----- Forwarded message from "Charles M. Hannum" <abuse@spamalicious.com> -----

Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2001 18:04:51 -0700
From: "Charles M. Hannum" <abuse@spamalicious.com>
To: Richard Rauch <rauch@eecs.ukans.edu>
Cc: "Charles M. Hannum" <root@ihack.net>
Subject: Re: Comdex post-mortem
User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0104070107370.8555-100000@tesla.eecs.ukans.edu>; from rauch@eecs.ukans.edu on Sat, Apr 07, 2001 at 01:42:01AM -0500


On Sat, Apr 07, 2001 at 01:42:01AM -0500, Richard Rauch wrote:
>
> I assumed that TNF had some expenses already, and that they were being
> covered by something.

`TNF expenses' to date have primarily consisted of corporation fees.  In
fact, the most recent time this was `covered' by collecting donations.
I'm not really happy about having to ask for donations for every little
thing; people should be willing to contribute to the general fund so we
don't have to do the headless chicken routine.

> Right...  I knew there were other costs, but didn't know what they all
> would be (carpeting? that surprises me).  I also didn't know that the
> extra expenses would dwarf travel/hotel expenses, as you say.

I'd guess from that that you've never done this.  Most people think
it's trivial, but they're naive.  Carpeting, for example, is required
by essentially every convention center.  (And just as well; the floor
would look damned ugly without it.  I've pondered bringing my own, but
I can't see how it would be more cost effective, and I'm not sure they
would allow it.)

Depending on the location, particular event, and a few other factors
(like how much equipment you want to run, how many people you expect to
see, how much equipment you have to rent, how long the conference is,
etc.), a 10x10 is going to cost roughly:

physical space						$2000-$5000
furniture, carpet, electric				$ 900-$1500
computer rental						$ 300-$2000
literature (not including distribution)			$ 900-$1500
goodies (T-shirts and CDs)				$ 500-$2000
shipping						$ 200-$ 500
travel expenses (for 1 person)				$ 600-$1200
literature distribution (optional, but a good idea)	$ 800-$2000

You can also get thwacked by the Teamsters and have to pay drayage,
which varies up to ~$75/100lbs (usually with a 200 or 300lbs minimum),
each direction.  And of course prices increase over time.

Note that anything you do at Comdex is always going to be on the high
side.  I didn't do literature distribution this time, and I managed to
avoid renting a lot of equipment, but you can't count on that.  I also
didn't have a particularly large quantity of goodies on hand, so that
was a bit constrained.

Usually our physical booth space is covered by someone else, but it
looks very likely that won't be happening nearly as much in the future,
for a variety of reasons (mostly having to do with dot.bombs, not
anything we did or didn't do).

So, for example, for Comdex it cost ~$5k all told.  And that's just out
of pocket, not including my own lost consulting time.  I'm not kidding
when I say that I pay for all this stuff myself, either.  The total
cost to me of doing one of these varies between ~$12k and ~$20k.  You
can look at the list of old events on the web site and derive a (low)
estimate of how much this whole thing has cost me.

As I said before, I don't particularly object to putting time into it,
but I simply can't afford to continue doing that *and* paying the bills
too.  It's too much.


----- End forwarded message -----