11 August 2020

How Much Should You Pay for an Online Presentation?

The Orange County California Genealogical Society is offering OCCGS DNA DAY 2020 featuring four live presentations by Blaine Bettinger, Ph.D., J.D. on Saturday, October 3rd, 9 am to 2:30 pm PDT.  The cost is $45 US ($60 Cdn) for non-members of the Society. In my experience, with Blaine's genetic genealogy presentations the quality isn't in doubt. Are they worth $15 Cdn each? Would they be worth $150 each? What's fair value? 

What about the cost of other online genealogy presentations forthcoming?

BIFHSGO will be offering two talks by Penny Walters for $20 Cdn. That could be a member price. For the very arithmetically challenged that's $10 Cdn per presentation.

The (UK) Society of Genealogists offers various specialist one-hour presentations for £10 ($17.50)

Back to Our Past (Ireland) is offering a three-day virtual event with at least 10 presentations. The full range of presentations, and whether some or all will be live is not mentioned. The cost is €10 ($16 Cdn), say $1.60 Cdn per talk.

Genealogy with a Canadian Twist Virtual Workshop 2020, four live presentations with Katherine Lake Hogan, Lianne Kruger, Mags Gaulden and Christine Woodcock. $49 Cdn, ($37 early bird) or $9.25 to $12.25 Cdn per presentation.

German Genealogy Conference, $30.75 ($41 Cdn) for 20 presentations over three days. $2.05 Cdn per presentation.

It's not genealogy, but genealogist Janet Few is part of a two-day event, Crime in the Countryside, Tiverton/Devon with nine presentations. Some talks are one-hour, some 30 minutes. The cost is £5 ($9 Cdn) — between $1 and $2 Cdn per one hour equivalent presentation.

Past Events
Celtic ConnectionsVirtual Conference now over but available on a recorded basis until the end of the month. 25 presentations by Fiona Fitzsimons, Maurice Gleeson, John Grenham, Paul Milner, Chris Paton and others. $99 US ($132 Cdn) or $5.28 per presentation.

OGS Virtual Conference 2020. 6-7 June. 18 sessions for $50 Cdn, or $2.78 Cdn per session which may include shorter Fastrack sessions.

Legacy Family Tree Webinars
You can attend two or three (usually) live webinars each week for free. An annual subscription for $49.95 US ($67 Cdn) gives access to these, some bonus presentation, shorter weekly tech sessions and an archive of over 1,000 presentations together with syllabus material. That's less than one dollar per presentation, depending on how you count it! A real bargain.

Free Sessions
A variety of organizations including Findmypast, MyHeritage, Ancestry, FamilySearch, OGS, the Commonwealth War Grave Commission, the Allen County Public Library, likely I missed quite a few,  make presentations available without charge. Check out my blog post This Week's Online Genealogy Events each Tuesday. 

What's Value?
If it's worth more to you you'll pay more, just as you'll shop at a boutique for a special purchase and Walmart or Dollarama for commodities. A lecture at the prices charged by SOG or OCCGS may well be worth it to you depending on where you are in your investigations. You may look at a conference package and purchase if you see one or two presentations of interest, just as with buying a magazine at a newsstand. With the variety available at free and low cost, just a couple of bucks, I need a good reason to purchase a one-hour presentation for over $5 Cdn.

What about you?




6 comments:

Louis Kessler said...

John: Excellent summary of what's out there and their prices. I agree with you and I also now need a good reason to spend more than a few dollars for a presentation.

I now must have heard hundreds of speakers and presentations on all sorts of genealogy topics at paid. conferences, free online webinars, and paid online webinars.

So I'm quite saturated, but will still pay to hear something if it has new or different content that I'm interested in.

K said...

My rule is, if a webinar costs $45.00 - then I expect to come away with $45.00 worth of information.

But I have another question - What is a reasonable amount to spend on a speaker. For instance, many speakers speak for free at genealogical societies, but there are some speakers that charge the society to come and speak for a couple of hours. What is a reasonable price to pay a speaker? I already asked two museums what they paid for their last speakers, and I was made to feel like I was asking a personal question, and never did get an answer. I realize the speakers incur costs, their gas & car, their website and cell phone and internet connection etc. So if they charge a fee to speak, what do you think a reasonable fee is?

Louis Kessler said...

The professional genealogy speakers I know charge about $100/hour for their time plus expenses. They often include time for preparation of the presentation which could be 10 hours.

Sophronia said...

There are enough free seminars & lectures online to satisfy most genealogists and historians. As a senior on pension I won't be attending any that charge. I suspect I'm not alone. Tomorrow I'm going on a virtual tour of some Irish Monasteries, led by an archealogist. It is FREE.

K said...

Thank you Louis for your comment. This is exactly the type of info I was looking for. Before this, I never knew what was reasonable and what wasn't. Thanks again.
KarenP

Seeds to Tree said...

Today I received an email that for a short time only there was a discount to sign up for an interactive webinar on International Censuses at Familytree Magazine. Sounded like a great subject, and a discount too! I checked and the one hour webinar was reduced from $49.00 to $39.00 - for ONE HOUR. In addition, the speaker's name wasn't listed. I have paid for online webinars, including $49.00 for a YEAR at Legacy. I was dumbstruck in the pricing for this one hour today.