Monday 7 November 2011

Short on money, not on ideas

I had an email yesterday which was inviting me to buy a ticket for a fantastic looking conference. It was to do with digital publishing, it had some amazing speakers and it was in England, as opposed to all of the conferences I get excited about that turn out to be on the other side of the Atlantic. In fact, I was all set up to go and buy a ticket until I saw the price; £350 for a day ticket.

Three hundred and fifty pounds? It might as well have been three hundred and fifty thousand.

It's not the first time I've gotten excited about a conference right up until the moment that I saw the price tag associated with being a part of it. Gaming conferences, museum conferences, digital conferences. You name one of my interests and I've probably found at least three conferences or training courses I'd love to attend but can't afford to.

I understand that hiring venues is expensive, not to mention paying top-class speakers. I'm sure the food is top-notch too. I just wish that having a high amount of disposable income, or a large training budget, wasn't such a pre-requisite for being able to hear the ideas of the best in the business, and being able to share your own ideas with them.

In a time of recession, I'm sure even more museum professionals are feeling as I do, and wishing it wasn't so. Is there anything that we can do about it? It feels like such a waste to think of all the students, the staff from small museums and those just unable to commit half their training budget to one conference who aren't able to contribute their thoughts and ideas to the sector.

In the meantime, if you know of any good conferences or meet-ups, networks or anything else that brings good people together, do let me know. I'm particularly interested in gaming, museum education and digital and new media, but love to hear about anything new and exciting.

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