Just posting this because there appears to be a desire by some of this blogs readers to attend the Thinking Digital event in Gateshead but the cost was proving prohibitive.

On Friday, Lewis from organisers Codeworks commented on a previous post regarding the £599 attendance fee.  He said:

Worth pointing out that the prices were significantly cheaper if you booked early on (I’m not saying ‘cheap’, mind you, but we feel the conference content will be good value for money. For the speaker line-up we’ve got, you’d usually have to get on a plane across the Atlantic before you even paid the ticket price.)

Tickets were also available for £175 to companies who’re part of our membership organisation, Codeworks Connect, which supports local digital businesses.

That’s not exactly free, of course… but like I say, we will be taking into account any feedback we get on pricing (and anything else, for that matter).

Unless I am missing something that is slightly at odds with their own website which states Codeworks Connect members pay £399.  Lewis feel free to put us right on this one if I have missed anything.

Anyway, not mentioned by Lewis, or by the website, but news reaches me that tickets are actually available at a much reduced rate - possibly even half price or better.  Apparently due to cancellations they still have some tickets to shift.  It might be worth giving them a ring.  Tough luck though if you already shelled out the £599.

If they are having problems selling then it’s surely the marketing that’s to blame because the line up itself seems pretty impressive.

However the website and all things social media,  is a little half arsed - The blog was updated on Friday for only the first time in a month.  Comments seems very thin on the ground.  The Flickr account seems entirely pointless and hasn’t been updated since January and, three months on, one pic is still yet to be turned the right way around.

Hmm but what else could they take pictures of for the Flickr feed?  Here’s a hint guys.  You have a nice venue there.  It could even be the star of your show if you raised it’s profile just a little. 

Elsewhere regarding the whole web2.0 conversation thing, Thinking Digital is sadly hardly bothering either Technorati or Twitter.

All in all, not much of a ripple in the blogosphere.

Still, the good news is that it does appear to be getting cheaper.

Update:  This blogger appears to have three free tickets to give away.  Well if he can get them….

My ticket is already paid for but does anyone at Thinking Digital have some spares for OMIN to give away?  They’d be going to those people who had already expressed an interest in my comments section.

Update 2: Meanwhile, it appears Chinwag website seems able to offer a 25% dicount if you buy through them.   Irritatingly while their About page describes them as being: “.. a focal point for digital media practitioners in the UK and beyond“, regarding Thinking Digital it states:

“And if you’re thinking Newcastle is a big ole schlep up from the South-East, bear in mind it’s only 3 hours on the train and the East Coast line has passable wifi, so you need never be off-the-grid.”

Obviously the people at Chinwag think “digital media practitioners” are only ever to be found in the South East.  Ick.  Guys the first W of the three stands for WORLD - and you can’t even think beyond the M25.  Shame on you.

Any more Thinking Digital cheap tickets or giveaways out there?  It seems there is finally a bit of a PR push to get rid of them. I wonder how many are left.

Has it all gone a bit Glasto?

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)