[TYPES] Why are ACM conference registrations so expensive now?

[Fabian Muehlboeck]

As an additional data point, student registrations have also become much more expensive, both on their own and in relation to non-student registrations. Looking at William's data, in 2015, a student early registration for three days of POPL was $365, while members paid $665, and non-members paid $755, i.e. students paid roughly half (54% / 48%) of those amounts. In contrast, this year, a student registration is 69% of an ACM member non-student registration, and 59% of a non-member non-student registration.
On top of that, my own student registration for POPL 2014 was $350, which compared November 2013-November 2023 in the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation calculator turns into $461.10 today, but the actual fee is around $650 (or $541 if you subtract VAT). Plus, San Diego had a fancy conference banquet on an Aircraft Carrier (it is my impression that POPL24 will not have a banquet). 

-----Original Message-----
From: Types-list <types-list-bounces at LISTS.SEAS.UPENN.EDU> On Behalf Of William J. Bowman
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2023 09:05
To: Jonathan Aldrich <jonathan.aldrich at cs.cmu.edu>
Cc: Types list <types-list at lists.seas.upenn.edu>
Subject: Re: [TYPES] Why are ACM conference registrations so expensive now?

[ The Types Forum, http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]

Out of interest, I tried to find old POPL registration data, which I largely failed at, and put them into a similar spreadsheet:

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cUpUvcv-68ZABAaP47zTgJaJdKHEKWc2fYyPf4nTpzM/edit?usp=sharing__;!!IBzWLUs!SEIX96ByXtOR4H4kwm87Pr5Jx0UQzwd22tbw62Hk4i9KJeadXdRq7ca9q8CHxErgFiCYtrot3WUXYXVnp6AZZ6hGL_uVBw$ 

Jonathan, your calculation seems to leave out VAT, which is a nontrivial cost this year.

Still, with the limited data, this year's POPL is far more expensive than some past POPLs, adjusted for inflation.
Last year's POPL appears to be in line with inflation, but not this year's.

--
William J. Bowman

On Wed, Dec 13, 2023 at 12:30:35PM -0500, Jonathan Aldrich wrote:
> [ The Types Forum, 
> http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]
> 
> It's worth comparing numbers over time, and adjusting for inflation.  
> I haven't done this for POPL, but I did do it recently for SPLASH 
> (which is arguably comparable in size and complexity).  Here are the 
> numbers on a
> spreadsheet:
> 
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VF
> 2APYEXb3f_jKhItq9aXq-tQR0OMLKJma-f0pLlQns/edit?usp=sharing__;!!IBzWLUs
> !RLSUFNj7d12QNEaAsaf7QNHF10wUs_aTeC6_42ukF1EncYFHq7xpu_9PwgU_FMkUrp0xV
> 5yzVkveZpOACi9MAZ26-hdZ_iQWNLr8K1ShFg$
> 
> Short summary: the average 6-day SPLASH registration price (ACM 
> members,
> early) was approximately constant from 2015 to 2019, at about $1410 in 
> 2023 dollars.  2020 was virtual so is not included in the spreadsheet.  
> 2021 was very low; Hridesh as GC got amazing deals because everyone 
> was coming back from Covid.  2022 was also low--it illustrates what is 
> possible if you hold conferences in universities (SPLASH was at the University of Auckland).
> But, few universities have enough space to host conferences the size 
> of SPLASH and POPL, and few are available at the right time (the 
> University of Auckland worked because it was summer break in the Southern Hemisphere).
> SPLASH 2023 was higher than the average, at $1690.
> 
> Note that inflation plays a significant role in perceptions of price 
> increases.  The nominal cost of SPLASH 2015 was $1125.  So if you look 
> at the unadjusted dollar cost difference between 2015 and 2023, more 
> than half of it is attributable to inflation.  I don't have any data 
> on whether inflation has affected conference costs (such as hotels and 
> food) more or less than other costs, but we should recognize this is a possibility.
> 
> For POPL 2024, I calculate a 6-day price of £744+456+228=£1428, or 
> about
> $1785 USD.  So it is definitely higher than the SPLASH historical 
> average, but not enormously higher, and pretty close to the recent SPLASH in Lisbon.
> 
> As Philippa says, the community has to decide whether it wants to pay 
> the cost of attractive locations, etc.; London is undeniably nice (I 
> very much wish I could come, but it's the first week of our semester 
> and I can't make it this year).  I would personally like to see costs 
> a bit closer to the historical average but I agree that making that 
> happen can be quite challenging, depending on location.  I always do 
> appreciate organizers working to keep costs as low as possible, as Philppa has!
> 
> I hope the context is helpful.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> On Wed, Dec 13, 2023 at 8:59 AM Neel Krishnaswami <nk480 at cl.cam.ac.uk>
> wrote:
> 
> > [ The Types Forum, 
> > http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list
> > ]
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I just registered for POPL, and the total cost was over 2000 USD. 
> > This seems really high, and it seems something that has gotten a lot 
> > worse over the last year or two. For example, ICFP a few months ago 
> > was 1500 USD, and POPL last year was 1375 USD.
> >
> > Does anyone know what factors have been driving up the cost of our 
> > conferences up so quickly? I'm worried we're making our events 
> > inaccessible to anyone but the best-funded researchers and institutions.
> >
> > Best,
> > Neel
> >
> >