Without members, I don’t survive.

Dear Handmade Folks!

Handmade Seattle 2023 was a triumph thanks to our badass presenters and your support! I want to express my gratitude to my staff and the Seattle Center again for making this event possible. I’m also delighted so many attendees finally tried the best drink of all time 🙂

The feedback so far, be it praise or constructive criticism, has been invaluable. Now, let’s talk about the reality of running indie conferences. While ticket sales cover the event’s costs and staffing, they don’t sustain my livelihood…

Members Make the Difference

Organizing a tech conference in a major city, with zero sponsors, is no small feat—I often navigate the complexities of negotiations and payment plans just to break even. Any profits are meager and go back into the business: with no leftovers for personal expenses like rent and groceries.

That’s where conference members come in.

A member is someone who not only enjoys the conference, but also likes me personally. You WANT me to stay independent, so you throw five bucks a month my way:

Notice how trivial it is to pause or cancel, which is why I use this system.

I very much understand the fatigue of monthly commitments, but your membership directly supports an individual striving to make ends meet in a small studio apartment on a ramen budget. I’m not even able to open a 401k yet, so your contribution, no matter the size, could mean way more than sending that money elsewhere.

For those who prefer a one-time donation, Donorbox allows for that too—every bit really helps.

What’s On the Horizon?

I still have financial commitments to meet, such as post-conference bills and so on. If you purchased a combined physical ticket for Boston and Seattle, I appreciate your patience as we fulfill the promise of free merchandise.

In the coming weeks, we’ll refine and upload the presentations to the Handmade Cities Media page. I’ll personally notify each presenter when their recording is available. Meanwhile, you can still access the stream VODs on Vimeo and Twitch! Personally, I recommend Twitch because it’s simpler to share clips or snippets there.

Lastly a friendly reminder: I’m leading the Handmade Meetups initiative with trusted hosts worldwide. Visit that page to sign up for your city as I gear us up for exciting new updates come January.

For now, I’m off to sleep some more 🙇