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

[Bryan Petty]

On 9/11/07, Thad Van Ry <thad at linuxnetadmin.com> wrote:
> There were also e-mails early on (around March or April) asking for
> presenters. You could have presented at UTOSC and then you wouldn't
> have had to pay the $40.

Assuming I had something to present on, the time to prepare it, and my
paper was accepted... sure.

> It's not $100+ for UTOSC, it was $40. (even late registration with a
> discount code was only $55.) Anybody that paid more than $55 for the
> conference didn't try to get a discount code.

That's not the point, and it was $200, not $40, and that was only for
early registration. You shouldn't be required to go hunt down
discounts. Someone already mentioned in another thread on one of the
other SIGs that quite a good number of people were there that weren't
involved with any of the SIGs. There's plenty of open source C/C++
developers out there, but they shouldn't be put out of the ring just
because there isn't a local Utah C++ Users Group, and they don't read
the PHP or Java UG mailing lists.

And even if those people had heard about the discount, there was some
requirements posted along with those announcements that involved
contacting the group presidents and having proven your active member
status before receiving that discount, it wasn't open to just anyone.
I don't think you can actually claim to know that everyone who showed
only paid $55 or less unless this was only the case because anyone
outside of those SIGs wouldn't even think about attending at the price
of $200. Seems to me that this would be the case since if you're not
involved in any SIGs, you likely have a much smaller interest in open
source than those that are.

On that same note, we're not likely to see much feedback from those
same people since they aren't signed up on these lists.

And even though I (obviously) read this mailing list, and _am_ and
active Utah PHP Users Group member (and read that list as well), I was
still under the impression that the conference was $100+ until I was
told otherwise a day after the event ended.

I know one other friend who had no idea about the discount until he
saw someone mention it in the #ubuntu-utah channel 2 days before the
event, giving very little time to re-adjust his schedule based on this
new information.

> > There is no "register" link, and wasn't one that I saw when I first
> > sent my email. I wouldn't expect there to be a "register" page now
> > that it's over either, but I would expect there to be a page with
> > information about the price.
>
> https://register.utosc.org

What exactly was the point of linking to a redirect page?

> I don't feel like Utah Open Source tried to hide the fact that there
> was a huge discount. If you weren't aware of the amount of the
> discount, then I feel like it's your own fault.

No, they didn't, but why not just offer that price up front to
everyone then? I would have even been fine paying $75 up front if I
knew I was going to be able to attend all 3 days of the event. I think
this should have just been presented with one price up front, it would
have avoided all this confusion, and probably would have brought in
much more attendees.

Everyone here keeps saying that the conference was well worth $200,
but every last person here (as even you yourself claim) only paid
$40-$55. Seems like we have some hypocrites here. Under your
assumptions here, UTOSC could have brought in much more money had
there just been one single price for everyone at more than $50, but
less than $100. We'll leave that to Clint, Christer, and the others to
look over for next year though, only they know the numbers from this
year.

Regards,
Bryan Petty