For companies organizing technical events & conferences, there are many challenges to overcome and many important decisions to make. One of the big questions is: to charge or not to charge?
If it is a free event, it is easy for the participants to just RSVP or fill-in a simple form and join the conference. On the other hand, every organizer knows the drawbacks of free events: people don’t take it seriously and many don’t even bother to remember the event let alone turn up!
If it is a paid event, it will attract participants who are serious about the topic. However, if the ticket price is on the higher end, it will deter many participants and many of them may drop out.
We can talk endlessly on pros and cons of making a conference free or paid. But the sweet spot lies somewhere in-between.
Sometime back we (KonfHub) experimented with a token fee for a workshop that was initially planned to be free. The turnout was 98% (only 1 person out of 50 registered dropped out), and the workshop organizer was happy to get serious and dedicated participants. The trainers were glad to receive a token/small gift from the fee collected from the participants. Participants felt good for the gift given to the speaker because it’s a way of returning the favour of the trainers for sharing their knowledge and time. If it were free, it would have attracted anywhere from 100 to 200 registrations and the turnout would be typically be 1/4th to 1/5th (typical of the meetups that we organize). What’s more important, for free events, the quality of participants reduces.
Collecting a small token fee and buying a small gift to the speaker make both speakers & participants feel good about the workshop. Collecting small fee ensures the organizers of the quality audience which they care about (When it comes to technical events, it is quality not quantity that matters more). For the admin staff, certainty of the number of people turning out helps plan the logistics well. So it’s a win-win for every one!
In conclusion, the odds are certainly in favour of collecting a small fee from the participants. Recently, the ongoing JetBrains events took this idea even further by gifting the collected token fee to charity!
The JetBrains team is visiting India as part of the JetBrains Road Trip India 2019. JetBrains Day was organized in Delhi (16th June; successfully completed) and will be held in Hyderabad (23d June). Also, the only JetBrains organised Kotlin/Everywhere event in India is on 22nd June in Bangalore.
For these events, JetBrains charges a token fee of Rs. 300 per participant. All registration fees will be donated to Sneha Charitable Trust to help children suffering from HIV/AIDS with their education and medical support. As a token of thanks, the children from Sneha Charitable Trust have gifted hand-made fragrant candles to the participants. The simple and loving gesture from JetBrains has surely helped spread the fragrance of love in the community.
Beautiful hand-made candles made by children from Sneha Charitable Trust gifted to event participants