11 Comments
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Tema Frank's avatar

And you haven't even coated your time in there. But it is rare for any new venture to make a profit in the first year. Good luck with year 2!

Colin Mustful's avatar

For sure! I definitely put a lot of time into it.

Lausanne Davis Carpenter's avatar

Is there a way to see the list of talks from the conference? I don't see that on the website. If I've missed that page, maybe post a link to it. That would help folks like me who missed the conference decide on the replays. Learning curves are hard, but often worth it in the longrun. Courage!

Colin Mustful's avatar

Good idea! I’ve just created one…

I can’t seem to post a link in this comments, so will tag you in a Note.

Colin Mustful's avatar

Good idea! I’ve just created one…

I can’t seem to post a link in this comments, so will tag you in a Note.

Stephen Bondar's avatar

I was not able to attend in any way, so I can't claim that I helped support the conference.

But I am sure you will continue on with this successfully, and I am very happy for you.

I am sure a lot of people will offer the same suggestions, but I'll say these things anyway.

Maybe a worthwhile expense for the next one would be a professional event planner, who could probably use the data you have gathered from the first one to help streamline some things. Also, since HTF is a business, I bet a really good accountant could get almost the entire loss written off against your profits from this year, or amortize it to be written off against profits yet to come. (If I am not mistaken, here in Canada, you can stretch it out over seven years.)

And you still may get future profits coming in. Myself, I don't know about $79.00 USD access to everything, and there are probably others in the same spot.

But what about something like $7.99 for access to a specific session, or $19.99 for a bundle of 3 (subscriber's choice) sessions? You might even make more money that way, because for a lot of people that would look a lot more affordable, and they would be able to pick the sessions they absolutely know would be of interest to them. Like I'd probably look at stuff having to do with the distant, rather than the more recent past.

Colin Mustful's avatar

Thanks, Stephen.

Jacqueline Van Hoewyk's avatar

This is enlightening. Thanks for sharing. The experience you provided for everyone involved was amazing 🤩 Thank you!!!🙏 I know it will only grow

Colin Mustful's avatar

Thanks, Jacqueline. Thank you for being a part of it.

N.J. (Nancy) Mastro's avatar

Yes, it was costly, but there are a couple ways to think about this beyond dollars and cents. Think of those extra costs as valuable advertising. You had to prove your organization's ability to pull off a conference, and you did so splendly. Thus you bought interest for next time.

FYI - here are some costs to the attendee - mine.

Registration and extra tours: $565

Flight: $688

Airport parking: $80

Hotel: $685

Transport to and from the conference site: $114

Meals beyond the conference: $100 (est.)

That's a total of $2,232. I'm sure I'm missing something. It was well worth it. Without the meals being included in the registration, the meals and tranport costs would no doubt be much higher, plus if I had paid for other extras.

Colin Mustful's avatar

Yes, a big investment for all involved. But definitely worthwhile.