In-person events are crazy expensive to run, which contributes to gatekeeping. Online events open up a new world of opportunity: both in terms of volume, and with lower ticket prices.

But there are still lots of expenses. Here's where the money for #MWS2021 goes.

A thread:

20% of ticket sales will be donated to @freeCodeCamp, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit has done some amazing things for students of web development.

. @freeCodeCamp has a comprehensive, linear curriculum for learning web development. They have helped thousands of aspiring engineers around the world learn to code & get jobs as web designers and developers.

As a nonprofit, @freeCodeCamp relies on donations to survive. Most of their donations come from their alumni as independent donors. This, & @ossia's tireless management & admirable frugality, have helped them survive, and even thrive!

But during this crisis in particular, their monthly active users swelled to over 11 million (!), and settled at 6 million (!). That's a lot of server costs to cover! Not to mention staff.

We've taken a pledge to help @freeCodeCamp by donating 20% of our ticket revenue. If you can, consider donating a small amount today https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate/ 

A further 20% of our ticket sales will be used to pay speakers and curators for their time, in proportional amounts. Preparing a talk and curating content is a lot of work — and we believe speakers should be compensated, if finances permit.

We believe we will have the scale necessary to make this worthwhile for all the speakers involved, and very much look forward to writing them a check (er, Venmo?) — or donating it to their favorite nonprofit.

20% of ticket sales is for the organizing staff. If you've never organized a conference, it's exhilarating! But also: never-ending tasks, stressful, and exhausting. But in the end, rewarding! We reward the organizing team with an equal share of 20% of the ticket revenue.

20% of ticket sales is for marketing & production expenses like web design & development, DJ, artwork, music licensing, advertising, and more.

10% of ticket sales is allocated for finance and other processing fees, and the last 10% of ticket sales is reserved for miscellaneous or unanticipated expenses.

For sponsor sales, 20% goes towards professional A/V production to make the live presentations & post-production videos extremely high-touch, and 80% goes towards expenses associated with running the event on @EventLoopHQ. Many-2-many video gets pretty pricey on the web!

That's it for finances! Lastly, we'd love to tell you about how we are making this event inclusive, welcoming, and safe. Because no one wants to be around curmudgeons, instigators, and harassers. Check out this thread! https://twitter.com/mwSummit/status/1310915256219172865?s=20