The pre-event tickets are all spoken for. There will be plenty of general admission space. We’re overwhelmed by the amazing support from the community, with 450 people requesting tickets in about 24 hours.
You wanted shorter lines and the ability to reserve seats in advance, and we listened. You can now get your ticket to Ignite Portland 3. Here’s how:
Schedule:
June 18, 2008
5:30pm - Ticketed admission begins
6:15pm - General admission begins
7:00pm - Event begins
FAQ’s that may answer some of your questions:
How many general admission seats will be available? 170 at minimum. We will be admit 620 total and 450 tickets will be issued.
Can I get in without a ticket? Yes. You can wait in the general admission line to be admitted without a ticket at 6:15pm.
If I RSVP’d on Upcoming.org does that mean I already have a ticket? No.
What if I don’t have an email address or don’t want to give my email address when registering for a ticket? All tickets require a valid unique email address. If you do not have an email account or don’t want to give out your existing address, search the web for “free email” to get an account. Or come down and wait in the general admission line.
What if I lose my ticket? You can retrieve it online here.
What if I leave my ticket or ID at home? You will have our profound sympathy and be directed to the general admission line.
Will food and drinks be available? Yes. The Bagdad will have their normal menu available.
Can kids come? What if my kids don’t have an email address? Kids are welcome but all minors need to be out of the building by 9:00pm per OLCC rules (the event ends at 9:00 so they won’t miss any of the presentations).Children without tickets will be admitted with ticketed adults.
Who is the 12th cylon? Starbuck.
Please say its not true (about Starbuck that is)!
Tickets - a great idea in theory, but ultimately a bit frustrating. Many people (myself included) RSVP’d, but didn’t check back on the 4th and so missed the chance to get a ticket. So now we get to stand in a line that will admit far fewer people. Because of this, people will arrive earlier to try to get a spot, meaning we will each have to devote more time to the line.
But ultimate what this means is that the people at the event (450 of them) aren’t going to be those most enthusiastic about Ignite, but rather those lucky enough to check the site on the 4th.
A more flexible system next time please…?
@agentdz015 - we know that this isn’t the best solution. We wish we could find a way to let everyone interested into the event, in a quick, easy manner. This is what we decided to try this time, and we’ll see how it goes, and tweak what needs to be tweaked for next time.
if you RSVP’ed on Upcoming, you should have received an email as soon as the tickets became available. Notices were also sent via email to past Ignite Portland attendees, and it was talked about a LOT on Twitter (both from the “official” @igniteportland account, as well as that of the organizers.
We also had no idea that all 450 tickets would be gone in less than 24 hours, before we had even announced what the presentations would be. You could say we had higher than expected demand.
In short, we tried to let people know by as many ways possible that tickets were available. I know there were some problems with spam catchers eating some of the ticket emails (Yahoo, specifically), but you’re not the only one who’s a little disgruntled with the way things worked out.
If you show up for the General Admission line, there’s a really good chance you’ll get in. We’ll do our best to make this as easy as possible next time!
Hi agentdz015,
Thanks for the feedback and I’m sorry you didn’t get a ticket. We did send a ‘blast’ out to RSVP’ers via Upcoming but it appears that not everyone received them- not sure if that’s a bug or notification setting issue with Upcoming. We also notified the BarCamp Google Group as well announcements via the Ignite Portland Twitter (http://twitter.com/igniteportland).
The problem we’re trying to solve by using tickets is to minimize the number of people who show up only to be turned away due to capacity being reached. We hate it when that happens. We tried to create as flexible system as we could by incorporating both tickets and a general admission line and there was great demand in the community for the ability to reserve tickets. Yes, some folks will unfortunately have to line up early to get in, but that was also the case without tickets when we had only a first-come general admission line. Unfortunately there seems to be more folks interested in attending than we have capacity for and some people are going to be upset. But this issue exists whether or not we issue tickets.
Thanks again for the input. We’ll be looking to make some tweaks to future events to make give more advance notice, and make getting tickets as convenient and fair as possible.
I do appreciate the intent the tickets represent. Ultimately, everyone’s goal is to have less grumpy people. Additionally, I’m sure that the ticket notifications came through my email or RSS reader or something… so I’m not claiming to be a victim here. I don’t have a ticket because others were more attentive. My bad.
I don’t have a perfect solution in my pocket, but here’s my best thought. First, I think there are three ultimate goals.
1 - Shorter lines.
2 - If there’s not room for you, you know in advance.
3 - Arriving earlier (aka, greater effort) gets you in the door sooner.
(I admit that the third goal is not universal - it’s just my opinion)
Here’s my attempt to solve these problems.
Open a table several hours before the event where people can show their id and pick up a ticket. You can then leave, and return when the doors open. (If you want to get fancy, the doors can open for tickets 1-99 at 5pm, 100-199 at 5:15 pm, etc) The point of the system, however, is this. Earlier = better standing. With tickets before the doors open, however, there doesn’t have to be a line and people won’t wait to be disappointed.
Take it or leave it - I’m sure there are other great ways of organizing this event. Cheers
(clarification - the reason for the ID is that you get 1 ticket per person with an ID. That way people won’t just grab a stack of tickets for all their friends and botch the system.)