[yapc] howto conference costs

[Nathan Torkington]

James E Keenan writes:
> Use of academic, rather than corporate, settings is probably
> crucial, as is not paying the speakers.

Having seen a commercial conference up close and personal, I think
the big savings for a YAPC are:
 * not doing it at a hotel
 * not paying the organizers
 * not paying the speakers
 * not paying for marketing or A/V staff

The latter is surprisingly expensive.  You'd have a coronary if you
found out how much it cost to do the OSCON proceedings.  (Admittedly,
we were hamstrung by expectations: being a publishing company,
O'Reilly can't just photocopy and staple!) 

I figure the lesson is that once you start paying for things, you
can't stop, so YAPCs do things right by never paying anybody for
anything :-)

Nat