Why we can’t offer day registration at BAPS Congress

We’ve had several enquiries asking for day registration rates. For a while we did offer day registration at BAPS but the combination of post-pandemic staff shortages and escalating costs have had a huge impact on the events industries which are passed down to event organisers who then have no choice but to pass on these costs to delegates. These costs have an impact on the viability of delivering meetings. Let’s look closer at the issues we face:

Costs

We are charged venue hire for the full 3 days whether delegates attend for 1-day in person, 3-days virtually or any combination of virtual or in person.

Hybrid

There are costs in providing hybrid which are explained in this article. As with on-site, we are charged for hybrid for the full 3 days. Attendees to our previous meetings have told us how important keeping our meetings hybrid is to them but we also have to cover these costs.

Policing

Sadly, (but thankfully uncommonly) we’ve had:

• delegates with one-day registration attempt to attend for more than 1 day: our team checks badges on site during our Congress.
• non-payers attend virtually and in-person; our team monitors who is attending virtually.
• gate-crashers at social events without tickets.

Policing takes up resources which are already stretched as a small association with a small staff. We hope you agree it is far more positive to spend time organising a great meeting than dealing with policing non-payers.

Administration and logistics

• For 1-day and 2-day registration we would need to create 6 extra sets of tickets combinations which adds to administrative load.
• Also, the catering company needs to supply the same number of covers (people attending) each day – this minimises waste and controls costs.

Benefits of 3 day registration

So, offering 3-day registration:

• Ensures costs are covered
• Allows in-person delegates to flex to virtual if plans are disrupted and
• Helps us cut down on the resources needed to police our Congress

We hope this explains the context of the decision to only offer 3-day registration at the 69th BAPS Congress.

 

Shan Teo

Digital Manager