More on Conference Registration Rates

ELUNA receives feedback each year about rising registration costs.   Our goal each year is for the conference to be self-sufficient in funding, meaning that the ELUNA Organization does not make income from the event registration and sponsorship fees.   This is a bit of a balancing act, and we do as much as possible to keep costs low each year without negatively impacting the conference experience.

However, the rising costs of Food & Beverages and Audio Visual Services results in a huge challenge in keeping registration rates low.  Food & Beverage (not counting the opening reception) account for 52% of our 2025 conference budget.  Audio Visual Services/Room Fees account for an additional 19%.

Our 2025 hotel contract is the first contract negotiated after the pandemic, and F&B rates post-pandemic are much higher than ever before.   You have likely seen this impact your own budget, as food prices have risen all around.  Instead of the typical 5-10 inflation rate per year we saw prior to the pandemic, we have a 28% increase in food and beverage costs this year.

You may ask yourself, why then doesn’t ELUNA cut breakfast, lunch, and break service to keep costs down?  There are three reasons for this.  The first financial reason is that we negotiate free meeting room space offset by our food and beverage minimums.  We would rather get more bang for our buying power than paying just for real estate.  The second is because we believe (and we see attendee feedback that agrees) the hallmark of our conference is the networking between attendees.  If we did not provide these communal meals, attendees would have to eat at the hotel outlets (at similar prices to that of the conference) or leave the property.  Finally, the food and beverage commitment allows us to negotiate a very low guestroom rate for the hotel itself.

Before adjusting our prices this year, we did an environmental scan of similar conferences for software users.   In comparison, we feel that we are lower or in line with the total cost of attendance for similar technology conferences.  We hope that you agree that the value for the dollar for the ELUNA Conference remains and that you will continue to attend.