In reply to Chris Christoff (chriscct7).

You are twisting what I said.

So I am going to correct you...

If organizers are complaining about location fee/rental being too high the go find another one.

Nowhere does it say a WordCamp has to be held at a university, hotel, at LAX runway. You can hold it in your backyard if you have a VERY BIG backyard.

I live in Toronto and there are enough locations. Vancouver, Montreal, NYC, LAX and Miami same for them.

Maybe don't hold them in the downtown area? Most north american downtown areas tend to have higher fees.

WCTO on 2008 and I think 2009 were held in east end of Toronto, in the area called Scarborough. This year it is going to be held in the southwest part of Toronto, 20-25 minutes from downtown (via car).

Does it say anywhere that you have to include lunch? If you want to provide it, don't complain about higher costs.

First two WCTOs were at Centennial College, next one was at a dining hall (Brendan's turn when he did it).

Rest were in at Ryerson? Both Ryerson/Centennial have cafeterias. Within 5 minute walk in any direction from Ryerson there were at least 30 restaurants.

Humber College's Lakeshore campus has a cafeteria, if you want 1 1/2 minute north to Lakeshore boulevard and go any direction within 8 minutes you will find restaurants.

If you have high costs, then get more sponsors. 1 person giving $5,000 or 2 people giving $2,500 each or 5 people giving $1,000 each, get the idea?

Was WCSF's venue really the only one? I seriously don't find it acceptable to pay $30,000 for a long weekend of conference days.

Most attendees at WordCamps are local. So lodging costs is not real argument of anything.

I find that I get BETTER value for WCTO and that Andy, Brent and rest have done and excellent job over the years than other conferences that I pay $1,000 for it. (company paid it).

I NEVER ONCE SAID FREE. Not a single occurance of FREE is found in my original comment.

Most WordCamps, including WCTO, have different levels of sponsorship.

WCTO 2014 has: $75, $200, $500, $1,000 & $5,000

This question is for all WordCamp organizers: Why not have, in addition to whatever sponsorships you might have, VENUE SPONSOR, COFFEE SPONSOR, etc...

What if WCTO uses my $5,000 and gets Tim Hortons (a Canadian's favourite coffee), I am employed by a company that is in the middle of a lawsuit with Tim Hortons. If I gave my $5,000 and WCTO organizers got Tim Hortons coffee, I would not only get crucified, I would get fired.

An option would be to have $35 (attendance only), $45 (includes meals).

PLEASE NOTE: I have been volunteering for WCTO since before the current organizers, I think since 2008. I think WCTO organizers last year (and this year) did/are doing a great job.