I’ve received a small amount of flack from a few folks for the way we did the pricing on the conference for Podcast and New Media Expo this year. First, a little background. Our conference has always been a loss-leader for us. We provide excellent speakers and content to draw the audience in, and make up the difference in sponsorships and exhibit space. With pricing between $199 and $299, the conference ticket price is drastically lower than most other tech conferences.

I price it this way because our attendees are unique in the sense that about 50% are independent content creators and pay for their own airfare, hotel and conference ticket expenses. But after audio-visual, internet, electrical, room rental, food/beverage, registration, printing and advertising, and recording costs are factored in, we take in less than we spend to produce the sessions. That’s fine with me, because the goal is to make up the difference in sponsorships and exhibit space.

This being the 3rd Annual event, our attendees now trust that we are going to provide excellent instruction they can use immediately at a low price. This year we had our first pricing deadline, from $199 to $249, before we posted any of the session descriptions or speakers. My feeling was that if someone wanted the $199 price - it was there for the taking. If they wanted to wait for the session descriptions and speakers to be posted, that’s fine too and the price will be $249.

Fellow podcaster and friend Steve Holden sent me an email that he thought this was backwards and not the right way to do things. A few other people inquired with similar concerns - perhaps 2 or 3. But I still feel like $249 is a great value, and the folks that wanted the even better price of $199 are basically asked to trust us in exchange for the lower pricing.

I think it’s a fair trade.

P.S. Chris Pirillo does something similar with his Gnomedex event. He hasn’t posted a single session or speaker yet and it’s already 1/3 sold out because people trust Chris will “do them right.”