[Inpycon] Bringing tickets to the venue

[Steve Holden]

On Jul 28, 2011, at 10:18 PM, Noufal Ibrahim wrote:

> Fair enough. It's just that you're assuming the best of people which is
> not true. 
> 
In which case we might hope to infect the cheats with a taste for honesty once they experience it. I realize that my opinions here are culturally biased (affluent America currently doesn't have that many cheats in the market for technical conferences, but I accept that India's milage may differ).

> For example, they often ask for different sized T-shirts. With a ticket,
> it's simple and clear. Also, it results in shorted queues when people
> don't have to cross check lists.
> 
With a ticket you have to check that the person is asking for the size they requested on registration. But its easier to produce 25% more shirts than needed so you don't have to worry about the exact size mix. After the conference you can either given them away to volunteers or pass them on to local/regional user groups for use as prizes.

> The US PyCon had a nice idea which was to preprint delegate badges and
> keep them there (they do it for around 1000 participants). Just hand the
> badge to the chap along with the details of the shirt etc. printed on it
> so that that there's no confusion. Swag was distributed from a different
> desk on a different day. 
> 
Oh, only chaps at this conference, then?

It *really* helps to get things organized in advance. I am copying this message to Mary Rush (via her husband Jeff, who is a PSF director). Mary has been the mainstay (overlord, tyrant, you name it: her title changes annually, often several times - she can explain) of the PyCon US registration desk since PyCon went to Texas, and will probably have useful advice if you choose to listen.

I have just been to OSCON. In order to persuade the people at the "Conference Materials" counter to hand over my conference bag (complete with magazines, sponsor inserts and the like) all I had to do was show them my name tag. With staff shift changes I could almost certainly have collected three to five bags in the course of my visits had I chosen to.

Generally it's cheaper to assume no fraud that cater to preventing what little fraud may take place. It'a also a better community ethic: if someone is so keen to go to PyCon that they will lie, steal and/or cheat to get htere, do we really want to deny them the experience?

> Also, it gives us a way of knowing who registered/paid but didnt attend.
> 
As does a pike of unclaimed badges at the registration desk.

regards
 Steve
-- 
Steve Holden
steve at holdenweb.com



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