Aral Balkan
@aral@mastodon.ar.al  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

Had my talk on Small Web accepted at but I hadn’t realised (my bad) that not only do you have to cover your own travel and accommodation but you also have to buy a ticket to speak. I’m sorry, as part of a tiny two-person not-for-profit working for the common good, I can’t afford to pay to speak at events. I’m not Deloitte. So I sadly had to withdraw my talk.

If any conferences do want to hear about the Small Web and are willing to support our work by paying us to speak about it, please feel free to get in touch:

small-tech.org/contact-us/
Ebauche
@ebauche@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago
@aral that seems utterly bonkers to me.

Reminds me of an emerging talent competition for a music festival in Iceland. Pay a small fee, submit sample song and a load of info, panel of judges selects the winners who all play on the emerging talent stage at the festival. What's not to like. Luckily I read the small print which mentioned that winners have to pay all travel, accommodation and food/drink expenses.

"Here's some exposure"*

*exposure cannot be exchanged for money, goods or services
@BjornW@mastodon.social
@BjornW@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago
@aral understandable.

Just want to make sure that you're aware of this option & as a signal towards @why2025camp that in these times prices like this prevent people from attending & contributing.

I know the organizers try to keep expenses low. Sadly organizing anything in NL has become prohibitively expensive & requires jumping through lots of bureaucratic hoops. Cumulative inflation rose to 25% since 2020. Had my doubts on attending due to ticket prices & additional costs as well.
Aral Balkan
@aral@mastodon.ar.al  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@BjornW @why2025camp When we organised the Indie Tech Summit¹ – an international conference with zero sponsors that we funded entirely through ticket sales – we made sure our priority was that we could break even while at the very least paying speakers travel and accommodation. We treated them like royalty, even picking them up from the airport. It’s really about priorities. No one ever says they’re not going to pay the venue or the catering staff, or, worse, that they’re going to ask the catering staff and the venue to pay them. But for some reason with speakers – especially those who do not work in Big Tech or the mainstream – it’s apparently fine. I don’t enjoy living under capitalism but if we’re going to move to a post-capitalist future, it’s not going to happen by making those of us working on the alternatives that respect and protect human rights and democracy poorer for the privilege of attempting to inform people about their existence.

¹ ind.ie/archive/summit/ (PS. To view the recordings, please see vimeo.com/showcase/3218104)
@BjornW@mastodon.social
@BjornW@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago
@aral Thanks for sharing.

Traditionally the concept of Dutch hacker camps was: everyone is a volunteer & everybody has to contribute to the camp incl buying a ticket. In that sense it was different from conferences. My first one in 1997 even had a communal kitchen, dinner was included & afair everyone helped out incl speakers. It was a community effort.

This spirit is still alive @why2025camp, but expectations, people, prices & the world has changed. Maybe the camps should adjust to this?

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