Whitney Hoffman has published a few blog posts this week relating to the demands put upon conference organizers by last-minute registrations (see Your Failure to Plan Ahead is Not My Emergency, Law of Supply and Demand and What Happened to the Social Contract?).  I’d like to add another component to the discussion: The rule of no exceptions.

This is a hard rule to implement and enforce, particularly since many of us in the social media community know each other very well and in many cases we’re close friends.  It’s hard to say no to your friends.  When it comes to conference planning and public deadlines, you have to. 

I’ll use Podcasters Across Borders as an example since, for some reason, I know it well.

For the second year in a row, we have announced the dates of the next conference nearly a full year in advance (July June 19-21, 2009 in Kingston, Ontario — Canada — in case you hadn’t yet heard).  Last year, we starting making announcements about early registration (with a lower registration rate) a little more than one month in advance.  We made a formal announcement a few weeks in advance, and made regular updates online leading up to and during early registration.  Some people told us that they would be registering on the second last or last day of early registration.  The day following the close of early registration we received several emails requesting that we make an exception in each specific case.

Planning events and conferences for the community is a difficult task.  Registering for an event is an endorsement of the quality of the event and the investment of the organizers.  If an event is worth attending/endorsing, it’s worth doing so within the parameters of the event.

Congratulations to the PodCamp Boston 3 team.  I’m sorry I couldn’t be there this time.