The cost of conference attendance

Last week I attended the New Adventures conference in Nottingham, as every man and his dog has blogged about their experiences already, I thought I’d do something a bit different and detail how much it cost for me to attend. After all, a lot of people don’t go to these events due to the cost.

Note: I could have been really facetious and put in there the cost of missing 2 days of paid work but the whole purpose of setting a day rate is to make sure things like training, and R&D are covered by it.

Things of note

I chose to travel down the night before and stay the night of the conference too, therefore I had to get a hotel and this decision also increased my food/drinks costs too. I’m sure plenty of people who travelled down on the day spent much closer to £100 (ticket price + travel). I also chose to stay at the Nottingham Hilton (£40 one night and £45 for the other) because A: that’s how I roll and B: I predicted the breakfast would have been better and C: because I had delusions of making use of the on-site health centre; optimistic fool that I am.

I also opted to ask around on twitter to see if anyone from the Northwest was driving and could give me a lift in their car and share the cost of petrol/parking. Robert O’Rourke had some room in his car and that undoubtedly saved me a bit of cash – plus, it made the journey to/from the event much more enjoyable.

Excellent value

Compared to other events I’ve attended New Adventures was very cost effective; The lunch that they provided on the day of the conference was substantial enough and good quality and the free bottled water/tea/coffee was also very much appreciated.

Venues chosen for pre/post parties and the conference itself were all within walking distance of each other and the city centre too so there was no need to purchase any tram/bus tickets to get around.

Last but not least there was a free bar at the after party which lasted a good few rounds.

Summary

As someone who often finds it difficult to justify business costs I can definitely recommend New Adventures conference; £265 is not a large outlay and the benefits of attending an event like this – the inspiration you can draw from it and the contacts you can make easily make it worth the money. Nottingham as a venue was a good choice – conferences in London/Brighton, great as they are often end up costing a lot more due to increased hotel prices and public transport costs.

I expect this conference to return next year, for it to sell-out quicksharp and I think it’d be bonkers if they kept the price at £80 per ticket but frankly the price is so cheap there is scope for a increase without scaring people away.

Further reading

Other people have articulated their experience of the actual event too so go read them:
Review by Simon Young
Review by Jake Smith