Friends of mine rented a venue for 1200+ people for a weekend in a central location in Germany for some €60k iirc. There was no catering, but we were allowed to buy food at nearby diners (with great vegan options) and bring it into the venue.
Do the practices around forcing catering companies on organizers maybe vary by countries, so that EAGs could move to nearby countries where the venues are cheaper and more chill? Maybe countries with smooth air and rail connections from (e.g.) London?
There’s also the Zuzalu model. Zuzalu itself may be an option. Or something similar closer to the UK, maybe in France, Germany, Poland, or the Czech Republic. In many cases you’ll be able to just interview the EAGx organizers in those regions to figure out what the costs and customs are around catering. That would increase the cost for travel compensations a bit but probably reduce the other costs much more.
I vaguely remember that Eunkyoung Kwon of the ICNK (at the time at least?) was able to organize a great number of tiny conferences in many countries at no extra cost. Not the right scale for EAGs, but if EAGs should get replaced with single-topic conferences at some point, maybe some should ask her for her secrets.
Friends of mine rented a venue for 1200+ people for a weekend in a central location in Germany for some €60k iirc. There was no catering, but we were allowed to buy food at nearby diners (with great vegan options) and bring it into the venue.
Do the practices around forcing catering companies on organizers maybe vary by countries, so that EAGs could move to nearby countries where the venues are cheaper and more chill? Maybe countries with smooth air and rail connections from (e.g.) London?
There’s also the Zuzalu model. Zuzalu itself may be an option. Or something similar closer to the UK, maybe in France, Germany, Poland, or the Czech Republic. In many cases you’ll be able to just interview the EAGx organizers in those regions to figure out what the costs and customs are around catering. That would increase the cost for travel compensations a bit but probably reduce the other costs much more.
I vaguely remember that Eunkyoung Kwon of the ICNK (at the time at least?) was able to organize a great number of tiny conferences in many countries at no extra cost. Not the right scale for EAGs, but if EAGs should get replaced with single-topic conferences at some point, maybe some should ask her for her secrets.