Re: Puppet Camp NYC - July 8th, 2014

[Jeremy Baron]

On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 4:36 PM, Rob Terhaar <rob...@robbyt.net> wrote:
> Puppet Camp - NYC 2014 is happening July 8th. Events from Puppet Labs are always great, and you should try to attend.
>
> http://puppetlabs.com/events/puppet-camp-nyc

We've had several Puppet Camp events in NYC that (IIRC) had no charge
or fee of any kind.

This year is suddenly $75 ? What's the deal with that?

Thanks

-Jeremy

[James Sweeny]

I was asked to pass this along:

Hi Jeremy,

We understand that this jump in price feels a bit sudden, Puppet Camps are quite expensive for us with costs for the space,
food, and much more. In order to keep these events going all over the world, we made the tough decision to charge each attendee per camp. We do ask that you keep in mind that we're still not covering all of the costs, but it helps make the camps a little more affordable for us.

We know this jump feels like a lot, so we have been giving out lots of different discount codes to help ease into this. Please use the following code and share with anyone who might want to go.

Promo Code: PuppetNYC it is good for 30% off tickets.

We don't want price to be a deterrent and hope to let you know how much we appreciate you being a part of this group.

Thanks,

Briana
Events Marketing Manager at Puppet Labs

-Jeremy

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[Jeremy Baron]

Hi Briana,

FYI, your subway directions are wrong:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/puppet-camp-nyc-tickets-9867514000 says:
> Transit: MTA: Train 1 or 2 stop: 18th Street

2 trains run express (at all relevant hours for your event) and
therefore skip 18th.

You can take:

* 1 to 18th St
* 2,3 to 14th St (14th St is the north end of that station, there's
another exit further from the venue)
* F,M to 14th St (has a 16th St exit) or 23rd St
* L to 6 Av

(and some more options, but those are the closest)

On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 4:27 AM, Briana via James Sweeny
<james....@gmail.com> wrote:
> We understand that this jump in price feels a bit sudden, Puppet Camps are
> quite expensive for us with costs for the space,
> food, and much more. In order to keep these events going all over the world,
> we made the tough decision to charge each attendee per camp. We do ask that
> you keep in mind that we're still not covering all of the costs, but it
> helps make the camps a little more affordable for us.
>
> We know this jump feels like a lot, so we have been giving out lots of
> different discount codes to help ease into this. Please use the following
> code and share with anyone who might want to go.
>
> Promo Code: PuppetNYC it is good for 30% off tickets.
>
> We don't want price to be a deterrent and hope to let you know how much we
> appreciate you being a part of this group.

Well I'm not sure I understand the rationale. I know some people
charge a very small fee in order to get a more accurate head count or
so that people will be more likely to show up instead of deciding not
to come on the day of/night before.

But you don't need a $75 ticket to accomplish that. Even $15 would be too much.

IMHO, you should not be trying to recoup costs through mandatory
registration fees; you can (and surely do) make plenty of profit on
your training sessions and consulting services and you accept
corporate sponsorship for these events. (OTOH, I think allowing people
that do feel like contributing to do so at registration is fine; you
could have a $5 option and a $100 option. or a choose your own level
option.)

I'm quite certain the price is a deterrent for this event. (even
though you say you don't want that) I've had some experience trying to
convince a (then) unemployed friend to attend an event. He wasn't
hiding the fact that he was unemployed but he also didn't have enough
spare change for whatever the fee was and he was unwilling to ask for
a reduced fee for himself. (I attempted to convince him that he should
not let cost get in the way of attending and that we'd find a way to
get him in. I believe it was organized by people I knew so I was able
guess they would have had a favorable response to his request. But he
never made the request...)

Easing into it with discount codes is no excuse. We now have several
computer science programs in NYC high schools and many programs like
hacker school/flatiron which accept people that are relatively new to
coding. Now I feel I must refrain from telling these students with
relevant interests about your events. What high school student has $75
to spend on this?? The biggest discount code I saw was 50% (in
addition to the 30% off offered to this group) and it's apparently no
longer valid. $37.50 is still too much. Some people will see the price
and not bother looking for a code (or not know that they should look
for one) and never register.

Anyway, now I have other plans for that day; hopefully I'll get to see
the talks on video and I look forward to more inclusive future
planning.

-Jeremy