A few people have written to us asking about sharing their ticket to Webstock and querying our policy that we’re not allowing that. So we thought it would be a good opportunity to explain.

There’s the logistical reason that it’s just a pain in the butt to administer. We’d rather spend our time on things that make a difference to the conference as a whole. There’s the “value for money” reason in that we think Webstock provides the best value for money of, well, just about any web conference, anywhere. We regularly get brochures (Brochures! Yes, print is still king in the corporate conference world) about web-related conferences charging $1,995 early-bird price for a two day conference. Webstock is less than half the price of that and we’ll stack our line-up of speakers up against any other conference in terms of value.

Those are important reasons, but in a sense they’re kinda trivial. It really comes down to one reason why we don’t allow ticket sharing at Webstock. We’re committed to providing you with the best experience we can.

We believe everyone at Webstock benefits from people being there both days. It makes the experience better all round. The chance to “step away” from work for a couple of days and immerse yourself in a supportive, educational and inspirational environment is one with immense benefits, both to you personally and to your employer. But this only works if everyone commits to it – we don’t want a situation where people are flitting in and out of the conference. It makes everything feel much more rushed and less meaningful. It makes it so much harder to form those connections and networks that you leave the conference enriched by. And it devalues, just a little, the time and effort and money those people who are there the full two days have put in.

As Nat Torkington said in his interview with us, “The best part of every conference is the hallway track – the people you run into between talks, the people you talk with at lunch, the people you go drinking with after sessions end for the day.” This is absolutely true, and it’s why Second Life and virtual conferencing, though they both have their place, won’t replace the shared experience of something like Webstock. But it doesn’t work so well if the people you want to hang out with aren’t there, or someone else is wearing their nametag!

Webstock isn’t a cult, honest! But we do want you to drink the kool-aid while you’re here, and to get the best from the Webstock experience really does mean being here for the full two days.

Oh, and of course, like piracy, ticket sharing funds terrorism!