{"id":2650,"date":"2013-01-31T00:45:25","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T05:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/?p=2650"},"modified":"2013-01-31T00:45:34","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T05:45:34","slug":"conference-business-thoughts-from-jeffpulver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2013\/01\/31\/conference-business-thoughts-from-jeffpulver","title":{"rendered":"Conference business thoughts from @JeffPulver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some nuggets from a Mixergy interview<\/a> with Jeff Pulver<\/a>\u00a0(wikipedia<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The conference business when it works, is one of the most highly profitable businesses that is legal.”<\/p>\n

“The more I charged, the more people came.” It’s a credibility thing. In telecom, its corporate money, take as much as you want (its not individual money). With competition, someone always wants to outspend another in sponsorships, etc.<\/p>\n

However with a waning economy in 2010, the 140conf charged $140. EBITDA is poor, but you get folk. Inspiration for these lower prices came from Fred Wilson’s post about conferences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He didn’t start out with a professional conference\/event management firm. He built conferences based on the ones that he had attended before.<\/p>\n

He never pays for speakers (with one exception: Scott Adams). He gets paid $40,000 per speech. He does occasionally cover travel costs. He has sponsors from hotels so accommodation is usually taken care of.<\/p>\n

Very open about his numbers, earnings, business (he had many<\/a> including a record label), failings, etc. in his interview. Well worth a listen if you have the time.<\/p>\n

Parting thought: you have to occasionally reboot your buddy list. I can agree – different friends take you thru different parts of life.<\/p>\n

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