Comments on: Adding Registration Fees to Reduce No-Shows: Does This Make Sense?

By: " » Third Tuesday Admission Charges: I’m always learning and willing to change" from Pro PR

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:07:56 +0000

[...] Dan Hocking wrote in a post on his blog: “I’ll be frank; this $10 fee that TTT is charging will ensure that unless the speaker is someone absolutely spectacular, I likely will not attend any future TTT events. This isn’t a bad thing; I’m not the direct target market for these events, so maybe by not attending I’ll help them get who they’d like.” [...]

By: Registration Fees, Redux: Blog: Refresh Events

Registration Fees, Redux: Blog: Refresh Events — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:03:35 +0000

[...] light of Dan Hocking’s post yesterday about charging registration fees to reduce event no-shows (and Joseph Thornley’s post as well) or more specifically, @alkerton’s comment, I [...]

By: Justin Kozuch

Justin Kozuch — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:27:19 +0000

I really like the idea about selecting a different charity each month. As much as I like to donate (ir)regularly to a select group of charities, I don't want to create a professional bias where it concerns Refresh Events.

I also really like the idea of a fee waiver option for current students, but that introduces a new issue: checking for student ID's. We'd need a volunteer to help manage registration, but that's something we can source quite easily.

I've got a few blog posts to write, so I think I will dedicate a blog post to this very topic. Thank you for your insight!

By: Malcolm Bastien

Malcolm Bastien — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:55:28 +0000

You know, that's true. Especially since many of the presentations I see at a few of these are events are 10% informative, and 90% promotion for their business.

As soon as you give money to attend at event like that, it transforms, and you're basically paying to be sold to.

By: Dan Hocking

Dan Hocking — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:52:27 +0000

Good points, Malcolm. Really, it's not just students this affects either; the proper way to run a start-up is to keep all costs at a minimal level, to give yourself time for success. That's not anything revelatory, but it does mean that our start-up community should be considering where its money goes. While there are certainly benefits to attending these events – for advice, or just plain old networking, for instance – more thought would be put into whether such an event is worth attending or not.

In a way, introducing a fee places a significant burden on the event organizers. As soon as anything more than a quarter leaves my pocket as a registration fee, my expectations are significantly raised. If you're going to charge even a nominal fee, I'm fully expecting that each event you throw is going to have a takeaway for me – otherwise, I'll gravitate towards the multitude of free events offered to our community.

By: alkerton

alkerton — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:43:42 +0000

There's a ton of competing factors that make this a real minefield of an issue. My first impulse to suggest that rather than charge a fee, have no-shows not be allowed to register for future events, while making an allowance for those who register but then alert organizers if they can't make it. However, you don't build a community by banishing people from it. As for paying to sign up, my own interpretation of those situations where an event that's free to participants has funding lined up and then starts charging, it can appear as a cash-grab and it can rub people the wrong way.

Justin, I think your idea works, but I'm not especially keen on refundability being mixed with charity. If a different charity was selected each month and a minimum $5 donation was required to register, I think that's the sweet spot if you make it clear from the outset that it's a donation directly to a cause and not being paid to the event organizers. It would also be wise to have a fee waiver option for current students, in order to encourage them to get involved and participate (which far too few of us do).

By: Malcolm Bastien

Malcolm Bastien — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:41:01 +0000

One thing I hope groups of any size and industry take into consideration is the doors that the events open up to students. I couldn't be where I was today if Third Tuesday, Refresh, and Web Analytics Wednesday were not free. I probably would still be unemployed, would have made a lot fewer connections and friends, and they would not have been able to help my education.

So for students I hope all events keep it free, at 3+ events a month, at $10 a pop potentially, then it just becomes unfeasible for students to participate.

Should those with the ability to pay contribute? If there's more meaning to the money maybe. The idea of the money being donated then not only helps with the issue of no-shows, but it itself becomes a cultural ceremony of that community.

(not pointing any fingers here) Are these sorts of fees a solution for a management problem? No. So as long as the fees are implemented as such (and not like a group effort for instance), then they'll get this sort of kickback.

By: Emma Brooks » Blog Archive » #WriteOff09 – Day 14: Dan Blogs About Adding Registration Fees to Events

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:56:18 +0000

[...] the 2-week mark of The Great Write Off of 2009, Dan wrote about adding registration fees to events to reduce no shows. He says: ’ll be frank; this $10 fee that TTT is charging will ensure that unless the speaker is [...]

By: Justin Kozuch

Justin Kozuch — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:38:33 +0000

With any new initiative, we are concerned about shell shock, and how it may be perceived/received in the community. The old adage of “You can't make everyone happy” definitely applies here. There will always be folks who don't agree with our decisions, and we have to listen to them as well, and learn how to make them happy.

I think opening up the events to a bigger, more diverse crowd is far more beneficial to us. Of course, with that comes the problem of sourcing a larger venue. It would be very difficult to put a positive PR spin on using the money to fund a larger venue when we have those other monetization models in play.

By: Dan Hocking

Dan Hocking — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:29:36 +0000

That's a really interesting approach – I'm not going to lie, I like it a lot. Are you concerned with the shock of introducing that cost to your community? On the flip-side, would having that cost enable you to use a larger venue and open your events up to a bigger, more diverse group? Which would be more beneficial?