In our first V-Blog entry, we have been giving you a general idea about W14. In the planning phase, there was a lot of controvery amongst the conference committee members when it came to determine the overall aim and the “style” of the conference.
The committee actively chose not to plan a giant ATC conference as a massive online event. While this type of event would be fun, it would generally mean that hundreds of people sit around providing ATC, something they could do perfectly from the comfort of their own homes. The social aspect of a conference would be greatly diminished. As an added problem, the provision of internet access and computer terminals for a few hundred people would be costly and potentially troublesome when it comes to actually choose a location.
In order to make this an event that ALL VATSIM members would be interested to participate in, the committee finally agreed that active ATC should not be a part of the conference. The “get together” aspect was emphasized by planning a formal dinner at a restaurant, and it was agreed that one of the main features should be panels & discussions by active members on topics that involve a common interest to both ATC and pilots.
The date was set to May 2014 to facilitate ample time for planning the conference and to allow members to sort out travel arrangements. A duration of three days, beginning Friday afternoon and ending Sunday noon was determined ideal for those who needed to travel after work on Friday and be back at their work place on Monday. Ticket cost was calculated with a lot of different scenarios, and the committee finally agreed upon the 159 EUR youre seeing today.
Speaking of ticket cost, the committee is well aware that 159 EUR is not cheap. Then again, the conference is not a cheap thing either - the site is top class, catering, dinner, transportation and so on need to be paid for as well. The committee also had a look at an earlier conference in Frankfurt (2001), which had a similar duration. The cost was at approximately 100 EUR per person without accommodation back then, so the ticket price of 159 EUR seems quite reasonable, especially when looking at the very nice setup.
For those of you interested in some more numbers:
Of the 159 EUR, approximately
- 80 EUR go towards rental of “The Stage” (grand auditorium + entire ~500 sqm 19th floor, incl electricity, WLAN etc.)
- 25 EUR go towards the Dinner
- 25 EUR go towards Catering (Drinks, Food etc. for three days)
- 6 EUR go towards transportation to the dinner location (chartered shuttle buses)
- the rest (23 EUR) go towards miscellaneous items such as printed materials, transportation of various equipment etc.
I think that is quite reasonable, especially since you get quite a lot for your ticket. During the conference, youre “all covered” - drink as much coffee or soft drinks as you like, dont worry about lunch or snacks, enjoy modern and spacious facilities and top-notch conference equipment. For any more detailed questions, feel free to drop a comment below this post or email us at help@w14.me.
See you in Vienna,
The W14 Team