> Over the years we got experience and we learn a lot from the people doing this event before, setting a schedule to start meetings, having a base of providers, having contacts to ask for space, etc. Our budget was 0 (yes it is a zero) and all cost should be paid by us, the organizers. So to recover that we made t-shirts, and souvenirs (that needed to be paid in advance) then maybe you didn't lost money when the event was finished. Because people didn't pay a ticket for it, it is a free event.

> It was a huge effort to make something like that. Months sleeping few hours, people going crazy to setup tracks for talks, approving them and talking to the people that gave the talk to accommodate the schedule. Having the t-shirts on time and the souvenirs, because if not, we will not broke, but we cannot recover the founds. Having the cables and the network ready, the software and servers to install was also a huge task.

> Food and water..? Yes, that is a crazy nightmare

Something to think about: maybe getting everyone to pay a token sum wouldn't be such a bad idea. It helps with guaranteeing attendance, which helps with knowing exactly how much food to cater.

You can give everyone a T-shirt or some other swag to make sure they get their money's worth, and offer free tickets (or volunteering opportunities) to those who genuinely can't afford to pay, but who would take the trouble to write in.