

Ask HN: How to hand out free hacker tickets for the BoS conference? - neilgd

I run the annual Business of Software conference (http://www.businessofsoftware.org). I figure that some of the folk here would (a) benefit enormously from going but (b) can't afford to go. I'm thinking about making a handful of free tickets available, but I'd like to make sure they go to people who'll appreciate it, actually turn up, can't afford to go otherwise and who'll get something from it. Any ideas? (I'll give a free ticket to whoever has the best one).
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rubeng
I already bought my ticket so I obviously don't qualify but I'll tell you how
I turned from someone that couldn't afford it into a paying future attendee.

I decided that I'd have sponsors for a project that would get me there. I
actually had a couple of people confirm sponsorship if I decided to go this
route -- I won't mention who they were specifically but they were very helpful
in thinking it through.

The concept was: a video project of behind-the-scenes footage of BoS and
sideline interviews of many of the speakers. I'd put up a site and ask in
places like answers.onstartups.com for people to suggest questions for me to
ask the speakers and I would mention their startup while video recording the
short interviews ("So and so from X startup asks...").

I'm a bootstrapper with a day job and a relatively young product; so while I'm
cashflow positive, I'm carefully watching expenses and reinvesting it back
into the business. This is why I was making plans for this project.
Ultimately, after much back and forth (and discussing it with my wife), I
decided that if it was that important for me to go I should just take some of
my profit and reinvest it in myself by going (which is an investment in my
business). If I took on the project, what I'd gain in money I'd lose in
valuable time that I could spend working on my product.

So, basically my thought here is that people that win free tickets should earn
them in some way that gives back value to the entrepreneurs that can't afford
to make it.

~~~
gdltec
Agree with you 100%. I'll add video, photos and interviews to
<http://austintechgeeks.com> if I have a chance to go to this event. Thanks
for sharing!

~~~
rubeng
Not a problem. It would've been a fun thing to do and something I may think
about doing in the future, I just think it's a bit much for me to take on
right now considering I have a day job, currently have a product to enhance,
and will be launching a new product in a couple of weeks.

~~~
gdltec
Same here... it is not an easy task to have a day job and work in what we
believe and enjoy the most! what's the name of your startup?

~~~
rubeng
Good going; taking action while working a day job is extremely hard, so nice
job doing what most people only talk about.

My product: Bidsketch <http://www.bidsketch.com>

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rstaats
Post a simple 4 question survey to be returned by email:

1) Are you currently in active development of a software product or service?
If so, please provide a link to a dev site, screenshots, or informational
material.

2) What do you hope to acquire from attending the conference that will help
you in your new venture?

3) What current financial limitations prevent you from being a paying
attendee?

4) If chosen, would you be willing to pay a $200 deposit that you will get
back upon your arrival?

\----------------------

Question 1 will help you find the people that will be more likely to benefit
from it, since they are past the napkin sketch and dream stage and have
actually taken the initiative to start something - and will be more likely to
take the initiative to apply what they've learned to their own venture. Not to
say the dreamers won't get there - maybe they'll be ready for next year's
conference.

Question 2 will make sure the potential attendee is educated on the talks
being given/networking opportunity and has thought through how they could
benefit their venture.

Question 3 helps you rule out a potential paying attendee by making them
explain why it is they can't afford the conference on their own dime.

Question 4 will make sure the candidate has some skin in the game so they are
less likely to be a no-show and waste a valuable ticket that another candidate
would have loved to have.

This just came off the top of the head, but could obviously be refined to
achieve what you're trying to accomplish.

Thanks for providing this opportunity!

------
markee174
Why don't you do 2 things:-

1\. Run a lottery for free tickets - in order to enter you have to write a
blog post saying why you think you should go and send you the link. Allocate x
tickets. 2\. You will also have y tickets which are yours personally to
allocate to the people who you think make the best case.

Then people have 2 chances to get a ticket. They also get to publicise
themselves and Bos2010

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coffeejunk
The "easiest" way would be a page/thread/whatever where people could apply for
such a scholarship. So first of all if I wanted to be at the conference but I
could not afford it, I'd had to think about why I really want to be there and
how I'd benefit from it. Then I'd had to elaborate why I cannot afford this in
my current situation. Of corse if you do this you'd have to run through a lot
of applications. You could higher the entrance barrier a little by setting a
minimum word count, so that only people apply who would really benefit from
this.

A not to unrelated question: Do you also cover the "winners" travel, etc.
costs?

~~~
neilgd
Whoever gets the tickets will have to make their own way over there.

~~~
gdltec
I have no problem with that, the event ticket is the biggest expense, thanks
for doing this! I hope to see you at BoS 2010

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stakmur
"but I'd like to make sure they go to people who'll appreciate it, actually
turn up, can't afford to go otherwise and who'll get something from it."

You are trying to accomplish something you can't measure, except for the
"showing up" part. The ticket is only part of the costs - there's airfare,
hotel, etc, too. Keep it simple and raffle off the tickets. If it looks like
only half the winners will show up, do another raffle. Anyone who wins AND
shows up will have met most, if not all, of your criteria anyway.

~~~
gdltec
raffle off the tickets? no. Yes we are all aware of the other expenses... that
is why a lot of us cannot afford it. I can afford the flight/hotel... but
cannot pay $2K on top of that which is what the ticket costs. I agree that
showing up is only half the battle... you need to take some immediate action
on what you see and learn there as well as make any connections as possible
that could help you down the road.

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gdltec
Here's my idea... I've been trying to get to this conference for a few years
now, can't afford it. How about I get a ticket and then I'll pay it back and
when I can, I also do a write up about <http://www.businessofsoftware.org> on
my blog at <http://austintechgeeks.com> and finally I'll keep attending the
conference and supporting it on any way possible.

best r.

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ben_hall
How about ex-employees?? ;)

edit: As a more serious answer, it needs to be someone who can offer something
back to people who paid to go. People interested\ practising new ideas such as
Lean Startup, open source software etc could be valuable to the conference but
likely be able to justify the cost.

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HyprMusic
Just get them to comment on this thread... most hackers are poor from their
startups and would do anything to go to a free conference!

Or do some kind of cryptic competition. The amount of time needed to invest in
to that and work out the answer would prove that the people really want to go.

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sz
You could make use of that new YC startup that makes you record video answers
to online app questions (I forget the name). Better than a text application,
less boring, fixed time to process.

edit: ah here it is: <http://hirehive.com/>

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Pavel-Chuchuva
Show that you're working on some product. Post a link to a prototype or half-
baked website here. Explain what it is. Entries with most upvotes would win.

As for (b) I believe honestly telling that you can't afford it would be
enough.

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areks
The person must be in senior position (CEO, CTO, founder) in software company.
The company should not have profits - jet.

This way someone who need it to save his company and who cannot afford it will
get it.

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terraine-jly
How about giving one to Naval Sarda, a great guy who owns Epicomm in India? He
surely would appreciate it and would show up, even if he lives half way across
the globe.

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TarekDemiati
Ask any winner to forward you their electronic plane ticket with in 48 hours,
otherwise you might hand out free pass to people who would never turn out
anyway ...

------
pclark
get people to comment here with links to a "ask hn: review my startup" of the
applicants startup - this way (hopefully) users will upvote the most
useful/interesting/relevant review posts here, and everyone gets value (eg:
feedback) on what they're working on.

