In the light of organizing the conference, I have been getting feedback that the ticket price is too high. More importantly, we are not seeing the 
kind of ticket sales that would give comfort to us. As promised, I want to disclose the budget of organizing a conference like this. Here is the link to the Google Doc that list all the expense items. I have taken personal responsibility for the contract with Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Center. I have personally invited guests and Icelandair has been fantastic in working to get their schedules to fit the conference. So, if we cancel the conference because of poor ticket sales or not having enough participants for the workshop, I will have to explain to my wife and partners why I did this and personally be liable to pay Harpa ISK 314.000+VAT :), thats cool it would be an interesting story to tell on how NOT to organize a conference. But we are not there yet and I am confident that I will secure enough interest to get this conference organized.
When I embarked on the journey to organize this conference, I said, it would be fully transparant and I will share the troubles, challenges and excitement of putting something like this together through this blog. It would be a spectacular success or crash and burn, whats not to like? Everyone likes a drama and excitement and see someone taking initiative fail or succeed depending on which side of the table you sit. Our web sponsors Kosmos and Kaos and Gre, have been fantastic turning things around at a fast pace. We secured the workshop with Alexander Osterwalder, which is a rare feat because Alexander does not do workshops like this organized by anyone.
It is a full day hands on workshop that can transform anyone’s business participating in it to rethink their business model and innovate in this new world. I have to thank Alexander Richter (ThinkGeoEnergy) and Kristine Helen Falgren of Reykjavik University for that. Gunnar Holmstein, showed why I bet on him. He is a true leader and wants to encourage fellow entrepreneurs to participate in the conference.Everyone including myself who have been working on putting this together have been doing this as a labor of love and passion. We want to see this conference happen in Iceland because that is good for the whole Entrepreneurial community and Startup Ecosystem here. I want to sell out the hall to show that Entrepreneurship and Startups are alive and kicking in Iceland.If you can help in anyway please feel free to contact me.Related articles
- Starting Up Iceland (startupiceland.wordpress.com)
I’ve been organizing the IceWeb Conference for the past 7 years. The total cost is pretty much the same and the logistics are also similar. Flying in people from all over the world etc.
There are a few things you need to consider.
1) Icelanders take their time to make decisions
Every year we reach a point where we consider canceling the event as ticket sales have a slow start. Our experience shows that sales pick up about two weeks prior to the event. So if you hang in there things might prevail…
2) It’s a small country, don’t expect 275 people to attend
I’m not saying it can’t happen but as you know Iceland is very small. There are many people working in the web industry but we usually sell around 150 seats, just enough to almost break even.
3) Cut cost as much as you can
It’s hard getting a budget, even though 25K doesn’t sound like a lot of money it’s always a challenge to convince your boss. So start slashing what you don’t need i.e.
A) The venue. The Harpa is nice but you can get a fine venue for 50% or less
B) Gifts for guests. This usually ends up in the trash a few weeks later
C) Lunch. Lower the price and provide Kaffi and Kleinur (unless you sell enough tickets, then you can splurge)
D) Speaker fees. We try to pay the speakers a fair amount, coming to Iceland with a spouse is usually a good deal. But paying someone a fee that is 50% of your total cost is a bit out there… no matter who that person is.
Thanks Einar, None of the conference speakers are charging money except Alexander Osterwalder who is actually conducting a whole day workshop… the cost is for running the workshop not for the conference. Typical workshops are organized by RU and they run the same cost or more.
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It’s been over a month since you posted this. I really hope that in that time you’ve managed to garner enough interest in terms of attendance and have sold enough tickets to at least break even. All the best.
Thank you for the note, yes, we were able to resolve the challenges and we had the conference and it was a grand success.
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