Thoughts on Running a WordCamp: Balancing Expenses

September 4, 2009 by 2 Comments

I suspect I’ll post more thoughts on running a WordCamp in the weeks to come, but I recently ran into an interesting situation that’s one of those little things that doesn’t come up in the obvious list of things to do or considerations for these types of events. How does one prioritize the expenses and weigh that vs. the (limited) amount of sponsor dollars?

Some of the event costs are fixed and mandatory (facility) or directly related to the number of participants (T-shirts), but others are variable and need to be prioritized. When it comes to food, there are a lot of options from cheap to fancy, with all sorts of options in between. I want to provide a nice meal experience for the participants, along with a reasonable supply of beverages. Other expenses are entirely in the “optional” category but are nice to have. There is a strong desire in the community (both locally and worldwide) to have sessions recorded or even better, streamed live.

The community would benefit from the streaming, but one could make a darned good argument that the first priority should be to the participants who are paying to attend the event in person. Last night I sat at my desk considering whether we’d be able to afford streaming, or whether to provide better quality food for the participants. There’s no one “right” answer. I think we have things arranged for this year’s event, but this is but one of many such choices to be made.

Ah, to have one of those trees that grows money for WordCamps…

Filed Under: Events, Portland/Vancouver · Tagged With: , , , , ,
  • http://www.duanestorey.com Duane Storey

    I posted a review of WordCamp Whistler after it was all said and done. You can check it out here.

    http://www.duanestorey.com/blog/2009/wordcamp-whistler-in-review/

    I wasn’t that big into streaming either, but the precedent had already been set from other WordCamps. A local non-profit offered to stream it for us in exchange for allowing them entry into the event. They set up a few small cell phone cameras and did it that way.

    Food was a pretty major budget item for us. I personally would have rather everyone fended for themselves for lunch, since it would have brought prices down substantially. But in the end it all worked out financially (barely), and we managed to make ends meet and keep the train on the tracks.

  • http://twitter.com/geopdx Justin C. Houk

    Why not ask if the participants can stream and record the conference themselves? http://www.ustream.tv

    They win on self promotion, you win on making them and others happy at little expense. Paying attendees eat well! Those at home watch and eat ordered pizza.

    If you can figure out a good way to do it make it a contest or something.

    Justin