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Tickets For Apple’s WWDC 2013 Sell Out In Under 2 Minutes

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Re: Tickets For Apple’s WWDC 2013 Sell Out In Under 2 Minutes

#71

Post by shizwizzle »

sdoowpilihp wrote: post #59
untog wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I think the question is "when are people going to realise they don't really need to go?". Videos of the talks are being put online, and while access to engineers is great, the majority of people probably wouldn't need/want it anyway. Same as Google IO, these events have become like popular concerts- people leap on tickets because they know they're going to sell out, not because they've thought through why t…

The one on one with apple developers can actually be very much worth the 1600 alone.

Totally agree, after my first WWDC I walked away thinking if tickets cost $10,000 I would still go. The 1-on-1 with the Apple designers and the 1-on-1 in their technical assistance pits are _priceless_, literally, you can't get that anywhere else at any price.

Re: Tickets For Apple’s WWDC 2013 Sell Out In Under 2 Minutes

#72

Post by gluemonkey »

ggualberto wrote: post #65
ryanlbrown wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here.

Me too.

Same thing happened to me and I just got off the phone with Apple support - they are saying that this has happened to a lot of customers and since it is a "developing story" they can not provide a lot of details. They did say however that if you made it to the checkout process your ticket was in fact reserved and once they get things sorted out they will e-mail you at your Apple ID to allow you to actually purchase your ticket.

Re: Tickets For Apple’s WWDC 2013 Sell Out In Under 2 Minutes

#75

Post by smackfu »

EvilLook wrote: post #35
kemiller wrote: post #16

When are they going to move to a bigger venue? This is crazy.

Why would they do that? Selling out in two minutes makes them look good, and the limited number of slots make the attendees feel like they're special.

OTOH, if you start getting the "wrong" type of attendees, the conference becomes less valuable for everyone. For instance, marketers who sign up just to network with the 5000 developers and don't bother going to a single session.

Re: Tickets For Apple’s WWDC 2013 Sell Out In Under 2 Minutes

#76

Post by tolmasky »

magicalist wrote: post #68
tolmasky wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't think the problem is how you portion out the tickets. The system you describe does not seem to be any better at getting the tickets in the right hands. I'm not so concerned with the unfairness of the current system, but with the fact that many of these tickets will be completely wasted. The real problem is that they've combined a 1 hour media event with a developer conference. So many people every ye…

> It's like combining the Super Bowl and JSConf, then reaching the conclusion that obviously JSConf needs a bigger venue because millions of people tried to get a ticket JSConf also sells out in like 10 minutes, which is why they moved to a lottery system. There are no media events or giveaways there (mostly), just a really really good event that refuses to get larger because getting larger may (probably will) spoil…

Was this for some previous JSConf? I ask because from what I can recall of JSConf "back in my day", the price was pretty cheap and the seats were incredibly limited -- so I can definitely see ~200 seats @ $200 a pop selling out in 10 minutes and a lottery being necessary. I'm not so sure the same holds for WWDC however. I mention this because if I go to the JSConf US 2013 site right now, there seems to be 32 days till the conference and I am still able to buy a $2000(!) ticket (no sellout apparent at this price point, which leads me to continue believing my analysis of WWDC). This might be some sort of "special" jsconf though so I don't know.

Re: Tickets For Apple’s WWDC 2013 Sell Out In Under 2 Minutes

#77

Post by saurik »

magicalist wrote: post #68
tolmasky wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't think the problem is how you portion out the tickets. The system you describe does not seem to be any better at getting the tickets in the right hands. I'm not so concerned with the unfairness of the current system, but with the fact that many of these tickets will be completely wasted. The real problem is that they've combined a 1 hour media event with a developer conference. So many people every ye…

> It's like combining the Super Bowl and JSConf, then reaching the conclusion that obviously JSConf needs a bigger venue because millions of people tried to get a ticket JSConf also sells out in like 10 minutes, which is why they moved to a lottery system. There are no media events or giveaways there (mostly), just a really really good event that refuses to get larger because getting larger may (probably will) spoil…

> doesn't give geographic or equipment-based advantages, and spreads out the entry times over a day or two to let all timezones take equal advantage

(I agree totally, am just adding some things I think are important.) It also levels the playing field in other ways: imagine someone who has a slight tremor in their hand, and can't use a mouse as quickly as others. Many people have jobs (including relevant ones) or families that might require their attention during the critical minute-long window.

So, unless your goal is to have a conference filled to the brim with the world's most dextrous, carefree, and well-off people, "first come first serve" doesn't make any sense... it is "fair" for some definition of "fair", but it is using a criteria with existing fundamental biases. As another example: "auction off to the highest bidders" is also a fair allocation scheme, yet many would balk at that.

At least this year they pre-announced the tickets; last year the time zone advantages were more drastic, and the "I have other things in my life that require me to be on certain schedules" issue was more costly. You also run into human advantages, such as "do you have friends (or minions) who are also on crazy schedules and can alert you". People like myself even had programs (and/or services like Pingdom) watching for changes to the website (although at least that is in some way related to the concept for the conference ;P).

Re: Tickets For Apple’s WWDC 2013 Sell Out In Under 2 Minutes

#79

Post by mikeash »

tolmasky wrote: post #55
simonsarris wrote: post #46

Why can't we stop this madness? I don't see how first-come-first-serve here serves developers well at all. Why don't they let anyone with a credit card join a ticket lottery? Just trying for a ticket could cost say, $10 to discourage people from trying every one of their credit cards. Perhaps to make it more fair, a winner must take their tickets, to discourage gaming. This goes on for two days. Then the "real" ticke…

I honestly don't think the problem is how you portion out the tickets. The system you describe does not seem to be any better at getting the tickets in the right hands. I'm not so concerned with the unfairness of the current system, but with the fact that many of these tickets will be completely wasted. The real problem is that they've combined a 1 hour media event with a developer conference. So many people every ye…

The building is packed all week. I don't think that keynote-only attendees are a significant factor here. If the two were separated, then maybe it would have sold out in 80 seconds this year instead of 70 seconds. Big deal.

The imbalance between the number of people willing to pay $1600 for the conference and the number of tickets available is so enormous by this point that there's simply no way to make it fair. It doesn't matter if it's first-come-first-served, or a lottery, or if you give preference to people who went before, or people who haven't gone before, or anything. No matter what you do, you're going to leave out a ton of people who deserve to go.

The event needs a bigger venue or some other radical change if it's to avoid leaving a lot of people out in the cold. Maybe Apple doesn't care, and nothing says they have to make any changes at all. But if they do care, then something really has to give. They need a vastly bigger space, or multiple conferences throughout the year, or a higher price, or something to manage the insane demand, if they actually want to improve this stuff.

Who really cares about the content? A ton of people. Buying a ticket only for the keynote is simply not a problem, and it's obvious just from being at the conference and talking to people who go or who want to go but can't because they couldn't buy a ticket.

Re: Tickets For Apple’s WWDC 2013 Sell Out In Under 2 Minutes

#80

Post by derefr »

lutusp wrote: post #62
xenophanes wrote: post #54

They should raise their prices. A lot. So the people who value it the most get tickets. This is not an ideal solution but it's much better than the current one.

> They should raise their prices. A lot. So the people who value it the most get tickets. The problem with raising prices should be obvious -- it preferentially selects wealthier attendees, not necessarily those who "value it the most". > This is not an ideal solution but it's much better than the current one. I don't think you've thought your position through. All raising prices achieves is to limit attendance to th…

How about pricing it at "two months' salary", like the diamond industry? ;)
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