<DIV ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"> </FONT></DIV><DIV ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">I think someone needs to do a post-mortem of the past few YAPCs and explain what the problem is and why some are suggesting changes. My understanding is that YAPC attendance has been consistently increasing, so attracing attendees is probably not the problem.</FONT></DIV><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"><br></FONT><DIV ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">One problem we had in our Boston.pm bids has been that the venue costs more. Increasing the cost would help cities like Boston/Cambridge to compete in YAPC bids. Other areas where more revenue might help could be providing more financial support to presenters and/or recording talks. </FONT></DIV><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"><br></FONT><DIV ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Personally, I suspect there are a lot of other ways to improve the conference. Soliciting, collecting, and analyzing feedback from attendees and potential attendees might be a fruitful thing to do. Sharing what you have already learned here would be a first step. We should focus on what content will be valuable to potential attendees before considering any change in pricing structure.</FONT></DIV><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"><br></FONT><DIV ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">thanks,</FONT></DIV><DIV ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">--</FONT></DIV><DIV ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Bob Clancy</FONT></DIV>