In previous years, the cost of registration has been a major concern. The city and venue are key factors in determining ticket prices. For example, having a conference in downtown Chicago versus near the Chicago airport is a magnitude of scale different in terms of both price and access to desirable places to be in the city.

All of these decisions come with a cost-benefit ratio and getting the right mix is a challenge.

Historically, DjangoCon US's ticket prices have increased every year since the conference started (except for last year, which decreased in price, but was still substantially more expensive than previous years).

We want the conference to be accessible and affordable to everyone, so getting it right is critical to the long-term success of our conference. Having an affordable conference was my number one reason for getting involved to help reboot DjangoCon US. We want ticket prices to be cheaper next year and we have made good progress getting closer to historical prices again for this year.

• Our student rate this year is $250 which matches our historical low in 2011 and equals a 55% savings (or $300) compared to last year’s rate.

• Our individual rate this year is $495 which matches our historical low in 2010 and equals a 34% savings (or $255) compared to last year's rate.

• Our corporate rate this year is $695 which equals a 18% savings (or $155) compared to last year’s rate. We are closer to our 2012 rate but not quite there yet.

On average, our prices are 35% cheaper this year than previous years even though Austin, Texas is a prohibitively more expensive city to host a conference in than Portland, Oregon is.

Which ticket should I pick?

If you are a student, please pick the student rate. If your employer is paying your way then please pick the corporate rate. If you work for a small company, or the corporate rate is not reasonable for your company, then please pick the individual rate. If you need assistance with travel, accommodation expenses, and/or a conference ticket then please apply for a grant by June 1.

We also have a sponsor donation program and a diversity ticket program where sponsors may donate money or purchase an extra ticket to help support someone else who needs assistance. The more corporate tickets and diversity tickets we sell, and donations that we receive, the more student tickets and financial aid we can make available to attendees.

We believe that everyone pays, which means that everyone, even the conference chair, pays for their own ticket, with one exception: those who can't afford to pay.

What was the biggest change this year?

DjangoCon US is now 100% volunteer-based and is being run by the non-profit Django Events Foundation North America (DEFNA). All profits go back into making DjangoCon US a better conference for the community.

How can we drive the price of tickets down even more?

Our tickets are priced based on our overall costs to run the event. The only way to drive the cost of conference tickets down is to increase our sponsorship or to donate money to help offset these costs.

When will tickets go on sale?

Next week! We are one agreement away from being cleared to sell tickets. As soon as this hurdle is cleared we will immediately open registration.

Thanks to Anna Ossowski, Lacey Williams Henschel, Stacey Haysler, and Craig Bruce for advice on and corrections to a draft of this article.