I think you might be missing something more obvious here: tech has a huge amount of slack when it comes to money. If I were running a tech event of similar size to what you described, I wouldn’t bother charging, because it would be a waste of my time. When you make half a million dollars a year, funding something like that yourself basically comes out of your fun budget; you don’t really even think twice about it.
Yoga and new age groups though? Not nearly as flush with cash.
This is a fair point but I think not the whole story. The events that I’m used to (not just LW and related meetups, but also other things that happen to attract a similar STEM-heavy crowd) are generally held in cafes/bars/parks where nobody has to pay anything to put on the event, so it seems like financial slack isn’t a factor in whether those events happen or not.
Could it be an issue of organizers’ free time? I don’t think it’s particularly time-consuming to run a meetup, especially if you’re not dealing with money and accounting, though I could be wrong.
We might also consider the nature of the activity. One can’t very well meditate in a bar, but parks are still an option, albeit less comfortable than a yoga studio. But isn’t it worth accepting the discomfort for the sake of bringing in more people? Depends on what you’re trying to do, I guess.
I think you might be missing something more obvious here: tech has a huge amount of slack when it comes to money. If I were running a tech event of similar size to what you described, I wouldn’t bother charging, because it would be a waste of my time. When you make half a million dollars a year, funding something like that yourself basically comes out of your fun budget; you don’t really even think twice about it.
Yoga and new age groups though? Not nearly as flush with cash.
This is a fair point but I think not the whole story. The events that I’m used to (not just LW and related meetups, but also other things that happen to attract a similar STEM-heavy crowd) are generally held in cafes/bars/parks where nobody has to pay anything to put on the event, so it seems like financial slack isn’t a factor in whether those events happen or not.
Could it be an issue of organizers’ free time? I don’t think it’s particularly time-consuming to run a meetup, especially if you’re not dealing with money and accounting, though I could be wrong.
We might also consider the nature of the activity. One can’t very well meditate in a bar, but parks are still an option, albeit less comfortable than a yoga studio. But isn’t it worth accepting the discomfort for the sake of bringing in more people? Depends on what you’re trying to do, I guess.