Exclusive versus non Exclusive Conferences: How Should We Run LeWeb?

I have had an interesting conversation with a few friends recently who tell me that I should reduce the size of LeWeb this year from being able to fit about 1500 people to only 600 to 800 and make it invite only, more exclusive, more expensive to deliver higher end services to the participants. It is not the first time I hear this. I am already getting lots of criticism from entrepreneurs and students who think it is already very exclusive with a price range of 750 to 1700 euros depending when you buy the ticket (early or late).

My pride is that there is not a single week throughout the year that follows LeWeb without a participant email thanking me because he raised funding, made a deal or even sold his company at LeWeb, or even just got inspired. And that makes my day. That makes me run LeWeb at cost not really as a good business. It helps.

I hear every single year these criticism about a ticket around one thousand euros being too expensive. Unfortunately there is no way we can do cheaper with what we provide. The "naked" room in the hear of Paris for 1500 people is about 200 000 euros, the wifi is about 100 000 to make it work for such a demanding group, add video and audio means, the stage, the human resource to build and unbuild all that, add food for all these participants, etc etc and you are just at cost. LeWeb barely breakevens and to be honest with you, we are already quite proud to be able to run it at breakeven with the help of sponsors and participants.

So is it expensive? Yes and no. Yes for unemployed, starting entrepreneurs, students, many bloggers, etc. This year we accepted a lot of them as student price and have had a few "official" bloggers. We will also entirely stream live the main stage, which has a high bandwidth and setup cost, not to talk about ustream costs who we thank to be a partner and will stream it for you. So all the content will be free and if you stay home you can get it all (the startup room will be uploaded online after, could not make it live as well, but the main stage is already not bad, did not have the means to do both).

No it is not expensive given the level of service we have. World class speakers, participants from 30+ countries, a wifi that works, food which is generally not crap and high quality audio and video in a venue in the heart of Paris. While we all like Paris, it is one of the worst place to host such an event given the number of events there: rooms are booked one year ahead with no negociation possible with them and the hotels do not care much about giving deals.

A similar conference in the US in terms of setup is more like 3000 to 6000 dollars a seat (TechCrunch50, The Lobby, Web2 Summit, DEMO, D Conference, TED...), so I do not think we are that expensive given what you get, at all. It is a professional event, not an "expo" meant at the public in the street.

So should I divide the size of LeWeb by half and double the price to make it more exclusive? I could still give away free tickets to the best startups and bloggers and make it very exclusive, like my three reference conferences are, D TED and Davos. I am aiming at their quality while being far from it given their budget and how much they are backed by enterprise, brands and participants who can pay a 3000 to 6000 dollars ticket. How did they do that? Well it took them years. 20 years or more for Davos and TED, unsure how long for D Conference. Or they decided day one it was very exclusive, like the excellent The Lobby which hosts barely more than a hundred people.

I want LeWeb to be around in 20 years and be the Davos of the Web industry, not in Europe, just in general. It will take some time. I want it to have an impact long term because I know it is slowly contributing to changing Europe and that matters to me. LeWeb is inspiring generations of entrepreneurs, that is much more important for me than making is a super exclusive conference especially when many think it is already too exclusive. Now to be honest when I see how much my wife Geraldine and the team of freelancers are killing themselves to make LeWeb a fantastic event, I think it should also deserve to make a significant profit every year, we are not quite there yet, but we give all the participants tons of fun and opportunities.