Originally Posted by Connor

Hey Mitch -

In addition to everything I said before regarding why I'm skeptical of free badges... no matter how much D-Money disagree. ;)

Something for you to consider. At the end of the day, the people who are running these shows (like YNOT, AVN, etc) need to make sure the COST of running the shows is covered. It's not a simple matter to organize shows like these... there's a lot on the line, and you want everyone to have a good and profitable time, feel like the show was worth attending, etc. Nobody in their right mind is going to run a show at a big loss. It just makes no sense. And I think we all would agree that the people who run these shows SHOULD at least cover their own costs.

The only serious ways to do that is through sponsorships and registrations. So, if you make the registrations free, that means you have to shift the burden of cost over to the sponsors. And since most sponsors get hit up to sponsor a ton of shows each year, is that really appropriate? It's also getting harder for the sponsors, and if they drop out, NONE of us will have shows to attend.

I totally agree about keeping costs as low as possible. That's been the approach at Cybernet for years now. That's why we've been a regular event in June for many, many years, and will be back next June as well. We had hotel rooms for WELL under $200 in San Francisco. Low badge costs for advance registration.

AND.... we also made sure our sponsors weren't soaked, because they too need to see some ROI.