Volunteering at conferences is a little secret I thought I had kept to myself ;-)
When I was studying at Berkeley I managed to volunteer at four conferences -- GigaOm's NewTeeVee, QCon SF, Widget Summit and one other that I forget -- all inside of 4 months! Some of the gigs I got through the business school where I was studying (conferences often call for student helpers, and business school students often have a lot of spare time *cough*), but others I just contacted cold and asked if I could help out. I did say I was a student at the time, which probably helps wear down people's defences, but other conferences are very upfront about it and let's face it they save a lot of money compared to employing all those people. At QCon all I had to do was man one of the rooms one day, count the people who attended, and make sure that people put their red/yellow/green cards in a basket to tell us whether they liked the speaker... in return for that I got to attend a conference for free which I had paid $1500 (plus flights/accomm) to see the previous year! And I got to choose which room to manage, which meant I got to see the talks I would have gone to see anyway :-) So whenever you're a bit broke and you really want to see a conference, see if you can volunteer... but of course when you can afford it you should pay, to keep the system going for everyone else. Brendan. On 29 May 2011 16:29, Michael Giles <m...@roboinvest.com> wrote: > G'day Matt, > > Attending as a volunteer gets you into the full conference 100% free - > in fact some lucky buggers got their volunteering out of the way on > Sunday where others signed up for 2 or 3 days worth of volunteering > (stupid). One important thing to remember is that if you volunteer > and don't show up you get black listed and you can never volunteer > again - they take it seriously. > > TCD Beijing would be pretty awesome. > > I unfortunately was doing my volunteering when the Airbnb and Paul > Graham office hours were on so i didnt really get many notes. > > Cheers > > Mike > > On May 29, 1:43 am, Matthew Ho <matt.h...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Nice summary Mike. >> >> I thought the Office Hours with Paul Graham was absolutely brilliant - >> thanks Geoff for posting that. >> >> The Airbnb & Uber video was good too (and not because I work at >> Airbnb). Two examples of companies with disruptive business models, >> that are creating new marketplaces. >> >> I am thinking of going to TC Disrupt Beijing - its the first time its >> held outside the US. Its the closest one to Australia. I get to >> practice my Mandarin as well! >> >> The fact that you went as a volunteer has spiked my interest. How much >> is it if you go as a volunteer - I presume its a reduced rate? >> >> Cheers, >> >> Matt >> Airbnb -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e1303508d?hl=en%3Fhl%3Den No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
