Your sounding like Rick now, Your trying to justify the admission price based on attendees potential earnings, it's not anyone's business what attendees can or cannot make, What assurance does TRAFFIC give that attendees will earn enough of a return to pay for the trip? I already asked and the answer was NONE.
Raider the bottomline really is that if you're unhappy with the price,
then you have the ability to choose not to attend. As to justification of
the price its been laid out and gone over endlessly and as someone
that has attended a fair number of TRAFFIC conferences I can add that
I haven't come away unhappy that I spent the money to be there.
As to what opportunities there are to make money ... just a few are being able to meet other domainers and building relationships that lead to sales, purchases, partnerships, friendships, could be selling domains in the auction, could be learning something at the seminars that allow you to increase your income.
You get from these conference what you want to get from them ... you have to make the effort to make things happen and this conference gives you some opportunities to advance. But alas, there are no guarantees in life ... and in any case it really doesn't seem
to matter what you are told about the conference ... you've been one
to jump on the Traffic bashing wagon from day one. Which is your choice but it really make more sense if you had some first hand experience before you talked others out of attending or claiming the
cost too high. There are MANY conferences that cost more and give less.
Where the heck did I say I wanted it at no cost? Why not set a reasonable price? $500-$1000 would be acceptable to most... When you make it unaffordable, you single out
a lot of people, hard working domainers trying to get ahead, the ones Rick refers to as "Time Wasters".
Why does Rick have to "make it affordable" or "dumb down" the event
to meet everyones needs? He established the conference and knows
the targeted audience for it. Its his perogative to price it for what
he feels is appropriate. You talk like people have some inherent
right to be there and Rick is the bad guy keeping them out. The invite
only aspect is pretty much irrelevant ... I've yet to hear of one person
turned away that was willing to play by all the rules the rest of us do.
When you meet Rick at the door, you can tell him how far off HE is, the 10k figure came out of his mouth at Vegas Internext. I know what it costs to travel, last month I returned from a 5 day stay in Orlando Florida, total expense for the entire trip was over 8K and
Well again ... as someone who has been to many of these shows ... it's never cost me ANYWHERE near 10k and those friends I know that have traveled from Austrailis to be at the shows it has not cost them near that much. Of course what you do, eat, drink, entertain, gamble on your time has nothing to do with traffic costs.
I didn't have to pay 2K to get into Disneyworld.
No you get to pay $50-$70 a day and then get to stand in 2 hour lines
and buy $5 cokes and $20 mouse ears and $100 meals ... you should
contact Disney corporate and have a chat with them.
I'm sure its a great convention and I hope all of you get the most out of it, But personally, I can think of more beneficial places to spend $10,000 of my hard earned money, and I don't need to beg for permission to do it.
Again .. never heard of anyone having to "beg" for permission ... as the shows have progress they have gotten larger and more diverse in the
attendees from largest to smallest domainers. The only ones not in attendence tend to be the ones complaining the loudest and never intending to go in any case. ( Of course there are some personal issues
and conflicts between Rick and some domainers that have made it
a conflict in attending ... but that would probably be a non issue if these
folks didn't publically air their personal issues with the show organizer. They could just as easily held their tongues and attended the shows and
never crossed paths with Rick or Howard. But to each their own.
Not defending Rick or Howard or anyone ... just the fact that there is
no one that is "entitled" to be able to attend this show. We all pay the
same price ... and if you don't want too or can't then that is not TRAFFICs fault or responsibility to make up for.
Make sure you get to Domainsponsors show in LA if its only price that is
an issue ... Domainfest is an excellent show as well and is I think like
$700 to attend ... so it will leave you plenty of money to play with.
