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[awegweiser1]

Having been to dozens of these things over 3+ decades, I offer the following
suggestions to deal with Universities declining expense requests or even paying your own way (even if tax deductible).

(1) These meetings should be scheduled in smaller to medium sized cities and not glamorous and pricey locations such as San Diego (nice beaches, great zoo and near exciting Tijuana),
Orlando (great theme parks but hot and sweaty in summer) or Las Vegas (thousands of tempting slot machines and scantily clad showgirls and such).
I am sure scores of places and vendors would be delighted to have the business of a convention and could provide a venue better than a local college gymnasium and at least one decent and moderately priced restaurant within walking distance.

(2) Reserve your lodging elsewhere well in advance rather than the recommended and "special" priced convention hotels. That is often fiction.  Never mention you are there for a meeting but just a visiting tourist. Usually by scouting a nearby place and using an AARP or AAA discount will get you a better deal. You may not get the wonderful continental breakfast of facsimile bagels and weak coffee deal or an in room hair dryer. It is just a bit more inconvenient to walk a few blocks to get to the reception where you can use your one or two complimentary drink tickets and then get ripped for any more at the cash bar.
I tip nicely for good service in a restaurant, having worked in several, so I know something about the job,  but almost never for somebody to pop the cap on a beer bottle for me.
Effort, skill, talent, experience or time not required for this task.

(3) Try to connect up with one or more other attendees and share a room and cost which is usually a lot less than two or three singles - in fact organizers of meetings might set up just such a system to connect people. Choice of gender optional.

NOT recommended because it is criminal fraud but sneak another person into the room with you to share cost. Just be careful of not leaving evidence for the housekeeper to report.
And they do work hard in a tedious job for tiny wages so a small tip would be in order.

As times get really desperate I know of attendees who have swapped several hundred dollar registration and admission badges to slide by the security gestapo for a special session they want to be at but don't really care about much of the rest but otherwise costs the same.
I might want to be at some paleontology events but don't give a fig about moon gas analysis and astrophysics.

AND unconfirmed, and I don't want to know and again, it is fraud, but I have heard rumors that some clever folks have fashioned phony badges. At least the vendor's area should be free and accessible by anybody - these people are trying to sell you something and it should not cost for you to view their wares.

aw

[tee_bee]

Hmm. Some sketchy advice here, but time is short. Let's cut to the biggie: not staying at the conference hotel.

Having been to dozens of these things over 1.5 decades, I know the organizers sign a contract with the hotel to fill a certain number of rooms. During the downturn, I know some conferences have had to work really hard to get folks to take the conference room block, rather than stay in the Super 8 down the street. Some conferences are charging extra if you don't stay in the conference hotel, so that they can pay the penalties for not filling rooms. Besides, my time has value--I don't like schlepping from conference venue to cut-rate hotel.  And the savings isn't usually that great. My recent conference hotels have been very reasonable--I could get a cheaper room, but then I'd pay the registration penalty.

Of course, if I make a fake badge, or piggyback on someone else's, I guess that's immaterial.

I have no problem keeping nonattendees out of the vendor area. The vendors want to sell to people in the discipline, not some folks off the street. Some conferences are too big as it is.

At some level, depending on the conference, some minimal respect for the organizers' hard work is owed.

[svenc]

As times get really desperate I know of attendees who have swapped several hundred dollar registration and admission badges to slide by the security gestapo for a special session they want to be at but don't really care about much of the rest but otherwise costs the same.
I might want to be at some paleontology events but don't give a fig about moon gas analysis and astrophysics.

AND unconfirmed, and I don't want to know and again, it is fraud, but I have heard rumors that some clever folks have fashioned phony badges. At least the vendor's area should be free and accessible by anybody - these people are trying to sell you something and it should not cost for you to view their wares.

I don't know about your field, but my national associations aren't getting rich off of my registration. They're just getting by in the good years.

Stealing from a poor non-profit organization that exists to promote your profession and career isn't just fraud.  In my book, it makes you a bad person.

(Can somebody get me a stool to help me off this horse?)

[kamiakin]

Now that I am a bit along in my career I register and stay in the conference hotel.

As a grad student and assistant professor however, I stayed in the Super 8 by the highway (and even camped a couple times), sometimes failed to register, drank in my room and carried a flask, ate a diet of energy bars for 3 days, and other things too shameful to mention.

[sciencephd]

I agree with the general sentiment and have little sympathy for conferences where a bargain hotel room is 250-300 per night.  However, if the conference is in a large city in the downtown area, the money saved by taking a hotel far away and paying both a rental car (40/day) and parking (20/day) will likely offset much of the savings.

[systeme_d_]

Like Kamiakin, I am now a fine upstanding citizen, and pay through the nose for Overpriced Hotels That Are Convenient.

As a grad student and early-career assistant professor, however...

I shared rooms with way too many other grad students (at least according to hotel rules), brought a loaf of bread and peanut butter and made my own lunches every single day.  I also brought my own bottle of hooch on many occasions, and used El Cheapo Hotel's ice for said hooch.

I facilitated the fraud of going to the booksale without proper ID.  I always registered, but I sometimes lent my nametag to a couple of grad students who did not register. 

The reason this is ethically problematic is because only registered attendees are entitled to the substantial discounts offered by the book vendors.  I have compromised my ethics, however, because I take pity on poor grad students. 

Once, I ran into a former grad school pal who was unemployed, but going to interview in a couple of hours.   He had not had time to prep for this particular school.  (The interview was arranged onsite, with no notice.)  Darn right I lent him my nametag so he could go to the book vendors and thumb through the committee members' most recent publications!

[pyromania]

Those were the days...:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d8FTPv955I

I remember those times...A loaf of bread and a jar of mayonnaise

Now I pay for the hotel with the good breakfast, and relish in it. 

At the end of the conference I always buy the grad students a drink. 

[inthelab]

For my conferences, the preferred hotel is cheaper by far usually.  The hotels have been Hiltons and that sort; no extra charge for Labspouse or Labkids to stay in the room with me.
They have not been strict about badges lately and the grad students get plenty of food and drinks through the conference.  Which in my opinion is nice. 

[temporaryname]

For my conferences, the preferred hotel is cheaper by far usually.  The hotels have been Hiltons and that sort; no extra charge for Labspouse or Labkids to stay in the room with me.
They have not been strict about badges lately and the grad students get plenty of food and drinks through the conference.  Which in my opinion is nice. 

My experience, too--and the conference hotel rates tend to be cheaper than the other hotels around, even the cheap ones on the outskirts once you factor in time and transportation costs.

Maybe it, like so many other things, is discipline-specific? I'm in a pretty small field, and so maybe that's part of it--everybody knows everybody else, and so even the people who work in the association's office are looking out for their friends in the discipline?

[tee_bee]

For my conferences, the preferred hotel is cheaper by far usually.  The hotels have been Hiltons and that sort; no extra charge for Labspouse or Labkids to stay in the room with me.
They have not been strict about badges lately and the grad students get plenty of food and drinks through the conference.  Which in my opinion is nice. 

My experience, too--and the conference hotel rates tend to be cheaper than the other hotels around, even the cheap ones on the outskirts once you factor in time and transportation costs.

Maybe it, like so many other things, is discipline-specific? I'm in a pretty small field, and so maybe that's part of it--everybody knows everybody else, and so even the people who work in the association's office are looking out for their friends in the discipline?

My experience is that the larger the association, the relatively cheaper the rooms are. I belong to one association that could never get a room in DC for < $195 a night; the other, larger one, takes up the Shoreham, the Hilton, and one other and we get rooms around $140--a bargain in DC. Similar outcomes in other cities.

[inthelab]

Not to mention that one can often eschew the rental car, since conferences (at least mine) arrange for transort from airport to hotel and back for a nominal fee, or the hotel has it already in place.  Also conferences in my field deeply discount conference fees for grad students and offer travel awards for students presenting.

[oseph]

At first I read this as "Strategies for beating Conference Pride" and was very intrigued.

My best offering for "conference price" strategies is plan ahead.

When a grad student, if you know that a conference is coming up, cut corners where you can, if there is any flex in your budget.  I had many grads in my program complain about conference costs, and yet they bought two lattes a day on campus, smoked several packs of cigarettes a week, were constantly buying books that were readily available at the library, and went out to the bar a couple nights a week.  So when it came time for the job market, and I was staying in the conference hotel, and they were staying at El Cheapo Motel, several miles away, and had to take buses to their interviews in horrible sleeting weather, I didn't feel so sorry, because I had saved my pennies for Show Time.  Of course this does not apply if you don't have any flex in your budget, as my fellow students had.

If you are lucky enough to get job offers, don't underestimate the importance of having access to adequate travel funds.  Mr. Oseph and I are now expected to attend several conferences a year in each of our disciplines.  Fortunately we were able to get hotel and airfare (although nothing else, which peeves me sometimes, because it adds up) covered for about three to four conferences a year.  The total costs are not insignificant - probably $2000 yearly for me and $4000 yearly for him (his field has more expensive conferences).  This is an important part of your job negotiations, and an area where often you can get them to budge when they can't budge on salary.  Likewise, take it into account when weighing multiple offers (not that I had that luxury). 

I still would like to hear some strategies for beating conference pride.

[losemygrip]

My usual mantra: use Priceline for your hotel. 

Example: my national meeting was charging (as I recall) $189 for a room at the headquarters hotel two years back.  I used Priceline, and by chance they placed me at that very headquarters hotel for only $45.  This year, instead of booking the headquarters hotel, I bid on Priceline for the downtown zone and received a Marriott across the street from the headquarters Westin.  I paid $65--the rate at the Westin was around $200.  Even if you're bidding in a fairly large Priceline zone and they place you at a hotel a mile away, you save so much money that you can cab over and STILL be thrilled with the savings.

Frankly, I think my organization gets rooked by these hotels (unless they're getting lots of free meeting space that I don't know about).  Typically, though, the rooms aren't tied to the meeting facilities.  They just determine the numer of comp rooms the organization gets (usually one night per twenty).  So if you don't book under the convention code, your organization's officers and staff don't get free rooms.

[j_source]

My usual mantra: use Priceline for your hotel. 

Example: my national meeting was charging (as I recall) $189 for a room at the headquarters hotel two years back.  I used Priceline, and by chance they placed me at that very headquarters hotel for only $45.  This year, instead of booking the headquarters hotel, I bid on Priceline for the downtown zone and received a Marriott across the street from the headquarters Westin.  I paid $65--the rate at the Westin was around $200.  Even if you're bidding in a fairly large Priceline zone and they place you at a hotel a mile away, you save so much money that you can cab over and STILL be thrilled with the savings.

Frankly, I think my organization gets rooked by these hotels (unless they're getting lots of free meeting space that I don't know about).  Typically, though, the rooms aren't tied to the meeting facilities.  They just determine the numer of comp rooms the organization gets (usually one night per twenty).  So if you don't book under the convention code, your organization's officers and staff don't get free rooms.

I've planned meetings for my regional group of about 100 people and we always get all the meeting and dining spaces plus set-ups free.  Or I should say it's included in the cost of the food and rooms booked by attendees.  For a 3 day meeting we provide 2 breakfasts (aiming for upgraded continental, 2 lunches, a dinner which is often in an off-site fun location with entertainment, and an opening reception.  The registration fee is about $190.  What is expensive is hotel AV rentals.  When possible we get the hosting university to supply tech support and equipment.  Our org makes a little money on the conference most years that offsets the occasional year in the red.

[ea15792]

My usual mantra: use Priceline for your hotel. 

Example: my national meeting was charging (as I recall) $189 for a room at the headquarters hotel two years back.  I used Priceline, and by chance they placed me at that very headquarters hotel for only $45.  This year, instead of booking the headquarters hotel, I bid on Priceline for the downtown zone and received a Marriott across the street from the headquarters Westin.  I paid $65--the rate at the Westin was around $200.  Even if you're bidding in a fairly large Priceline zone and they place you at a hotel a mile away, you save so much money that you can cab over and STILL be thrilled with the savings.

Frankly, I think my organization gets rooked by these hotels (unless they're getting lots of free meeting space that I don't know about).  Typically, though, the rooms aren't tied to the meeting facilities.  They just determine the numer of comp rooms the organization gets (usually one night per twenty).  So if you don't book under the convention code, your organization's officers and staff don't get free rooms.

That depends on the organization.  And if your room block is large enough an organization may get money back from the hotel to help defray other meeting related costs (AV as previously mentioned is a big expense), as well as free meeting space.   I know of organizations that have had to increase their registration fees significantly because they couldn't fill their room block.

Not to mention that when you have a room block, if you don't fill it, the organization pays attrition to the hotel.  And most larger organizations book their hotel space out 3-4 years in advance, so hotels aren't interested in lowering a room rate.