Like many hopeful DrupalCon attendees, we recently found ourselves in the position of needing an extra ticket to the sold-out DrupalCon Paris next month. Sessions were just finalized over the weekend, and to some extent, our traveling plans were contingent upon which and how many of our team's proposed sessions were accepted by the community (two of our sessions were accepted - stay tuned for a post on that later today!).

After exploring other channels, we were pleasantly surprised to see the news that thirty late registration tickets were being offered on the DrupalCon Paris site. Then came the bad news. While tickets to DrupalCon Paris originally went on sale for 250 euro (195 euro for early birds), these "late bird" tickets were a whopping 595 euro (that's about $840, as of Aug. 18).

Drupal is well-known for its strong and vibrant community, a community that gives Drupal the functionality, flexibility, and robustness that makes it so desirable for our clients. This is from the About page on paris2009.drupalcon.org: "DrupalCon is where some of the best developers and leading business owners cross paths, exchange ideas, find partners and conceive projects. It's where community ties are strengthened and Drupal's future is decided." Stated simply, DrupalCon is a key part of the Drupal community.

In light of this, one has to wonder why, if DrupalCon Paris organizers found a place for thirty additional attendees, they felt the need to double the attendance price. In a thread regarding DrupalCon ticket scalping (which had been occuring for this event), Drupal Association Events Manager Cary Gordon posted the following last night:

"The position of the Drupal Association is that tickets may not be sold above their retail value. A ticket may be resold at the regular price of admission...This means that regardless of whether the holder paid the earlybird price, the regular price or has a coupon from a platinum sponsorship, that ticket can only be resold for 250€ or less."

In spite of this, official tickets are now being sold, some hours later, for double this price threshold. I am fully aware that, for obvious reasons, DrupalCon cannot be free to attend, nor can there be an unlimited number of tickets. Nevertheless, the price hike for these last thirty tickets is very questionable, given the well-known demand for tickets that has existed in the Drupal community since the event sold out. Any economist can tell you that high demand and low supply justifies high prices, but has DrupalCon become a corporate venture?

Finally, it's worth noting the financial success of the last DrupalCon, hosted in Washington, DC in March, which, according to event organizers, turned a profit of nearly $200,000. Even if the community was faced with a potential loss from this conference, one would hope that it would be covered by the enormous success of the last one.

If, on the other hand, the final numbers from Paris reveal another large profit when they are published next month, the last thirty attendees of DrupalCon Paris will be left wondering if the extra 345 euro they spent can be considered a charitable donation, albeit unwilling, to the Drupal Association.

In the end, we purchased a "late bird" ticket for a member of our team because we believe in the value of DrupalCon and the power of the Drupal community. I'm sure that it will be a beneficial experience for everyone attending, and the people from CommonPlaces that are presenting are thrilled to be collaborating with Drupal experts from around the world. Our only hope is that, in the future, DrupalCon organizers will take the high road if faced with a similar decision.