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[chelsea_morning]

I have a lot of dietary restrictions on account of several medical conditions, and I need to bring all my food with me to conferences. 

While I don't expect caterers to accommodate my dietary restrictions, I find it unfair that I have to pay the same conference fee as everyone else because my dietary restrictions are a disability.  IMO, conference organizers should either 1) accommodate folks with dietary restrictions or 2) make some effort to modify the conference fees.  I realize that it is difficult to find out the real cost of the food and refreshments per person since conferences are often subsidized.  But meals could be priced separately.  Or folks with dietary restrictions could be given a 'food allowance'.

I find that conference organizers rarely see things in this way.   The times that I've asked, I've been told that the conference fee is the same for everyone.  I did have success once, but the conference organizers are charging me less for the conference for this year only (I am paying a portion of the fee, which I feel is fair).  I sensed some reluctance on their part.

[spyzowin]

As someone who has organized a conference in the past... yeah. The fees are for everyone. Sure your dietary concerns might be real, but a whole lot of people's dietary concerns are wholly imaginary, based on pseudo science, informed by superstition, or farcical ideas about animal rights. No. The fees are the fees.  The conference is budgeted in a certain way, to the dollar, and no one is making money.

[msparticularity]

I totally sympathize, since I, too, have dietary issues and food allergies that prevent me from eating most of the food available at conferences. The thing is, I really don't think it's possible logistically for the organizers to do it any other way. In the typical conference setup, food is freely available at a variety of times and in a variety of locations, and there just is no way to set up any kind of control or ticket system to ensure that only those who have paid are getting at the food. It's unrealistic to advocate that food not be offered at all, since it's typically a package deal with the site hosting the conference. I do have some hope that some concentrated lobbying might affect the choices of what kinds of food are available, so that's where I think I'll probably expend my energies for those conferences that I attend regularly. 

[johnr]

I find that conference organizers rarely see things in this way. 

Organize a conference for 10,000 people (on top of your regular faculty job).  Then get back to me.

[mended_drum]

As a conference organizer who was flooded with requests for reduced fees for nearly everything for countless reasons, I had to simply say "no," or I would have ended up losing money.

[bibliologos]

I think it really would depend on the type of conference.  For a large conference (anything over 200 people), I don't think it would be possible to do anything.  For a workshop of say 20 people, it should be possible to discount the fee.  But in the range between 20 and 200 people, it would depend on how the conference is organized (concurrent sessions in different rooms etc.), how much food is provided, if there's a banquet, and so on.  I've arranged banquets for 100 people at a conference, and it's hard just to get vegetarian and kosher options; anything beyond that would be well-nigh impossible.

[dellaroux]

Actually, at least one conference I know of does exactly the meal-by-meal with registration thing that you're discussing.

See this registration page:

     http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/Assets/pdf/congress/Registration_Form.pdf

(please don't hate me, Amirov or Johnr!)

:--}

[spyzowin]

Actually, at least one conference I know of does exactly the meal-by-meal with registration thing that you're discussing.

See this registration page:

     http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/Assets/pdf/congress/Registration_Form.pdf

(please don't hate me, Amirov or Johnr!)

:--}

I've been to K'zoo more times than you've had hot breakfasts and I can tell you for a fact, everyone everyone everyone eats the same.

K'zoo's meals are held in massive student dorm cafeterias.

[kedves]

Actually, at least one conference I know of does exactly the meal-by-meal with registration thing that you're discussing.

See this registration page:

     http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/Assets/pdf/congress/Registration_Form.pdf

(please don't hate me, Amirov or Johnr!)

:--}

I've been to K'zoo more times than you've had hot breakfasts and I can tell you for a fact, everyone everyone everyone eats the same.

K'zoo's meals are held in massive student dorm cafeterias.

I thought the OP was asking not to be charged for meals not eaten, not for special food. 

[gennimom]

I eat what I can of the meals and get something else later. It is the only way I've been able to deal with dietary restrictions. The one conference banquet I truly enjoyed was the buffet style we had a couple of years ago.

However, I do know that conferences plan meals with, say, the hotel conference staff, and meal charges are determined by the menu. Planning for individual meals will throw off the cost and ultimately cost more per person. Also, the conference organizers are expected to provide the number of participants to the hotel staff, and the more people who don't eat the planned meals, the costlier it is to the organizers as they have to pay for the uneaten meals too.

You just have to decide how important conferences are to you, but I'm afraid you will just have to accept that most of the time, the conference organizers will not be able to accommodate special dietary needs.

[chelsea_morning]

Much food for thought here (okay, that was a sad pun.)  While I understand that there are some situations in which figuring out a fair way to reduce the fees for folks such as myself is difficult, I still maintain that conference organizers should at least attempt to find a way to do so.  I suspect that my dietary issues are sometimes (often/most of the time?) not taken seriously as a medical problem because they constitute an invisible disability.

Sure your dietary concerns might be real, but a whole lot of people's dietary concerns are wholly imaginary, based on pseudo science, informed by superstition, or farcical ideas about animal rights.”

(Seriously? *Farcical* ideas about animal rights?!)  I'm sure that some people do wonder if my dietary restrictions are psychosomatic because of the sheer number of foods I avoid.  I generally try to steer clear of folks who are prejudiced.  Unfortunately, that isn’t always possible.  

msparticularity, I see your point here about the difficulties with policing access to food.  But I'd think you can trust most people to eat the food they've paid for.  And if not, well, usually, there is leftover food at these things.  Wouldn't running the risk that a small minority of people will steal muffins off the food trays be a small price to pay?

I do like the way the Kalamazoo conference is organized.  It would cut down on food waste as well since not all conference attendees attend every day of the conference.  I would have no issue with attending a conference at which some refreshments are included in the price but major meals are priced separately. (I’ve been to a couple of conferences like that.)

I should add that I have had luck in being able to attend banquets which are priced separately.

gennimom, I wouldn’t be as adamant about this if I could eat some food at conferences.  But I literally can eat nothing.  I've had experience organizing a small conference (with, say, 50 attendees) at which the caterers were happy to provide me with an empty plate and a glass of water without charging  my organization.  I guess it depends on the situation. (This conference was in a university rather than a hotel.)   In the case of the small conference I’m attending this spring, the organization loses money each time someone signs up for the conference.  The reason: the food costs per person are in excess of the conference fee.  
While it would be charitable of me to see my conference fee as a donation to the organization, now that I'm an underemployed adjunct (as opposed to a fully funded graduate student) I am starting to make a habit of asking whether I can avoid paying for food I can't eat.   I have a disability according to ADA legislation, so I feel entitled to do so.

[ea15792]

However, I do know that conferences plan meals with, say, the hotel conference staff, and meal charges are determined by the menu. Planning for individual meals will throw off the cost and ultimately cost more per person. Also, the conference organizers are expected to provide the number of participants to the hotel staff, and the more people who don't eat the planned meals, the costlier it is to the organizers as they have to pay for the uneaten meals too.

Hotels typically have set menus.  You have to choose out of what they have, and they charge by the plate.  And most hotels will expect there to be a plate laid for every chair in the room.  As a hotel can (and often do) penalize an organization for allowing an attendee for bringing in their own food, the organizers have to abide by the hotels rules.  

And when organizing a conference for hundreds or thousands of people the logistics behind allowing individual attendee's to have reduced fees and/or special menus is just not feasible.  

I agree with mended_drum, there are so many requests for reduced fees that you have to say no.  Particularly, in this type of economic climate when professional development funds are being slashed left and right. 

[collegekidsmom]

I think as others have said, there are many issues that people have when it comes to conference fee fairness. For instance, the next conference I have to go to is fairly near my home. I am very interested only in a few presentations on one of the days. The other days I have family obligations. So, I have to pay the whole conference fee to attend only a couple of presentations. I am invited to a lunch on that day that honors a previous colleague of mine, and they are charging separately for the lunch. I really can't avoid the lunch. So, I have to pay a total conference registration plus money for a lunch-all to attend a conference for a few hours. My university is out of travel money, and that makes it all worse.  I really wouldn't expect the conference organizers to charge me less because family obligations prevent me from attending all of the other programs and meals and evening events Of course, this doesn't seem fair, but I realize that the conference can't be a la carte in terms of meals or programs. Also, they always serve coffee at my conferences, and I don't drink coffee. They don't offer me an alternative. It's coffee or nothing. I can understand this also. I think there are just too many people and situations to accommodate.

[dellaroux]

Actually, at least one conference I know of does exactly the meal-by-meal with registration thing that you're discussing.

See this registration page:

     http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/Assets/pdf/congress/Registration_Form.pdf

(please don't hate me, Amirov or Johnr!)

:--}

I've been to K'zoo more times than you've had hot breakfasts and I can tell you for a fact, everyone everyone everyone eats the same.

K'zoo's meals are held in massive student dorm cafeterias.

How do you know how many times I've had hot breakfasts?

:--}

In fact, the use of the dorm cafeterias is probably what allows them to be flexible and to price and charge for things directly, meal-by-meal. They can probably offer more choices on the cafeteria lines as well because they may have to accommodate student dietary differences already, and are more used to doing so.

Another conference (smaller, also usually held on a college campus) that does this is here:

   https://host.securelook.com/hymnsociety/confregform.html

They don't show meal-by-meal pricing but do have lunch/dinner/both options. Also, any special food needs are treated very carefully and respectfully (by observation).

[totoro]

When I've organized a conference we have debundled the "conference banquet" from the overall fee so as to make the conference cheaper for those who can't afford to pay for a fancy meal or don't want to go. Trying to debundle more stuff would have been a hassle and it wouldn't have saved us any money if one less person was eating these meals as the amount was catered for a vague number. People register on the day and all kinds of stuff. You couldn't go to the banquet though without a ticket. And yes we made a lot of money generally which went back into subsidizing other activities.