DISCUSSION: reserving tickets

[Wendy]

So I just put up the vote for crew tickets, and part of that policy is that people who've already bought a ticket at a higher price aren't entitled to a refund.  This kind of ties in with Karl's comment about reserving tickets in the same thread.

At the moment, 30 first tier tickets (above the cap for general sales) are reserved for crew.  It's been suggested that we reserve a number of tickets (not first tier, just tickets) to allow for theme camp members, in order to avoid issues such as those Seed had with selling out and people not having bought theirs yet.

I have reservations about this because I think that anyone planning a theme camp should be switched on enough to buy their ticket before telling everyone they're doing a theme camp, and they should also make sure they have enough money to buy one before spending up large on camp stuff.  But I'm an arsehole like that, and nobody's Mum (at least, nobody that'd whinge about missing out on a ticket because they failed at forward planning anyway).  I'm keen to hear other opinions and willing to be swayed by compassion.  Maybe.

My alternative suggestion is that when there are 200 tickets left, we individually email registered theme camps and artists and tell them to pull their finger out and buy a ticket.

Anyway, thoughts?

[Poppy Norman]

I agree with you Wendy.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "kiwiburnExComLIVE" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to kiwiburnexcoml...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Hippie Tim]

I'm hoping that we can avoid a sell out as it has a lot of negative implications, but we'll have to discuss that more after labour weekend.

As far as setting aside tickets go, I don't think we should, if they haven't go their shit sorted it's not our fault. Our only job is to let people know how close we are to selling out.

[Isa Ritchie]

Some other Burn events have a number of allocated direct distribution tickets for established camps etc. This would be useful if wf we actually encounter a problem, where say, our event becomes so ridiculously popular that newbies who have money rush in and suck up all the tickets - because that scenario would be destructive to our culture. I don't think this is currently an issue, but it could be in the future. I think we only really need to think about it if that becomes more likely to happen.

[Pete Wyatt]

i agree with isa

[Oliver Macro]

At the present stage in our growth I don't think it's necessary for us to do this, and don't think we should be. I am in favour of the heads up when we cross the 1000-sold mark but only to camps and artists that have already registered. I think that's enough intervention for us at this stage however.

In the future though, I do think we're likely to face the situation of a newbie ticket rush causing issues for established camps, and related conundrums. In that case I'm not adverse to allocating a certain number of tickets for established camps, but I think we'd be needing to meticulously work out what the parameters of that arrangement would be before we enact it. I think this will be a good one for the next summit.

As for avoiding the sell out. I would rather we faced it and the challenges it presents us. 

[Wendy]

I hope someone's made a note for next year's ticket process to ask at point-of-sale whether the buyer is a first time burner or not... cos that'd be dead useful info to have.

[Pete Wyatt]

select option "First Time Burner", "Burner from elsewhere" or "returning Kiwiburner"

[Nicola]

I'll pop it in the notes for next year in Asana.

I think this year it's not a mad rush for tickets, so emailing to registered camps when we're at 1000, or have 200 tickets left, would be good. I'd suggest this is done about a day before the announcement gets made to the wider community.

In future years, if we start getting very fast sales, I'm in favour of some process to ensure regular theme camps don't lose out in the rush. In my view it's something for when sales are so fast there s a good chance people can't ensure they hAve enough people to run a theme camp.

[Oliver Macro]

If memory serves me correctly, one of the big issues with Burning Man in 2012 was a large number of camps not being able to come as a result of many of their members not getting tickets in the initial rush. 

[Pete Wyatt]

but at BM we are talking about an event where the tickets sell out within an hour so no matter how hard you try at BM getting a ticket is a bit of a lottery, at Kiwiburn we are talking about selling out over a couple of months.... plenty of time to purchase a ticket, from anywhere in the world (if you have the money)
so I believe the only excuses for not getting a KB ticket are 1) no money 2) can't be bothered 3) too lazy 4) not organised 5) ??

[Oliver Macro]

At this stage there's truth to that. What the future holds remains to be seen.

[Wendy]

5) you live an internet free existence in a cave away from any cosmic shops and only go to town when Jupiter aligns with Uranus.

[Oliver Macro]

Personally I would consider a Jupiter/Uranus transit as being a terrible time to go to the shops. Well, depending on what you're doing there..

[Wendy]

Missing out on a Kiwiburn ticket. Duh.

[Isa Ritchie]

Once every 13 years or so there's a Jupiter Uranus conjunction. Yeah, nah.

[Mark Stirling]

I am all for reserving first tier tickets for crew...wouldn't have it any other way. However, I am not in support of reserving tickets for theme camps or artists for the same reasons stated by others. I instead like Wendy's suggestion, as follows:

"My alternative suggestion is that when there are 200 tickets left, we individually email registered theme camps and artists and tell them to pull their finger out and buy a ticket."

[Brendan]

I agree with Younderman and Wendy's suggestion above.

I also think that the only way to avoid selling out altogether is to arrange more land and wrangle more volunteers.

Even then it might be healthy to limit the speed at which we grow at some point in the future - it's fine now but unrestrained, rapid growth can be extremely problematic.

[Karl Matthews]

I would be in favour of giving a heads up to theme camps and artists when we cross the 900 make as the represents the 3/4 stage. 

We do ask if you are a first time burner in the questionnaire thing before you buy a ticket right? I don't really see the point in worrying to much about if we have newbys or not. Burning Seeds questionnaire said that just over 2/3 of ticket sales were to first time burners and it was completely fine. 

Also there were only about 2 camps that were all that affected by the sell out, and they came anyway. Really the impact of the sell out was minimal after the initial FB shock died down.    

I do have the feeling that they will sell out within hours to days next year even if they go to 4500, so it will be an interesting discussion about how direct sale tickets will be implemented which I'm pretty sure they will be. Good news is we can hang back and see how it all plays out here and see how we can adapt using their lessons.

I don't think we need to do anything beyond giving a heads up to theme camps and artists to get their shit together when we hit a point. If anyone sees or speaks to anyone in a theme camp or making art be sure to word them up ASAP. As soon as we start officially pushing there is going to be a sell out publicly we might induce a rush. If we do do the unspeakable and lift the cap (sorry, have to bring it up), we should wait till we hit 1100 or 1200.

--