(edited)
Hi Everyone,
we still have not decided on our ticket procedure. We talked about “free but people have to apply” to make sure, we have highly motivated participants rather than just a bunch of walk ins.
Could our ticket procedure look like this:
Hi,
The tickets for the OSCEdays event in Berlin are generally free of charge!
But there is a limited number of tickets because of limited space.
Therefore people have to apply for their tickets.
HOW?
The OSCEdays are an event focused on creating rather than consuming stuff. So we are interested in people who are motivated to collaborate, brainstorm, develop, prototype, and discuss, together with the community, in order to creatively explore the possibilities of an open source circular economy. We’d love to hear from people of all fields and backgrounds – industry, science, grassroots, makers, students, +.
Please apply by posting here in this thread. If you don’t want to post here, you can also send an email to openitagency@email.de. Emailing will work equally well, but we prefer to receive your application here in the forum. Wir nehmen Bewerbungen auch gerne in Deutsch entgegen.
###Please include the following information about you:
Your name /or nickname
Your background/field of interest
Your motivation to join the OSCEdays
Do you have a special project or challenge you want to work on during the days, or a special skill you want to bring (like coding, product design or knowledge about something.)
How long do you plan on staying and on which days? (we expect you to stay at least full 2 days working with us, and we would prefer more. But exceptions can be made.)
We are looking forward to hear from you. If you have any questions, please post them in this thread.
Maybe you can give a really short statement, thought or idea here and explain how you are handling it in your own local event. That would be really helpful for the decision making I feel.
My feeling is that we should focus on sponsorship rather than on entrance tickets. Reason 1: Even if 80 people pay 10€ each, we get only 800€. Is it worth the whole? Reason 2 (and more important): I think our focus should be to get active participants (if possible with experience and input to contribute) rather than passive audience and thus I feel the idea to apply (rather than pay) is preferable. Nevertheless, we could offer sponsorship tickets to big(ger) businesses and/or organizations. And maybe we could also have a donation box at the location…
I also like the idea of ‘free, but you need to apply’.
At LOTE4 we had something similar:
“Tickets to LOTE4 are not free of charge, but they are not for sale either. The only way to get one is to earn it by helping build the event in collaboration with others.”
This kind of approach counters the warning we received about having free tickets, “if there are other events on, or if it’s raining, nobody shows up”. If people are engaged with the event in the weeks beforehand and are preparing and developing their challenges online, they are committed and motivated to turn up.
However, if people / company reps want to come, and they haven’t put in time and energy to building the event or preparing and developing challenges online, then contributing money to cover costs would be a logical and useful role, whether through sponsorship or ‘corporate tickets’.
Yes, I think tickets should be free. Handling the accounting would be a lot of extra work. But we can ask for donations – especially people from bigger organizations. Prize for a ticket + written application seems a little much for me. But for those: “Hey, there are supporter tickets available. You are not obligated to buy them, but we would love, if you do. Please send a donation to…”
good Idea with the mail address. Sam is looking into the possibility to set up an berlin@oscedays.org email account where we then all would have the password. If this is not working, we will set up such an account somewhere else.
I like what Sam is saying. Maybe we can add something to the general application form, that we like to see them contributing to the dialogue upfront here in the web. -> I will try to add it and let you know, when I am done.
I’m also for free ticket but you need to apply approach.
Our event in France is going to be free for sure and people will hopefully be paid, at least some of them. But the event changed a lot from what we pictured at first. It is going to happen in a small city of 10 000 habitants in France (I will have the final go next week) that started the energetic and social transition a while ago. The plan is to go there with a team of 30 people that know why they are there and are “skilled” in their domain, we are going to document all existing initiatives and hack the city and its surrondings.
I hope those people can get a fair retribution for the work that will be done there and the energy we are going to put to make it sustainable and long lasting.
I think “free” is a bad idea when it comes to events. Having to “earn” one’s ticket ensures that everyone takes repsonsibility for making it happen, and people arrive having already started to collaborate online in building the event. If we have people showing up who are e.g. used to being put in supervisory/senior management positions then an appropriate role for them could be to help put discussions in perspective.
We’re so embedded in the narrative of consumption we sometimes need to be reminded what it means to be a protagonist rather than just a consumer.
I do agree with you @Nadia. It was kind of the idea of the form, you need to answer a few questions and take time to do it, that’s your first contribution. This form could be the first filter for people that are just here to consume. In the reality as it is now, it won’t really be the case, I guess not everyone we will come to the OSCEdays will answer that form.
Anyway, free or not free. For me its more the call of the local organizers and how the event will look like. If you charge, do it only to cover costs. If you don’t charge, be clear that you are not coming as a tourist.
