Re: Embedded Systems Conference priced out of reach?
- From: Tim Wescott <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:18:20 -0800
Mark Borgerson wrote:
I just got my flyer for the April San Jose ESC. InsideSomething to consider when you decline to go is that you're not paying $3000. You're really paying $3000 pre-tax for conference and travel, plus the $3000 to $6000 in lost revenue, depending on what you charge. So the question isn't do you want to pay $3000 vs. $1000, it's do you want to pay $4000 to $7000 vs $6000 to $9000. Looking at it that way, it's not as big a difference. Even if I weren't presenting and getting into the talks for free, I think I'd have to go at least every other year to keep my training current.
the front cover I found the following "best value" prices
for all access passes:
before Feb 6 $1795 (the brocure arrived on the 10th)
Mar 5 1995
Mar 29 2195
on site 2295
Or you could just attend the free exhibits and a single
90-minute class at $195 No downloadable class notes
or proceedings CD, though ;-(
It seems to me that the sponsors of this conference have
priced themselves out of reach of small companies. About
15 years ago, I actually talked my employer into sending
me to an ESC---and paying the $395 for the full set
of classes. I don't think a request for $3000 (travel
plus conference) would fly today. As a self-employed
consultant, there's no way I can justify anything more
than attending just the free exhibits.
Don't these conference organizers realize that they are
competing with a wealth of free or low-cost technical resources on
the internet? Heck, for less than the cost of two classes, I
can purchase freely redistributable source code for an
RTOS, SD disk driver, USB stack, etc, etc.
If I were working in marketing for Atmel, MicroChip, IAR,
etc. I'd have my boothies do a little pre-qualifying and
hand out passes for the kind of free seminars they hold where you get a morning with some FAEs, lectures,
and a free dev kit. For something like that, plus
the free ESC exhibits pass, I'd consider the $500 cost
of travel from Oregon to San Jose. I suspect that
the conference organizers strongly discourage such competing
attractions.
Mark Borgerson
I don't know how much they charged last year, but there were certainly a lot of full rooms when the seminars were being given. If they can continue to fill the rooms, even with their expanded program, I don't see much motivation for them to cut the price.
If they do drive away enough business, however, they'll lose their teaching staff. They certainly don't pay enough to make the trip worthwhile on a purely monetary basis. The value for me (and a lot of other folks doing it) are to fill the room with potential customers for services or training, and to gain credibility as a world-class expert. Were they to pay me the same but not fill the room consistently I don't think I'd keep going.
--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Posting from Google? See http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" came out in April.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
.
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