Can I get a discount?
Short answer: Yes! Pre-register and save $25 (regular) or $40 (with training). Save nearly 10%!
Longer answer: But wait, there’s more!
Yes!
The discount is “built in.” Good news! Everyone gets a discount. This is a non-profit, community conference. A for-profit conference might build in a 40-50% profit margin; since this is a non-profit, community-centric conference, that savings is passed on to you.
$100 automatic discount. We reduced the cost of admission for everyone by nearly $100 per person by recruiting thousands of dollars in corporate sponsorships. (Should we have advertised the higher price and then give everyone a fake $100 discount? We didn’t think to do that because we’re sysadmins, not marketing types.).
The price started low already. For $249 you receive what would cost $500-$1000 at other conferences. The paid training at $399 would be $2000 if you had to fly to a national conference (http://bit.ly/dcViHR). By flying in nationally/internationally recognized trainers to NJ, the registration price is what you would normally pay just for travel. In fact, one person that registered told us “The cost including travel was inexpensive enough to not need justification.”
Professional-quality at a community cost. Putting on a conference is costly. Nothing ruins your experience like audio you can’t hear or video you can’t see. Therefore rather than home-brewing it, we’re paying more than $7000 to have 2 days of high-quality professional A/V in all four rooms. We are providing all meals (about $100 per person): we could have made meals “fend for yourself” but getting around New Brunswick is difficult and time consuming; we would have needed longer meal timeslots and therefore would have time for fewer speakers. We preferred more speakers, and a meal program that improves interaction among attendees. People have told us that the top 2 reasons for attending is the speakers and meeting peers, so we think we made the right decision.
$1070 in free stuff. You get a lot of free stuff. A $1,000 license for Admin Arsenal, a 1-year membership to LOPSA (normally $50), and the stylish conference totebag and USB 2G thumb drive with electronic versions of all conference materials. Really… can you ever have enough thumb drives?
We hope you see the value of this conference is well beyond the registration fee. Being a local, community-based, conference means you will be networking with local peers, thus starting connections that are more likely to continue between conferences.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Ok, but can’t I get a discount?
Ok, so a $2000 experience for 80% less than you’d normally pay isn’t enough? Times are hard. We understand. We’re willing to give further discounts for people that help in certain ways:
Save $75: Register before March 22, 2010, we’ll take $75 off the price of training. Early registration helps us cover the cost of our deposits and gives our board the confidence to move forward with the project. (If you missed this date, please join our mailing list so you don’t miss it next year.)
10% discount for groups of 4 or more from the same company: In exchange for talking up the conference among your co-workers, we reward you with a discount. Only have 3 co-workers that want to go? Ask your boss to come. http://bit.ly/a8vVr4
10% discount for groups of 4 or more from the same user group: Put our banner on your web site, forward our press releases to your members, and in exchange they get a 10% discount when they register in groups of 4 or more. (A little work for you, a big discount for your members.) Details here.
Save $25-$40 by pre-registering! Register by May 2nd!
Students attend for $99/$74 (with/without training). Details here.
(Did we mention that every attendee gets $1070 in free stuff?)