I'd like to go, but I am working at a seed stage company and don't have $900 to blow on conference tickets. Sadly, I'm not a student now either. No breaks for poor programmers?
High priced tickets to any tech event kind of bug me. I just don't get it. I've always hated the trend of calling developers "rockstars" and I hate the trend of tech conferences being like rockstar concerts
Supply and demand is a simple process, really. You set tickets to price X and you get 10 times as many people wanting to attend than you have seats. What do you do next year? Lottery? Beauty contest? It's logical to raise the price in such a case. I don't think this is restricted to tech conferences. Unlike rock concerts though, it's hard to imagine Google is trying to actually make money from I/O tickets.
The only problem is that they are giving out products which surpasses the ticket prices.
People (with less money) genuinely interested in the development talks, establishing connections, getting to know fellow developers and have interesting conversations, would be a second rank citizen to the "tech enthusiast" with a lot of money to spend.
:-) Good summary....
It does seem swamped by the swag hunters.
I've found that the I/O Extended event works out well...
They hold them in many countries now, and live stream the keynotes. It's a great atmosphere, and you meet interesting people.
Outside of Extended, the tech talks/firesides should be streamed live via YouTube. It was a bit hit and miss last year... hope it's smoother this time.
Not to agree with GP, but I'm not big on this analogy. It's assuming Google's goal here is to maximise ticket sales, but reaching the developer community is worth much more than cashing in on ticket sales. Google's not in the business of charging high prices for developer education.
I believe Google's trying to recoup most or all of the cost, which must be high if they're subsidising the gadget giveaways.
>High priced tickets to any tech event kind of bug me. I just don't get it. I've always hated the trend of calling developers "rockstars" and I hate the trend of tech conferences being like rockstar concerts
Can't say I'm a fan of the sensationalism either. Would be interested to see them make one more like an academic conference than a trade show expo.
This is actually pretty cheap considering the event. NAB, not strictly a "tech" event, but still geeky, is $1200+ and O'Reilly's Fluent conference (JavaScript) is $1200-2000, depending on when you register.
Conferences usually have a "Volunteer Coordinator" role, and if you can find that person then you can usually get in free by doing some easy work before/after/during the conference. I have attended several (4?) conferences this way without having to pay the fee. However, for Google I/O or Java One, I don't think they take volunteers.
