it costs $525 to attend this conference.

http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Fees.aspx?e=930beed4-41bb-4f71-bb2b-08b3a2762f36

It is rather cheap, I agree.

For those people on another cloud, there is the Structure 2010 conference for two days in San Francisco starting June 23.

The super saver ticket was US$895. But now they are $995. If you are looking for something less expensive, you can get a special if you buy 5 tickets for the office at $795 each.

http://structure2010-site.eventbrite.com

Just imagine the deal we get if we are actually from this community. No travel costs, no accommodation cost. More people should be taking advantage of that deal.

And the Mayor probably gets in free. :-)

Don't forget these tickets are tax deductable. So who pays? Conferences are an industry onto themselves.

Who pays .... ah yes, the most important question to many on this news blog.

Trying to be consistent in my version of who pays, it is primarily the buyer of the products of the bioenergy industry that pays. Networking, knowledge transfer, be it ever so humble, is a cost of doing business just as manufacturing, marketing, transportation, feedstock procurement, etc. are. So, it is the end user of the product. In the case of the UNBC, they use the product and it is paid for by the province and the feds as well as student fees. In the case of products sold to Sweden, etc. as well as attendees from other countries, it is the taxpayers of those countries and cities that use the product unless they produce to sell to us.

I know, it is a complex world. Too bad the money flow cannot be monitored as well as money that flows through drug trafficers' hands and leaves traces of some of the drugs on them. :-)
---------------------------

Tax deductible? In the sense that the cost is a charge against gross income of a company and tax is paid on net income after all expenses such as attending conferences, entertaining clients with a nice dinner out, sponsoring golf tournaments, paying for billboard and newspaper advertising, etc. are deducted. But neither business nor Revenue Canada would look upon it in that fashion. The organization holding the conference is not a charitable organization, thus this is not tax deductible in that sense.

COnferences most definitely are an industry onto themselves. Look at the billion dollar new centre built in Vancouver and the construction of several high end hotels around it.

In the days of computerization, people are discovering more and more that face to face get togethers is really how it works. And, of course, we have not become a paperless society, but quite the reverse. So far at least. Perhaps someday we will reduce the amount of paper we use and feel much more comfortable with viewing things on screens.