I could have sworn that I looked this question up on Nanog's web page a year ago, but I couldn't find it there. The cost of the conference goes to a number of things: 1) 14 people on the Merit staff are involved in organizing the conference. I am sure that some of the monies goes to paying expenses they incur setting it up, if not to help offset their salaries for the time they spend. 2) Insurance - I am sure that merit and nanog have to cover some sort of insurance to cover damage caused by attendees of the conferences. 3) Misc expenses not covered by the host of vendors. Also, you must realize that not everyone gets hit with the $300 charge. Hosts and presenters get free admission, and students get a greatly reduced fee. As other people say, this is probably the best value for your money of anything else. You get to hear what is going on, you get to put faces to names (and voices), and you get to talk shop with others in your field without all the "business" people around saying what you can and can't say.

Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 19:48:58 -0700 (PDT) From: Paul Revere <mr_paul_revere@yahoo.com> To: nanog@merit.edu Subject: NANOG costs

We used to pay $150 or so to attend NANOG conferences. Why are we charged $300 now? Where is our $150,000+ going?

Inflation?

Are we paying for the salaries and RIPE attendance of MERIT employees, and to what tune?

Conference space is free or greatly subsidized in return for room blocks. Connectivity, terminal rooms (who uses those anyway?), operational support, and hardware are all no-cost items to MERIT.

Continental breakfast costs $8k to sponsor. Morning or afternoon break costs $6k. Lunch or dinner, $18k. Beer and Gear is $6k per vendor, and has been booked solid for the last ten NANOG conferences. That's a lot of money right there.

So what are we actually paying for, the t-shirts? Are we subsidizing other MERIT money losers?

With IT and engineering budgets shrinking, and unemployment on the rise, should MERIT be obligated to share with us a more detailed financial accounting, or is this none of our business?

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