---
title: "Laura Fitton is right. PodCamp was never free."
author: "Christopher S Penn"
date: 2008-04-16
url: https://www.christopherspenn.com/2008/04/laura-fitton-is-right-podcamp-was-never-free/
categories:
  - "PodCamp"
tags:
  - "PodCamp"
---

# Laura Fitton is right. PodCamp was never free.

One of the best comments in the free/not-free discussion I've ever read was by [Laura Fitton](https://www.pistachioconsulting.com) ([@pistachio on Twitter](https://twitter.com/pistachio)) on [CC Chapman's blog last October](https://www.cc-chapman.com/2007/10/29/podcamp-does-not-have-to-be-free/#comment-44531). Reprinted from the source:

> The event isn’t, and from what little I understand, never was FREE. In a way, no event ever is. It is subsidized by sponsors and by volunteer hours. You attend for free, because somebody else paid your way. Simple as that. I think opening up the option for it to be a nominal fee, or a pay what you want, or some other locally-derived setup, and oriented largely towards keeping attendance expectations (and resulting volunteer hours) in line with reality, is 100% reasonable. While anticipating an event that huge, the volunteer corps of organizers really had to bust their guts. Hard. Long hours, much stress. Value their time at a nominal rate of $10 or even $5 an hour, and you see that a very small group paid hundreds and thousands for the rest of us to have the event for free.

Laura nailed it in one. **Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, please subscribe right now!**[![](https://www.christopherspenn.com/btn-email.png)](https://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=761786) [![](https://www.christopherspenn.com/btn-google.png)](https://www.google.com/ig/add?feedurl=https://feeds.feedburner.com/ChristopherSPenn) [![](https://www.christopherspenn.com/btn-rss.png)](https://feeds.feedburner.com/ChristopherSPenn)Get this and other great articles from the source at [www.ChristopherSPenn.com](https://www.ChristopherSPenn.com)