NCDevCon

Why NCDevCon now costs $60

One change to NCDevCon 2011 is the attendance fee. We did not charge an attendance fee for either CFinNC 2009 or NCDevCon 2010. This year, we set a fee of $60 for attendence. Before we talk about why we are now charging a modest fee, let's talk about what you get for your $60.

Entry to the weekend event and all presentations

You get access to two full days of presentations and sessions from the brightest minds in the business. This would normally cost $400-600 at another conference, so this alone is worth the price.

Lunch (both days)

Each day we will provide you a hot lunch. In previous years, we sold lunches each morning for cash to attendees. This causes us significant slowdowns in processing registrations. Also, some attendees were not prepared with cash resulting in complications. This year, lunch will be easier for everyone.

Coffee, drinks and snacks (both days)

Coffee, soda, bottled water, juices and many kinds of snacks are available for free at our snack table.

Saturday Night Social Event

You'll be invited to our Saturday night social event where there will be free drinks and food for sponsors, speakers and attendees.

Conference shirt

You'll have your very own limited edition, one of a kind NCDevCon 2011 t-shirt. These make great stocking stuffers.

We thought long and hard before adding an attendence fee to the conference. I'm sure you can agree $60 is a very modest fee for all the above benefits. The main reason why we set a fee this year is to help curb the number of no-shows.

No Shows

At CFInNC (our first free conference) we had 200 registrations and 15% no-shows. This is a good ratio and we were fine with that. At NCDevCon 2010, we had 240 registrations and 40% no-shows. This trend is disturbing because we turned many people away from registering as space is limited. We understand plans change, but we want to be able to count on our registrations. A $60 fee will help qualify attendees who are committed to coming to the conference from those who are just 'saving a spot' and will decide later.

No-Shows Cost us Money

In planning a conference, we have fixed costs that must be accounted for. Often these costs are planned based on the registrations. A good example is catering. Our caterer was told to prepare enough lunches for the 240 people whom registered. The actual number of people who showed up was much less and as a result, we paid 40% more for catering and had to waste signficant quantities of food.

No-Shows Make us look bad in front of our sponsors

Our sponsors make NCDevCon happen. Even charging a $60 fee we will still rely on our sponsors to make the conference work. If we tell our sponsors we have 240 registrations and are over capacity, but during the conference we have lots of empty seats, we look unreliable.

No-Shows hurt our feelings

NCDevCon is an all volunteer organization. We all have day jobs that pay the bills and we put on NCDevCon as a service to the technology communities. Our reward is in seeing happy, fired-up people enjoying the conference.

I hope this clarifies our reasons why we moved to a $60 registration fee. We will make certain scholarships available for those who can truly not afford $60. Contact us if you are one of those people.

9 responses

(comments are now closed)

Jose Galdamez // Jul 7, 2011 at 9:53 AM
Even at that price it's a monster deal considering what one is getting in return. I don't think anyone should get upset over this change.

You guys always do a great job with the conference. Keep up the great work!
Michael Kimsal // Jul 7, 2011 at 9:57 AM
Regardless of what price it is, I always thought ncdevcon should have been charging *something*. $10? $20? Mostly just to get some buy-in from people and to curb no-shows.
Sarah Kelly // Jul 8, 2011 at 11:11 AM
I think you're absolutely justified in charging this fee for exactly the reasons you mention. I didn't make it last year (didn't register either though!!) but enjoyed CFinNC so much and hope to make it this year.
Chuck Jaynes // Jul 13, 2011 at 10:38 AM
Based on the wonderful experience I had at NCDevCon 2010, I can easily justify paying the registration fee for 2011.
Michael Kimsal // Jul 13, 2011 at 12:03 PM
Really, I'm not even sure why you mentioned there was a change. I think the quality of the event is evident to the people who've already been - they'd have no issue with paying. To new attendees, they'll see $60 and not have an issue with it. I do understand why, but think you didn't need to make it an issue (but maybe you had other input from people I don't know about!).

Rock on ncdevcon!
Lance // Jul 14, 2011 at 10:30 AM
I have absolutely no problem with the $60 conference fee. I attended in 2009 and thought it was top-notch. I unfortunately had to miss last year, but am definitely going ot try to make it down from Ohio this year. I appreciate a fellow user group stepping up and putting on a conference. Who knows...it could turn into the next CFUnited (which we desperately need)! Keep up the great work, and the rest of us CF devs in the community will do what we can to support it.
Joe Williamson // Jul 14, 2011 at 4:23 PM
At $60, it's still such a no-brainer. I've been to '09 and '10 and kept thinking to myself, "they really ought to have a fee to offset the costs of putting this on". In short, the conference is really kickass and if you're on the fence because of an entrance fee, please feel free to speak to *anyone* who's been to either of the previous. I'm not suggesting this, per se, but even at triple the current cost, it would still be an easy decision.

Keep up the good work guys, this is the one conference that I lock in since its inception.
Chris // Jul 29, 2011 at 7:55 AM
Charging a registration fee is expected, and we were fortunate to attend last year at no cost. But the jump from zero to sixty is a little steep, and deters me and my guest from attending. Would $30 be a better price?
Michael Kimsal // Jul 29, 2011 at 7:58 AM
@Chris - I can't speak for them, but you've been before, you know the quality involved. Sure it's not free, but it could easily have been $99 as well. The value one can extract from even a couple sessions, or the networking, easily eclipses the $60 fee. Not trying to sound rude, but $60 for anyone in software development shouldn't be a burden.