I still think that increasing the cost of the ticket beyond the nominal fee would make for more committed ticket purchasers and avoid the “flailing land grab”, as you put it. The concept of giving extra money to charity concerns me, though. Ignite has always been an independent entity, relying only on sponsors and not getting involved in charity or anything which has a particular point of view.

Tying Ignite ticket purchases to charitable donations might discourage people or upset those who may not like or agree with the charity chosen by the Ignite organizers. I think that would do far more damage than the ticket issues we've seen for the past couple of Ignites.

I still think that increasing the cost of the ticket beyond the nominal fee would make for more committed ticket purchasers and avoid the “flailing land grab”, as you put it. The concept of giving extra money to charity concerns me, though. Ignite has always been an independent entity, relying only on sponsors and not getting involved in charity or anything which has a particular point of view.

Tying Ignite ticket purchases to charitable donations might discourage people or upset those who may not like or agree with the charity chosen by the Ignite organizers. I think that would do far more damage than the ticket issues we've seen for the past couple of Ignites.

I would've paid money to go. Take the nominal $3-5 and bump it up to $20-40 so people are actually committing to going and there isn't such a flailing land grab for tickets. They could take all that extra cash and benefit a local charity!

I hope to make it to the next Ignite, but I'll try not to get my hopes up.

Economists would say that if your event is selling out within hours at $5, then you aren't charging the right amount for the market– depletion of the commons, just like driver's ed class. It's cheap and affordable, thus everyone is forced to wait for months or years before they can get in (or, even less fair, choose via lottery so some people may never get in.) If you want to be fair, but can't afford to give every single person who wants a ticket a ticket, then you should charge as much as you can while still ensuring 99% occupancy.

Of course I'm not a big fan of $300 Ignite tickets, but we're talking about this problem of quick snatch-up and lackluster residual sales here. So it's either high prices, returns/reissues, or something else creative like first come first serve the day of.

So, is the value of the tickets very low of very high right now?

I'm not sure how many people were at the satellite location for the last Ignite, but I'll be interested to see how Dave's Electric Brewpub goes this time.

I'm hoping some smaller Ignites, like Ignite Developer and Ignite @ ASU will help with that, as well as the satellite locations. Small groups of people having fun and talking about the event around town are, to me, much better than having it in a larger theater.

Even discussions like this, while I think this is all valid and good, are generally among people who know each other. I hope you all get a chance to talk with 10 people you never met tomorrow night. Or get involved and help drive the way Ignite is going. We're trying some new things this time due to new input on the team, and even newer things for Ignite 7. I'm very curious to see where things go from here.