On Oct 2, 2014, at 11:56 PM, Geoff Mulligan
<geoff(_dot_)ietf(_at_)mulligan(_dot_)com> wrote:
As someone participating in the IETF as self-funded, while I don't
necessarily like increase, the $50 increase is small compared to the cost to
fly to and stay in Hawaii (personally I could go to Minneapolis 3 times a
year). The registration is just one small part of the actual expense of
attending.
I agree. Whether funded by a big company, a small company, or your own little
one-person consultancy, the registration cost is easily dominated by three
things:
Travel cost (for me - always, but it’s most of the time for everyone)
Hotel cost (nearly always)
Hopefully, what each of us does on a regular work-week is worth more than $700.
It’s the last one that gives big companies a significant advantage. A Cisco or
a Huawei can afford to send 100 or dozens of engineers to meetings three times
a year, and can afford for them to take on roles as chairs, IAB and IAOC
members, and area directors. That costs a lot more than $700 three times a year.
Yoav