In the last few weeks, I have developed a few new presentations, and prepared and submitted proposals to speak at more than a half-dozen A/E/C industry conferences in 2013, ranging from the AIA and SDA national conferences to a number of SMPS regional conferences. A few of these conferences actually pay their speakers a fee, rather than just giving them a free conference registration, so I had to project my expenses -- airfare, ground transportation, airport parking, hotels, etc. -- for inclusion in the speaker proposal.
As I sent off the last proposal, I was reminded of the many conferences I've attended where the airfare quoted by the "approved conference airline" or the "approved conference travel agent" could be improved upon significantly at Expedia, Travelocity or Orbitz. Or where you could go online to Hotels.com or the hotel's own website and find a cheaper room rate at the conference hotel than the "official conference rate."
This brought me up short. I thought to myself, "aren't these organizations trying to give us the best possible prices in order to encourage our attendance at conferences?"
Apparently not!
The conference sponsor, of course, needs its staff members in attendance to run the registration tables, introduce the session speakers, remind people to fill out speaker evaluation forms, hand out certificates for continuing education units, answer questions, give directions, etc. So here's what I think is happening: I think that, in calculating conference airfares and hotel room rates, the airlines and hotels are taking into consideration the number of free plane tickets and/or rooms they will have to provide to the conference sponsor.
And the sponsor organizations don't want to have to pay for all those plane tickets and hotel rooms. So WE subsidize them through "official conference airfares" and "official conference room rates" that are higher than what we could find on our own.
I have more than once gone to Hotels.com and found a room in the conference hotel for the night(s) I wanted at $20-40 per night less than the conference rate. I have found airfares that were 10-15% lower than those quoted by the official conference airline or the official travel agent, with greater schedule flexibility than the official sources were offering.
Don't get me wrong -- using the official resources for travel arrangements definitely has an upside -- measured in convenience. But the downside is that you pay more for that convenience. Just like you pay more for most of the products you buy in convenience stores than you do at the supermarket. We all recognize that as the cost of convenience.
However, if you like to take the time, look for yourself, make your own arrangements and save some money, the convenient way is not always the best.
"Gilded Lily"
(Austin downtown art-cow collection)