I got an email notice about the fourth international conference on technology, knowledge, and society, which is being held this year in Boston. It look potentially very interesting– James Paul Gee is going to be speaking– but it strikes me as being crazy expensive. The “full deal” registration (which includes a hotel room) is $1400; one day registration is almost $500; and even “virtual registration,” which gets your name in the programs and gets you access to the journal.
This all makes me wonder a bit. This conference is one of many run by a company/enterprise called “Common Ground,” which is also an academic publishing company of some sort. For all I know, these conferences are some of the best in the academic world and the journals they publish present some of the most important scholarship. But I always wonder about enterprises doing this sort of thing for a profit, especially when the cost for this conference strikes me as a bit out of wack. Still, it might be a totally cool group.
Seems expensive to folks used to academic conference fees. But for technology conferences or seminars attended by the employees of big companies, not unusual. STC is $600, An Event Apart is $900, etc. Plus hotels, flights, and the like.
True, but these folks have a bunch of conferences, including a humanities conference, that seem to have a similar price point. So I dunno….