Why is elm-europe so expensive (and how can folk afford to go)?

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When I saw that elm-europe was happening in June I thought to my self:

“Ooh, a conference on elm - probably a long shot (as it is in France so I would need to travel) but maybe I could go.”

I then checked the website and saw that tickets cost $300. Alas, I am a student and there is no way that I can afford this.

So I have two friendly questions - both of which probably have obvious answers:

  1. Why does a two day conference cost so much to attend/what makes organising a conference so expensive? Do other conferences cost a similar amount?

  2. How to folk afford to attend. Perhaps working full time on elm brings big dollars or maybe there is something else that I am missing.

:slight_smile:

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Not sure if this helps, but based on my experience $300 for two days doesn’t sound uncommon or expensive. E.g. compare with React Europe. https://www.react-europe.org/#tickets

I guess one of the organizers can provide you more information and go into detail regarding the other questions.

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I went to DrupalCon years ago. It is run by an open association, they posted some summary financials in slides, and I understood that everything was public. This was what I could find easily:

Perhaps that will provide insight into conventions in general.

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4

I made a remarkably similar discovery today. I remember that Zeit offered scholarships for their Europe conference, and I got one, which was super convenient.

I also posted a Tweet asking about the scholarships but haven’t received a reply yet. It would be super cool if you share anything useful that you find! :tada:

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Most of the conferences I’ve been to have been paid for by the company I work for rather than by myself as an individual. And I’d say that’s true for the majority of attendees at these things.

What seems expensive for one person is not necessarily expensive for a company. Think about the cost of paying a team of ten developers a salary for a year. If one or two of them go to a conference and get an idea that makes the team more efficient, or they find a solution to some big problem, then the price of that ticket starts to sound like a good deal.

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Thanks for all these answers - they make a lot of sense to me!

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I’d love to see a tiered ticketing system at some point in the future to help enable those who are students or people who want to attend but aren’t doing so with help of an employer. DjangoCon have amazing conferences (and are very well priced) in Europe and have the following pricing structure:

Concession Ticket for full-time students or people without regular income
Individual Ticket for people paying out of their own pocket
Business Ticket for employers who are paying.

I’d love to attend Elm Europe at some point but knowing the bill would be in the region of £800, it’s just out of my reach in my current situation. That said, I’m both greatful & thankful that the conference takes place, it helps grow the community and that the conference talks are posted online. Hopefully I’ll make it one day :slightly_smiling_face:

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Students : Send me your student card by email. We’ll try to have students tickets at a discounted price
Thibaut@milesrock.com

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How can folk afford to go? One way is to submit a talk and be accepted :sweat_smile:

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