The amount we are charging for the overall event comes nowhere near close to covering even a small fraction of the costs.
The amount we are charging for the party comes nowhere near close to covering even a small fraction of the costs.
The amount we are charging for the after party transportation comes nowhere near close to covering even a small fraction of the costs.
The amount we will be charging for the individual events are purely designed to keep folks from signing up, holding a spot and not showing, taking a spot from someone else. I mentioned this before - without some 'skin in the game' people will hold spots for events even if they know they probably won't attend and that's not fair to anyone. The amounts will be small and all proceeds go to GKTW. Nothing will go to Dreams or to offset costs for the events themselves.
I replied to John because this applies to the event and isn't intended to be a reply to anyone in particular.
I've been doing events for 40+ years, most recently a national convention for a leisure group in Orlando in 2017 with nearly 2,000 people attending.
I had been avoiding attending because in my own little mind, the cost was too much for me this year. I was thinking the cost for this event was somewhere between $200 and $250. When I finally checked it out and saw it was $35 I thought Oh My God.
Everything the promoter uses for and at the event has a cost to the promoter. I've rarely seen anyone have the run of the resort for rooms like "The Dis" has; there are rooms at every Disney owned resort. They are using meeting rooms and usually they come with a required food and beverage component or you pay for the meeting rooms.
As a comparison, for 2017, Disney would “give” us all the meeting space at no cost but wanted a minimum commitment of $325,000 in Food and Beverage purchases by us (not by convention attendees in Restaurants and Bars at Coronado Springs) for 7 days.
There may not be a line item on an invoice, but you are paying for it in some way. Those free meeting rooms were anything but free. Same thing for this event.
From The Dis we get the websites for free. We get all the YouTube content for free. We get all the Social Media content for free. But it all has a cost in time and money to give it to us for free. Six video cameras, six microphones, 12 stands, cables, a sound board, a video mixer, the headsets, the studio monitors, all the software to run it all, a hefty broadband internet connection, it all costs them money and it is anything but cheap. And people are complaining that they have to pay Patreon $10 a month for a few months. The Patreon fees help offset these costs.
We’re paying $35 to attend. Pandora is costing $95. That’s $130. By comparison, the annual Star Wars convention costs $200+. D23 costs a heck of a lot more. And for these add ons, meeting the Dis staff, Patreon members have first crack at getting in with them. And the profits go to Give Kids The World.
The event costs less than dinner for two. With Pandora it costs $36 for 12 months. And people are complaining? Because you may not be able to meet one of the Dis staff?
One of the draws was the ability to interact with people you/we have grown to appreciate, for their knowledge of Disney and their dedication to helping others. The money thing was never an issue for us......but it did make me sad to think I might not even get a chance to go to an event...which I may not have gotten anyway......but then that sadness dissipated......as you said "it is what it is". Also, the folks here on the boards have created a week of "Unofficial events" that will keep us more than involved. I'm truly psyched for this week at Disney World........I didn't have to make a FP for FOP!!!!
❤
