of the 360Flex attendees works for a company that does audio/video and would trade recording the seminars for being able to send 4-5 of it's employees free.
But if you don't put out feelers, how will we know the needs?
;-)
I'm thinking we could have cut the net loss in half just on the T-shirt issue. Not saying we can solve everything. But we might be able to help.
For example, if you did an event around the Pennsylvania/Maryland area. Being a DJ, I own a couple of sound systems. I'd have no problem using those for the conference if it saved you $1,000 on audio equipment rental. I wouldn't doubt if there was some 360Flex attendee from the NW who also was a DJ or in a band and had some PA equipment.
@Saj
Excellent points. The 8K was for Polo shirts, not T-shirts. It was also for custom embroidery, and custom badge creation. Our logo as a rubber badge like thing that was stitched on. That's a bit more substantial than a T-Shirt, we coulda used Cafe Press too :)
We'd love to outsource food, it's not possible. Hotels won't because (clearly) that's where their profit is. Heck we couldn't even put Red Bull out in Seattle. We did, but knew we were breaking the rules.
As for buying our own gear, that's the plan. Problem is, until the events start being in the black, not the red, that's a tough one to solve. We do plan to have our own projectors, video gear, everything we hate renting at outrageous prices.
The other thing to consider, even bringing our own gear, the venues charge you to use your own. They def. know they have us over a barrel
All great points, and believe me, we're listening, and taking notes :)
Thanks man!!
Having been involved in the planning of several conferences (and planning my wedding currently...), I have seen firsthand what a racket event venues can be. I think the average attendee often looks at the soda and sees a 75-cent price they would have paid at the grocery store. Kudos for publishing the info and giving them a clue!
Some of these suggestions re helpful, but it's not necessarily realistic to expect the conference planners to "find a hook-up" for every detail. Sure, you can try - leverage your opportunities - but the costs of producing a conference are what they are, and in the business world you can't depend on hook-ups to make them viable. Conference fees and sponsorships need to cover the cost of the conference in a less-than-optimal scenario.
I'm pretty sure you're justified in charging another $50 for registration!