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.
