Alex's Tech Thoughts

I run a lot of events. Some are free, others come with a fee. It really depends on the demand of the event and controlling the space in tandem with that. I’m not looking to make a profit at this point, just looking to put together events that I would like to attend myself.

There are positives and negatives on both sides of the equation. On the free side, if you have 100 free tickets you should assume only 40 people will show up. So having people grab tickets, just because it is free and end up being a no-show is common and frustrating to organizers. On the fee side, you don’t want to put any barriers for people coming to an event, especially if you aren’t giving them $$$ worth of value.

Now, I am helping organize a BD Meetup Happy Hour in February and we are trying something new. Instead of making it free or charging $5, $10, or $15 for the event we are charging 99 cents.

We want this to be a “free” event- so we are adding a big enough barrier (adding in your cc number) that people who don’t plan on coming won’t grab a free ticket just because. The event is coming up soon and maybe I’ll do a follow up article about the results (how many people bought tickets and came and compare it to another event that wasn’t done this way).

Any event organizing tales of success one way or another?