While the event was really successful in my mind (the speakers were great, the staff at the Fairmont were helpful, and everyone I talked to felt that they got good value from the event), in retrospect I might have organized something a bit more local. The costs associated with the event kept ballooning over time, and it was extremely stressful near the end when we were operating the event in the red, especially since I was basically bankrolling the event myself. We were forced to raise ticket prices at the end higher than I had wanted, simply to recoup some of the costs, and also reached out to a few of our sponsors, several of which helped shore up the difference. Initially tickets started at $35 (we had assumed most of the costs of the event could be handled with sponsorships), but eventually went up to around $75 as the deficit grew (since sponsorship ended up being low).

We had originally budgeted for only two drinks per person at the social, and assumed only about 75% of the people would come. I’d guess only about 40% of the people showed up, and of them, only about half were serious about drinking. That combination basically made it so we could open the bar up, which we were happy to do. Ultimately we had about $1,000 put aside for the social, but only spent around $800 or so.

In the end, I think we ended up about $100 short with the event, which was no big deal, especially considering we were about $2,000 short about 10 days before.

Here’s a quick run down of the associated costs with the event:

• 120 person conference room – $840
• Internet access during the event – $210 (the venue actually wanted $15/head, but I managed to convince them to simply give us an internet drop, and mostly Dale took care of the wireless at the event)
• Insurance – $210
• WordCamp Whistler Toques – $910
• Social at the Longhorn Saloon – $800
• Rooms + Travel – $620
• Catered lunch – $2,506
• Audio/visual/power for the event – $1,191
• Coffee – $1,240

The grand total for the event was close to $9,000. In terms of revenue, we received $4,150 in sponsorship, and $4,478 in ticket sales. As you can see, coffee and food took up a sizable portion of the budget, something I tried very hard to reduce with the venue.

So if you’re organizing a WordCamp in a prime location such as Whistler, this might be a fairly good guide for how it works under the hood. A simple way to reduce costs is to ask everyone to be responsible for their own drinks and lunch, as they amounted to nearly 50% of the cost.

First, I want to point out the logistics of an event like this. Organizing WordCamp Whistler was literally two months of solid work. A few days prior to the event I was fielding well over 100 emails a day trying to keep the boat afloat, and pull everything together so that the conference would be successful. There was no money pit under WordCamp Whistler — it was bankrolled by my own personal savings account. Had the conference run in the red, I would have been paying for it myself.

The cost of WordCamp Whistler (and I’ll post an official budget once I’m done paying it all off) was around $9,000. That includes food for everyone, drinks at the social, audio/visual equipment rental, toques for all the attendees, several coffee breaks, and the rental of the venue space itself. I was also contractually obligated to fill ten rooms in the Fairmont, once again with financial penalty if people hadn’t booked.

We started the ticket price at around $35, which was about $55 below our cost, simply because we wanted the conference to appeal to everyone in the true spirit of WordPress. That obviously meant that the remaining $5,000 needed to come from somewhere else, in this case, sponsorship. If you’ve never tried raising $5,000, especially in the current economy, I suggest you try it out, because it’s extremely difficult.

A few weeks prior to the event, the BC Liberal Party asked if they could be a sponsor of WordCamp Whistler. Before saying yes, I talked it over with the other organizers, and even the keynote speaker, Lorelle VanFossen. I asked the BC Liberal Party why they wanted to be involved, and they said they simply wanted to show their support for the event and the social media scene in British Columbia. We collectively decided that to be fair, we would email the other political parties in British Columbia and offer them similar sponsorship opportunities. At the end of the day, the BC Liberal Party was a great sponsor, and there was no political presence the day of the event. Their only contribution was the verbiage I posted on the main blog, where they embraced social media and were happy the conference was taken place. Contrast that to some of the web companies I’ve seen sponsor these events (one of which even scattered their own swag out at WordCamp Whistler, even though they were not an official sponsor of the event), and it was a fair more attractive and cooperative sponsorship package.

While I respect people who don’t want to see politics intermingled with web conferences, I personally don’t really see the distinction between politics and some of the corporate sponsors these conferences take on. I’ve seen a lot of shady businesses be sponsors of local web events, and yet everyone seems content to attend and consume the free beers that goes along with the sponsorship. Nobody really voices a concern when these companies are given elevator pitches, or when they walk around introducing themselves and handing out cards.

So I am actually curious why so many people object to political sponsorship of these events. I personally would love to see every major party in our province get behind social media, especially with the Olympics coming and some of the grassroots initiatives taken place with regards to social media for the event. I have to ask, are people upset that the BC Liberal Party is showing support for social media, or that their own political parties are not? Because I think it’s a valid question.

I definitely respect people’s opinions on the matter, and would not think less of anyone who wouldn’t attend an event because of a particular corporate or political sponsor. That being said, the web is really all about bringing people together, and I don’t see how that can happen if certain segments of our society are alienated from these events, either as attendees or sponsors. Ultimately, it’s up to the organizers to accept or reject sponsorship, and up to the attendees to either vote with their wallet or against. But as we are moving into a new era of politics intermingled with social media (and if you question that statement, take a look south of the border at what Obama is doing with social media and his presidency), I would urge people to move forward with an open mind. If political parties are genuinely interested in social media and supporting these conferences, then I personally have no problem with that, and welcome their involvement.

This is my sixth last day of work, and then I’m done. I haven’t even begun to think about packing yet, and probably won’t get a chance to until late next week. WordCamp Whistler is trucking along at a decent pace, and hopefully everyone is coming up. There is only one day left of early bird tickets for WordCamp Whistler, so make sure you grab your tickets today.

There are still a few sponsorship spots open, so if you’re looking for some extra exposure for your company, and to be a part of the first WordCamp in Whistler, then please visit our sponsorship page for more information.

Also, we have a really great group rate at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, so if you’re interested in booking, please use this link. Many people have booked both Friday and Saturday nights, so there should be lots to do that weekend and lots of great people to hang out with.

We’re announcing the last few speakers today and tomorrow, and then we’ll start final preparations for the event. We already have a pretty awesome line-up, and will be adding a few more talks today regarding using WordPress as a CMS, and an SEO power talk.

So, now is the time to act, before it’s too late! Hope to see you all up on the hill!

Also, we’ve just received our first look at the WordCamp Whistler toques! Check ‘em out. Everyone who attends will get one.

Stay tuned in the next week or so for some official announcements. As of now, the date is still set for January 24th, 2009 up in Whistler, BC, Canada. We’ll probably schedule the event to start around 10am or so, which will allow people to commute up from Vancouver that morning. We’re hoping to invite some well known speakers to the event to share their knowledge about blogging and WordPress.

Right now we’re targeting somewhere between 50 and 100 people for the event, so drop a comment or sign up on the wiki if you’re interested. There’s also a Facebook event that you can sign up to. As of today, there are around 31 confirmed attendees, with around 44 maybes.

I emailed a hotel already tonight at the heart of the village to see what kind of group rates we could get in December or January. I think it would be awesome to go up for a weekend, hold a WordCamp during the day, and do afternoon/night skiing in the off time, or on the second day.

Rebecca and I helped organize the last WordCamp a few weeks ago, and it was a ton of fun. Given that it was a great experience and everyone learned a lot, I’m definitely interested in helping get this event off of the ground. What better way to talk about WordCamp then up at North America’s number one ski result, surrounded by awesome people, great scenery, and of course, a bunch of Canadian beer.

I really need to get some numbers to give a hotel for some rates, so please drop a comment if you’re interested in heading up for a weekend. Also, if you’d be interested in talking about something, drop me a comment as well. Any help getting the word out for this event in the planning stage (i.e. right now) would be great.

Updates:

• Whistler official opens on November 27, 2008. So I’m thinking January might be a good time.
• I added a wiki page WordCamp Whistler. If you want to edit it, the password is “c4mp”. Please add yourself to the list if you think you might attend.
• There’s also a Facebook event for the wiki-challenged people out there. check it out here.
• The RSS feed for this event is here. Feel free to subscribe to it to keep up with the updates.