My idea was that we'd sell the tickets online initially for a lower cost (early bird) - this is to encourage people to register early. And then after a cut off date (say 10 Aug), charge slightly more. The idea is to get more people to register upfront and publicise the event.
I remember you mentioning that it won't make a different in India but if students are coming, I think the lower price might be good for them.
Spot registrations are purely for people who are in the neighbourhood and want to drop in but don't have a ticket.
What do you feel?
in India, people put off registering and paying till the last minute unless they get a substantial benefit in paying early. For a person who is capable of paying online, 100 rupees will not make a difference. He pays online for convenience. We benefit from online payment so that there are less hassles. Even then you are going to see the usual queue at the start of the conference. So it is in our interest to encourage online payment. Abroad early bird gives you substantial reduction in payment as also preference for discounted hotel booking etc. These factors do not apply here at all. So instead of early bird - which does not mean anything, we put online payment 250 and on spot payment 350.
Another point - if the system is set to be unable to register without payment. then very few will register. We have to have a system where a person can register and choose 'pay now' or 'pay later'. Since obviously we cannot say that if you do not register and pay online you cannot attend - there is a real possibility that very few will register.
+1. Valid point. We need a "register" on site and then click on "Pay" button which takes us to doattend. This way we can track delegates on our site and get payment status from doattend also. I am sure their API should support that.
doattend interface allows people to choose to pay at the venue. We don't need have to "register" on our site. I think, it is better to close the early-bird registration 10-15 days before the conference so that we can plan well for food etc. If we keep the early-bird till the last minute then people won't register till the last minute. Anand