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

[Peter Thiemann]

I would like to join Jeff in stressing that the majority of our organizers are volunteers 
who dedicate a significant of their time to serve the community because they believe
in the value of the conference. We should indeed thank them dearly.
They have the difficult task of juggling several conflicting objectives
which were are mentioned in this thread: affordable prices, well-connected location,
nice venue, acceptable food options, remote participation, managing diversity, and so on.
The list of tasks and demands gets longer every year with the result that there may be no 
globally optimal solution. 


Peter Thiemann
POPL SC chair


> On 14. Dec 2023, at 19:42, Jeff Foster <jeffrey.foster at tufts.edu> wrote:
> 
> [ The Types Forum, http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]
> 
> Thanks, everyone, for raising this concern and for the good discussion—lots
> of good points have been brought up.
> 
> I think our conference organizers have been doing an exceptional job, and
> I’m very grateful to them for all their hard work. So let me say a huge
> thank you to Philippa and all the other organizers of SIGPLAN events!
> 
> Based on what I’ve seen, I think we are catching up to (and hopefully now
> have caught up to) current costs. SIGPLAN had a couple of years of virtual
> conferences due to covid. During that time, costs for in-person events were
> still climbing—but we didn’t see it because everything was virtual. When we
> started returning to in-person events, registration fees picked up where
> they had left off before covid. Financially, that turned out to be
> unsustainable—which was fine in the short term but not in the long term.
> And then inflation began ramping up rapidly. And then financial constraints
> in tech cut back on companies’ sponsorships. All of this led to rapid
> changes in a short amount of time.
> 
> I want to add that overall inflation isn’t a great match for conferences.
> The largest single cost at our conferences is food and beverage, and those
> prices have been increasing very fast. This puts organizers in a tough
> spot. On the one hand, cutting back on meals is the best way to save money.
> On the other hand, like the “hallway track” that Adam mentioned, there’s a
> huge benefit to the community from having everyone be together for
> meals—the scientific discourse that happens, the networking effects, and
> the community-building effects are enormous.
> 
> Another comment is about conference location, which has also been mentioned
> and is another tradeoff. Having conferences in cheaper locations is another
> way to save money. On the other hand, in my experience, attendance goes up
> at conferences in major cities such as London compared to less popular, and
> therefore cheaper, locations. So that’s another tradeoff with no optimal
> solution. We tend to vary conference locations over time to try to hit a
> good average.
> 
> I’ll bring the question of conference registration fees up for discussion
> at the next SIGPLAN EC meeting. I don’t think there’s an easy answer, but
> I’m hopeful that, with inflation moderating (e.g., the US Federal Research
> just announced they’re likely to cut rates three times next year, and
> inflation is down in the EU as well compared to last year), the increase in
> registration fees will slow down. If you have any feedback on this that
> you’d like me to bring to the EC, please send me an email.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jeff Foster
> SIGPLAN Chair
> 
> On Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 1:12 PM Sam Lindley <Sam.Lindley at ed.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
>> [ The Types Forum, http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list
>> ]
>> 
>> On 14/12/2023 11:52, Gabriel Scherer wrote:
>> [..]
>>> I think that we could do the following, from the easiest to the
>>> requires-more-work:
>> [..]
>>> 3. Ensure that it is easy to publish at PACMPL without presenting at the
>>> conference. (Then one only has to keep publication costs in check.)
>> 
>> This is not only easy now, but a condition for a conference being allowed
>> to
>> affiliate with PACMPL. Because PACMPL is a journal, if a paper is accepted
>> at
>> any PACMPL venue then the authors are not required to attend or present at
>> all.
>> 
>> This option is often not well advertised in advance, which I guess is
>> largely
>> because much of the community (including me, until recently!) is unaware
>> of it.
>> In the interests of transparency and inclusion, I think we should do a
>> better
>> job of making all potential authors aware of this option before they
>> submit.
>> 
>> Sam
>> 
>> 
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