Wondering about what I've paid for
September 8, 2009 - 17:47
Hi,
I had a lot of fun in my first DrupalCon ever - meeting new people, attending interesting sessions, coding with everyone, drinking lots of wine and beer... It certainly won't be my last DrupalCon.
I gladly paid what was required of me to attend the con, and I'm just wondering about what it was spent on.
There were above 900 people attending this open source community-based event, each paying more than 200 Euros, and there also were a lot of sponsors, and I'd like to know if the costs are really equal to the revenues.
So any chance I can get a straight answer?
September 8, 2009 - 23:34
#2
Thank you,
Hopeful I am stating the obvious, but the value received by the attendees is many times the cost of the ticket, because of the thousands and thousands of hours put in by all the volunteers - the organizers, presenters, red shirts, and many others. Thank you for a wonderful DrupalCon, it was truly amazing and a great credit to you all.
September 8, 2009 - 18:52
#3
Be patient, it may take a bit.
The Drupal Association has been very forthcoming about providing financial information about its Drupalcon events. It will likely take a few weeks before everything has been tallied up, but that information has been made public for previous Drupal conferences.
If you can't wait that long, you might want to take a look at the numbers from Drupalcon DC in March:
http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/news/drupalcon-dc-numbers-community-profit-a...
September 8, 2009 - 18:39
#4
Many benefits of DrupalCons
Hi alonpeer,
I have not seen the numbers and I am not part of the organizing committee, but as a PM of the Drupal Association I can speak briefly to the intended (and hoped for outcome) of this and any other DrupalCon: surplus revenue for the Drupal Association that will be used to further the Drupal project.
In the best case DrupalCon Paris will come out ahead and be able to funnel some funds back to the Drupal Association. This money is then used for things like building out the Drupal.org infrastructure, funding code sprints, buying legal advice for Drupal, and seeding the next DrupalCon.
Historically DrupalCon has been the Drupal Association's biggest source of revenue. This has been dependent on the generosity of sponsors, the willingness of attendees to pay the price for admission, and the vigilance of DrupalCon organizers in keeping costs down. It is a hard feat to pull off.
The Paris team is busy crunching numbers. There are typically lots of loose ends and the final balance sheet may be months away. The number of sponsors and vendors involved is large, and lots of invoices have to be written and bills paid. It's a lot of administrative work. However, since transparency is always the goal, the Paris team is preparing a report that should answer most questions.
Thank you for supporting Drupal by attending DrupalCon. Thank you also to all of the sponsors who make a huge difference to the Drupal project.
-Robert Douglass
Hey.. not going into the technicalities of what they should or what has been the custom, is the association legally bound to disclose such info? Just my curiosity.. I know they have been doing and of course that's the right thing to do.And frankly I do not mind even if they pocket some of it.. after all the good work that's being done.. ;)