The Australian National Homebrewing Conference

[Andyd]

250 places in total, subtract 50 for the judges, 1 for best brewer, you end up 199 tickets for the rest of the country.. I hope whatever payment gatway/webserver your looking at using will be able to take the flogging it will get in the first few minutes tickets go online.

How many people have registered their interest so we can get some idea of the odds of getting a ticket?

That's why I'm holding off purchases at present. Once we get it up I'll be hammer testing it for the anticipated transaction load.

Andy

 

[Andyd]

50 Judges 25% are they all judging at the conference or is that just Autralia wide ?


Pumpy

50% of our judges are from interstate.

They'll all be judging on the thursday morning, but we don't currently know how many will take up the offer (we're not giving those tickets away, just making sure that the guys putting in the effort to judge are able to make it if they want to).

Andy

 

[Andyd]

250 places in total, subtract 50 for the judges, 1 for best brewer, you end up 199 tickets for the rest of the country.. I hope whatever payment gatway/webserver your looking at using will be able to take the flogging it will get in the first few minutes tickets go online.

How many people have registered their interest so we can get some idea of the odds of getting a ticket?

We had 240 register interest in the end, so there're still reasonable odds that those asking for tickets will get one.

Andy

 

[Andyd]

Is there a conference hotel as such? I'm looking for accommodation,preferably serviced apartment, in the area. Any recommendations?

There will be. I've asked the guys to produce an accomodation brouchure with a range of options from backpacker dorms to hotel rooms - I'll make sure we add serviced apartments (is one block I know of that is quite close).

Andy

 

[Franko]

250 places in total, subtract 50 for the judges, 1 for best brewer, you end up 199 tickets for the rest of the country.. I hope whatever payment gatway/webserver your looking at using will be able to take the flogging it will get in the first few minutes tickets go online.

How many people have registered their interest so we can get some idea of the odds of getting a ticket?

They may need to rename the conference to The Melbourne Homebrewing Conference.
It is a bit soft seeing its whole Australian Conference with those sort of numbers-but here's hoping

 

[Fatgodzilla]

They may need to rename the conference to The Melbourne Homebrewing Conference.
It is a bit soft seeing its whole Australian Conference with those sort of numbers-but here's hoping

Your words are a little harsh considering its their first time organising this thing. Most events like these start small and I'm impressed that they are not biting off more than they can chew. If next year nothing has been upgraded (venue, trade show etc) then people have the right to be critical. Or else they risk someone else in another state planning a similiar event thats bigger, brighter and has whistles attached. Sure there will be some people who will miss out this year and I could be one, but let's give these guys (all volunteers) their dues for the efforts so far and talk up this event even if you aren't going.

 

[Franko]

Dont get me wrong I highly applaud and repsect all those who are responsible for there efforts and its a great great thing for the homebrewing community, but for an Australian based conference with a International Guest lineup 250 attendees seems a little low.

just my 2c worth no harm intended

Franko

 

[Gerard_M]

Looks like fun. I just checked the dates for the Australian Beer Festival @ the Australian Hotel in the Rocks, Sydney. With a bit of luck they won't clash. I guess we will catch up for a beer at one or the other or maybe both eh Frank! If you don't get a start in Melb, just turn right & head down to Warrnambool, we might be open by then!
Cheers
Gerard

 

[Andyd]

Dont get me wrong I highly applaud and repsect all those who are responsible for there efforts and its a great great thing for the homebrewing community, but for an Australian based conference with a International Guest lineup 250 attendees seems a little low.

just my 2c worth no harm intended

Franko

Fair comments Franko,

For what it's worth, I'm keen to see the event grow. As Fatgodzilla pointed out, we could have set up a venue expectign 1000 to come, but the risk of running such an event when (a) you don't know how many people would be willing to travel, and (B) you don't know how much they would pay to be there, and © you don't know how well sponsors will react to the event, is a really risky situation.

To shed some light on it, if we only have 120 people at the conference this year, the committee (or at least the Directors) will all be significantly out of pocket. We've set it up so that the cost is as low as we can without losing money, and in the best case we've got money in the bank to help run next year's event.

So if we had chosen to run a 500 head event and only had 250 people show, the costs to the organising comittee would have been unbearabe, and noone would have set up the event...

So we're really sorry if anyone does miss out - hopefully not too many. If there are a lot who miss out you can be assured that we'll be able to set up a bigger event next year, given better knowledge of who will come, and who will support it (in tems of sponsorships).

I hope that helps.



Andy

 

[Andyd]

Looks like fun. I just checked the dates for the Australian Beer Festival @ the Australian Hotel in the Rocks, Sydney. With a bit of luck they won't clash. I guess we will catch up for a beer at one or the other or maybe both eh Frank! If you don't get a start in Melb, just turn right & head down to Warrnambool, we might be open by then!
Cheers
Gerard

They're running on October 20, so no clash (as long as you can recover in time )

We attempted to make sure nothing clashed - hopefully we succeeded ...

Andy

 

[Ross]

So if we had chosen to run a 500 head event and only had 250 people show, the costs to the organising comittee would have been unbearabe, and noone would have set up the event...

Andy

Hi Andy,

I guess there's always the chance that the event won't be fully subscribed, though I doubt it very much. Out of interest, if you do get way over subscribred have you got the abillity to switch to a larger conference hall, or to run extra sessions? Or is the 250 (less than 200 available) definately it?

Cheers Ross

 

[Gerard_M]

They're running on October 20, so no clash (as long as you can recover in time )

We attempted to make sure nothing clashed - hopefully we succeeded ...

Andy

Andy
Oct 20th is a Monday? I was referring to the festival they hold after their little beer comp, which is usually the following weekend.
Cheers
Gerard

 

[Andyd]

Andy
Oct 20th is a Monday? I was referring to the festival they hold after their little beer comp, which is usually the following weekend.
Cheers
Gerard

Ah - I wasn't aware of that - that will clash... C'est la vie I guess...

 

[Andyd]

Hi Andy,

I guess there's always the chance that the event won't be fully subscribed, though I doubt it very much. Out of interest, if you do get way over subscribred have you got the abillity to switch to a larger conference hall, or to run extra sessions? Or is the 250 (less than 200 available) definately it?

Cheers Ross

A good suggestion Ross. We have raised this as a possibility, but not given it any legs at the moment.

If we get enough confirmed bookings in the first week we could look at it... it comes down to availability of venue and costs at the end of the day.

I guess my initial feeling is that if we were going to do that I'd be looking for people to put their money down up front before we go hunting for an alternative venue. I'm comfortable with th levelof risk we're running with for now, but not really that keen to make any commitments without the punters committing.

Let's wait and see what happens when we open up sales and take it from there.

Andy

 

[BrissyBrew]

50% of our judges are from interstate.

They'll all be judging on the thursday morning, but we don't currently know how many will take up the offer (we're not giving those tickets away, just making sure that the guys putting in the effort to judge are able to make it if they want to).

Andy

No doubt being a true Australian National Conference, future years will be rotated between other state capitals?

 

[Andyd]

No doubt being a true Australian National Conference, future years will be rotated between other state capitals?

We've discussed this briefly within the committee. We'll be picking up the discussion after this one has bee successful

Until then we're concentrating on getting this year's up and running.

Andy

 

[joecast]

If we get enough confirmed bookings in the first week we could look at it... it comes down to availability of venue and costs at the end of the day.

im starting to get the feeling, at least from the interest here, that you'll be sold out in the first few days. (but i could be wrong. it may take a week or two).

 

[Aaron]

Has any consideration been given to recording the lectures etc? Would be nice to be able to download audio and or video of the sessions after the conference. If not for everybody at least for attendees. I will be taking my own notes but these kind of things when provided by a conference can be invaluable.

You could do something like making them available to attendees straight away then dribble them out via a monthly podcast to the population at large. Will give them a taste of what they missed and be good marketing for the next event.

 

[troydo]

solid plan!

 

[Chad]

Any chance of being able to pay for the Friday night dinner by itself?

My other half will be out shopping all day while I'm at the conference, but I would like her to be able to come for dinner. You have it for the Saturday, so how about the Friday as well?