[ubuntu-us-ut] Utah Open Source Conference thoughts

[Nathan]

On Mon, 2007-09-10 at 20:16 -0600, Bryan Petty wrote:
> On 9/9/07, Christer Edwards <christer.edwards at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> > How did you think it went?
> > What could be improved?
> > How does it compare with other conferences you've attended?
> > Do you plan on attending next year again?
> 
> I would plan to attend next year if the registration fee is lower than
> this year.
> 
> I was aware of the early registration price, along with the numerous
> local user group discounts that were handed out, but even with those
> discounts, the price was higher than what it costs to get into DefCon
> which hosts 3 times as many presentations with many internationally
> renowned speakers. And DefCon even has a policy against using
> sponsorships. I understand the expected attendance isn't even close to
> the same, but for a conference about open source software, the
> registration fee didn't really fit the theme.
> 
> To add to this, I think there must have been some confusion about the
> price maybe 6 months ago when I first heard about UTOSC. I seem to
> recall completely different (much higher) prices being listed on the
> site back then, one of them over $1,000. I remember hearing 3
> completely different registration fees between 6 months ago, and last
> week. The site doesn't even list how much it is/was right now. Was the
> page taken down now that it's over?
> 
> Given the above reasons, I did not attend UTOSC for it's opening year
> despite my active involvement with development of a few open source
> projects myself.
> 
> Regards,
> Bryan Petty
> 

Bryan, The price was $250 ($200 for early) for those who didn't have a
discount (click on register to see price).  The discounted price was
$40, which is a steal of a deal for a conference.  Defcon was $100.
Defcon has vendors which almost counts as sponsors.  They pay on average
of $400 for a table.  

I think almost everybody paid $40 for UTOSC.  Even at that, $300 wasn't
a bad price to pay.  Most conferences cost at least that.  BrainShare is
$1800.  So thinking that the first year it operated, it was only 2x as
much as Defcon (if you didn't get a discount) and they still had major
speakers (Bruce Perens, whose Keynote you could go to for free), I don't
think that it didn't fit the standards of open source.  Besides all the
people who put the event together were volunteers and the money that
wasn't spent on the conference will be put back into open source
projects in the state.  I think it was very much in the heart of the
spirit of open source.

Nathan
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