[Debconf-team] professional and corporate numbers from previous years
Hi everybody,
I have compiled some numbers about the professionals and corporate attendees
from previous years.
Disclaimer: those stats only counts people attending to DebConf who registered in penta.
The numbers are not 100% accurate since every year we end having some last minutes changes
that are not registered in penta or we can't register in penta but can be checked in their
payment lists and in the room accommodation. I didn't feel it was worth my time crossing
data to get the exact figures because I think they are good enough to get a
rough idea.
* DebConf 8*
DebConf 8 was in Argentina in a nice hotel, so attendees didn't have any reason to look
to another hotel to stay. Professional paid 300 EUR per week and Corporate 1000 EUR.
We had 252 people reconfirming attendance, 124 sponsored, 55 who didn't stay in the hotel
(most seem attendees to Debian Day), 5 corporate and 45 professional. And we have 23 people
who status is unknown, but they seem to be a mix of people who attended debian day, people
who only come a few days and stayed somewhere else. But for sure, they are not professionals.
A list of corporate/professionals was published but some people might have opted out:
http://debconf8.debconf.org/corporate.xhtml.en
* DebConf 9*
DebConf 9 was in Cáceres in a student's housing with only 2 beds per room. Cáceres has nice
hotels with good prices, so some people preferred staying in hotels nearby.
Professional paid 300 EUR per week and Corporate 1000 EUR.
We had 268 people reconfirming attendance, 168 sponsored, 69 who didn't stay at the student's
residence (they aren't debian day attendees we didn't ask people to register in penta
to attend Debian day and I can recognize some speakers who came for only one day in the list),
2 corporate and 23 professionals.
* Debconf 10*
DebConf 10 was in NYC in a student's housing. The prices were very high and even after
reconfirming people sponsorship, we send everybody a email asking to pay for their food or
accommodation. As result, some people with sponsorship switched to professional and some decided
to pay part of their expenses (food or accommodation).
The data for this year in penta show a *high number of inconsistencies* when crossing them with the
payments and accommodation spreadsheet. Specially those 196 people who are
listed as going somewhere else.
A lot of them stated in Columbia and some even as professional.
We had 415 people reconfirming attendance:
- 120 with sponsored food+accommodation,
- 9 people with only sponsored accommodation
- 13 people with only sponsored food (some here might have chosen staying somewhere else....)
- 196 people who might have stayed somewhere else and paid for their food or only registered for
attending the Debian day.
- 36 professionals (who paid 650 USD)
- 4 corporate (who paid 1300 USD)
- we have about 30 people without data, I checked in the accommodation, and 12 of those were
sponsored while the 18 remaining where people we denied sponsorship.
* Debconf 11*
Debconf 11 was held in a hotel as in DebConf11, there was not point of professional people going
somewhere else since we were staying in the best hotels in the city.
Professional was 450 EUR and corporate was 1000 EUR.
We had 450 people reconfirming attendance:
- 213 fully sponsored
- 186 who didn't stay in the hotel (95 % of the people are listed are Bosnians and some Croatians,
most likely locals and people attending debian day)
- 35 professionals
- 2 corporate
- 14 people are shown as unknown, 1 of them was sponsored, 1 of them was somebody who didn't pay
and the 12 remaining seem to be locals
* DebConf 12*
DebConf12 was held in a nice hotel, again no reason to go somewhere else.
Professional paid 650 USD per week and Corporate 1000 USD.
We had 187 people reconfirming attendance:
- 90 fully sponsored
- 31 professionals
- 2 corporate
- 10 with only sponsored accommodation
- 13 with only sponsored food (12 locals and 1 international attendee)
- 39 who were hosted somewhere else (most locals but some international people too)
* Debconf 13*
I think the most close situation to DebConf13 in le camp is Debconf 9. The accommodation is not
ideal so while we can expect some people just paying and staying and le camp,
many others will look for an alternative accommodation. Given le camp is in a place isolated,
I fear some people not finding alternatives easily might give up in attending this year.
While the number of people reconfirming attendance to DebConf 8 and 9 and similar, DebConf 8
had a much higher number of professional. I think this is due people found good quality-price
for the 300 EUR the professional had to pay.
I think we'll totally lose corporate attendees because they will choose hotel+car over paying.
Then we'll lose some professionals who:
- won't go because they don't like the accommodation and their company won't pay them anything else
- won't go because they say their company won't see this venue as a serious conference. Some people
have to convince managers who don't know a lot of about Debian and they will find the conference
strange
- some (most?) partners won't attend because the accommodation
- and some people who regularly would have attended as professional who will ask their companies
to pay the hotel somewhere else (although they could chose to pay food in le camp)
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