Tuition will be the same as with past classes, $499 per class day. If you register for any three days, the discounted tuition is $1399. If you register for all four days, the discounted tuition is $1799. . .

. . .There is a special 50% discount for students and underemployed Perl hackers. If you are eligible for the discount, be sure to check off the field on the registration form.

It's wonderful that you guys put together these classes, but I wonder who can actually afford the $1800 for all four days, or even the $499 for one day, despite the quality of the instruction. A 50% student discount brings the price down to $900 for four days or $250 for one. What student can afford that?

I'm sure those are competitive rates (although they do shock someone coming from an academic environment), but I think I'll stick to making Damian rich through royalties.

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Allolex

Update: I'm kidding about the royalties ;)

For corporate training, these are indeed competitive rates. I know it almost always shocks someone coming from an academic background. {grin}

As for making theDamian rich through royalties, it'd be better just to hand him a $10 bill (USD or AUD) the next time you see him, because he gets only about US$2 for each book sale. Books are not a revenue stream, unless your last name is Grisham or King or something, as I disclosed in my "Writing about Perl" OSCON'03 talk.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

A 50% student discount brings the price down to $900 for four days or $250 for one. What student can afford that?

There are a great many highly-ranked universities where you can take a semester-long course for less than that. I'm surprised that anyone is willing to pay that amount. We need a few more bubble bursts to weed out this kind of silliness.

I'd also question the wisdom of charging such high rates. The lower the fee, the more people attending, the more people attending, the more people recommending the talks to others. It would be a nice thing to make accessible to a larger number of people. Then again you've got to make a living somehow, and there's always free PM meetings.

Although I do enjoy my snug, safe and warm ivory tower, I think you may be erring on the side of idealism.

One argument against lowering the price would be the increased class size, which would reduce the quality of instruction. I don't necessarily think they have "Perl for the Masses" in mind---the idea is to find a sort of sweet spot where you get the most possible participants at the highest possible rate. From what merlyn (who is on Stem Systems' "Board of Advisors") has written in this thread and what I had guessed in the first place, the cost of these classes reflects the market value of such services, at least from people such as Uri "uri" Guttman, Damian "theDamian" Conway and Randal "merlyn" Schwartz.

I don't know whether they all offer something similar, but Mark-Jason "dominus" Dominus (for example) will speak to any users' group for free---although he apparently has nothing against accepting money to speak. It might be interesting to see such announcements here as well. Perhaps we could even offer free publicity to people doing free talks.

--
Allolex

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.