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Operation 2030 (Published)

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Abner Coimbre
2025-04-02 20:59:03 -07:00
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title="Our Revenue"
date="2024-08-09T09:00:00-04:00"
enddate="2024-08-10T18:00:00-04:00"
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title="Donations"
mediatype="rev"
conference="seattle-2022"
date="2022-11-16T12:00:00-08:00"
description="Independent donors AKA conference members"
thumbnail=""
[[videos]]
title="Memory Strategies"
embed="https://player.vimeo.com/video/774890907"
service="vimeo"
download_link="https://player.vimeo.com/progressive_redirect/playback/774890907/rendition/720p/file.mp4?loc=external&oauth2_token_id=1777364455&signature=3c443137144bf46966f5607ab00f818dfa5f98e1ac7643e62160f55e0bb27792"
[[speakers]]
name="Abner Coimbre"
bio=""
image=""
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[Prev](/operation2030/business/tickets) | [Contents](/operation2030) | [Next](/operation2030/business/miscellaneous)
### How Donations Work
Ticket sales and trade show booths cover the operating expenses for Handmade Cities: renting large venues, paying staff and security, securing A/V equipment, catering, event insurance and more. They run into tens of thousands of dollars per event.
Independent donors, known as [conference members](/member), keep the founder himself afloat. It's a kind of Patreon that allows Abner to remain a full-time social butterfly. Donations cover his Seattle rent, groceries, healthcare, and the occasional night out. Conference members donate with no strings attached because they believe in the founder's vision with the advisory board's [guidance](/board).
Your donations to Abner are designed to outlast him. The bus factor is mitigated by his advisory board, meetup hosts and paid staff, some of whom are learning the ropes of running this business. To ensure continuity, Abner has also implemented a dead man’s switch and written his will.
Of course Abner intends to live a long and fruitful life. He dreams of becoming the Geoff Keighley of systems programmers—or perhaps growing old as a lovable Alex Trebek for computer nerds. (The parallels aren’t perfect, but you get the idea!)

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title="Miscellaneous"
mediatype="rev"
conference="seattle-2022"
date="2022-11-16T12:00:00-08:00"
description="Experiments in additional income"
thumbnail=""
[[videos]]
title="Memory Strategies"
embed="https://player.vimeo.com/video/774890907"
service="vimeo"
download_link="https://player.vimeo.com/progressive_redirect/playback/774890907/rendition/720p/file.mp4?loc=external&oauth2_token_id=1777364455&signature=3c443137144bf46966f5607ab00f818dfa5f98e1ac7643e62160f55e0bb27792"
[[speakers]]
name="Abner Coimbre"
bio=""
image=""
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[Prev](/operation2030/business/donations) | [Contents](/operation2030) | [Next](/operation2030/business/trade-show)
We must diversify revenue to weather the tough years. For example, depressed conference attendance due to mass layoffs could be devastating to our business. Indeed this nearly happened in 2024, where we came close to shutting down like many other tech conferences. We survived through fundraisers, but we’d prefer to build a buffer by creating bonus revenue streams—although ticket sales will always be our primary source.
Ideas we’re currently exploring:
- **Software Sales**
Selling our own software is the most promising avenue. Handmade conferences have inspired other indie conferences, so it makes sense to offer them the apps we wrote ourselves to self-host a tech conference.
- **Magazine Sales**
As part of [Return to Meatspace](/operation2030/directives/meatspace) we’re publishing physical magazines every quarter (starting January 2026.) We don’t expect meaningful profits here, but they will generate significant word-of-mouth buzz for conference tickets.
- **Merch Shop**
We’ve been promising merch for AGES but have not delivered yet. Operation 2030 must address this, especially now that Jes Chuhta gave us a [fresh coat](/news/anniversary-rebrand-2024/) of paint. Even if profits are peanuts a merch shop will indirectly boost ticket sales.
- **Twitch Subscribers**
Twitch streams generate hundreds of dollars every few months (nothing to sneeze at when you're indie.) With a stronger presence we can grow this into the thousands.
If we succeed diversifying, we’ll also be able to do more than just cover conference costs or Abner’s living expenses:
- Help meetup hosts rent fancier venues for their own local events
- Professionally design and mass print flyers, pamphlets, etc. to spread the word everywhere
- Offer paid contract work to accelerate our Key Objectives—especially [Self-Hosting for All](/operation2030/directives/self-hosting-for-all) which requires a lot of manpower.

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title="Conference Tickets"
mediatype="rev"
conference="seattle-2022"
date="2022-11-16T12:00:00-08:00"
description="Ticket sales"
thumbnail=""
[[videos]]
title="Memory Strategies"
embed="https://player.vimeo.com/video/774890907"
service="vimeo"
download_link="https://player.vimeo.com/progressive_redirect/playback/774890907/rendition/720p/file.mp4?loc=external&oauth2_token_id=1777364455&signature=3c443137144bf46966f5607ab00f818dfa5f98e1ac7643e62160f55e0bb27792"
[[speakers]]
name="Abner Coimbre"
bio=""
image=""
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[Prev](/operation2030/structure) (Structure) | [Contents](/operation2030) | [Next](/operation2030/business/donations)
Ticket sales are the primary source of revenue for Handmade Cities, far surpassing other revenue streams. This is intentional. We want to remain accountable to ticket holders.
#### **Physical Track: In-Person Tickets**
Both Handmade Boston and Handmade Seattle feature a physical track. The standard ticket price is $249, comparable to much larger conferences like Twitch Con. Starting in 2025 it will be our "forever price"—we intend to keep this standard price unchanged for as long as we’re in business.
Exceptions include:
- **Early-bird sales:** $199
- **Last-minute (door) prices:** $299
#### **Online Track: Online Tickets**
Only Handmade Seattle has an online track because it's a fully-hybrid event. Here’s how it works:
- The entire event is live-streamed for free on Twitch (and YouTube as backup)
- Live Q&A and access to speakers occur in a private chat server, which requires a ticket
- Even the physical track must use the server to ask questions. Online attendees are treated as first-class citizens
The online ticket is pegged to 30% of the in-person cost:
- **Standard price:** $74
- **Early-bird sales:** $59
- **Last-minute prices:** $89
These prices are also "forever prices."
In order to grow, we have to increase attendance rather than raise ticket prices. We may also [diversify](/business/miscellaneous) into extra revenue streams. This approach to pricing is designed to give ticket holders a predictable sense of stability.
#### **Discounts for the Financially Disadvantaged**
We offer discounts to struggling students or those facing financial hardship and also frequently give out free tickets when possible—thanks to generous donations from senior engineers. If you live in a country where your purchasing power is significantly lower, we wish to help you too.
To request assistance, email us at tickets@handmadecities.com with a brief explanation of your circumstances. *Correspondence to this address is strictly confidential.*
We please ask those who are financially secure to respect this system of trust. Do not abuse it to obtain discounts or free tickets.

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title="Trade Show"
mediatype="rev"
conference="seattle-2022"
date="2022-11-16T12:00:00-08:00"
description="Job booths and demo booths"
thumbnail=""
[[videos]]
title="Memory Strategies"
embed="https://player.vimeo.com/video/774890907"
service="vimeo"
download_link="https://player.vimeo.com/progressive_redirect/playback/774890907/rendition/720p/file.mp4?loc=external&oauth2_token_id=1777364455&signature=3c443137144bf46966f5607ab00f818dfa5f98e1ac7643e62160f55e0bb27792"
[[speakers]]
name="Abner Coimbre"
bio=""
image=""
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[Prev](/operation2030/business/miscellaneous) | [Contents](/operation2030) | [Next](/operation2030/directives) (Key Objectives)
### Job Booths
Employers can rent job booths at Handmade Boston or Handmade Seattle for a fixed rate. The price is the same for all companies, regardless of size.
This setup creates a win-win-win scenario:
- Handmade Cities earns meaningful revenue from booth rentals.
- Employers gain access to a large in-person audience, which naturally acts as a strong resume filter.
- Ticket holders have the opportunity to meet employers and potentially get hired.
Importantly, employers are not allowed to sponsor or influence the event itself. Job booth revenue is also intentionally kept much smaller than ticket sales to prevent any risk of a hostile takeover.
### Demo Booths
At the time of writing demo booths are free of charge once your submission is approved. If this changes in the future we will install a program for the financially disadvantaged [as we do](/operation2030/business/tickets) for conference tickets.
**Secretary's Note:** The reason this may change is because venues started raising their fees significantly for renting trade show floors. We must adapt with the times.