I'll be blunt. Last years event took me 100s of hours of solo preparation and ultimately, we lost money on it. Not much. But we were in the red. This was 100% our fault: we set a price, crossed our fingers that 25 people would join us in a group campsite for a weekend, and then the whole thing tripled+ in size.
The increase is not a money grab on our part. We've carefully reviewed the raw costs of producing these events so we can expand to other regions, scale in size, and stay in business.
Here's the breakdown for the 2016 OTG Pricing Increase:
1. Create an event that lives up to our quality standards. Full stop.
2. Hire additional help to facilitate check-in, meals, setting up, taking down, coordinating with Camp Edison, creation and distribution of welcome kits etc. We were LUCKY to have so many people jump in last year to help, but we can't run events hoping paid attendees will cover our ass. (Michael and I were cleaning up after the meal at 11PM last year. We love hard work, but we need help.)
3. Cover costs for additional group campsites so people are not dog piled on top of each other like last year, and each person has appropriate space for their set up (RTT owners are not on an incline, tent owners have a flat patch to pitch, special needs/requests, etc.)
4. Expand community based meals to encompass Friday night + Saturday night, and create amenities like a coffee station for the mornings. The Saturday night meal was spectacular in community and spirit. It's the exact energy and experience Michael and I seek to create in the world.
5. Insurance. We're too big to not have it. (Unfortunately, that takes $$$.)
6. Kids are free this year.
Overland Bound Bootcamp - Thursday/Friday:
1. Completely separate from OTG. It is it's own product with its own costs. Someone can just come up for Thursday/Friday and not participate in OTG.
2. Cost covers campsite Thursday night, Thursday night group meal, insurance, cost of educators (time/travel/expertise), lunch at the top of Bald Mountain, small class/cohort size, additional help to facilitate, etc.
3. Everyone will be learning the same material at the same time, and will require the same resources/costs for us to produce the event. This is why there is no difference between a driver and passenger. Each person will receive the same quality educational content.
You are all ground-floor with us as we attempt to make the leap from boot-strapped hobby to full on organization devoted to inspiring adventure and providing the best education.
I'm Rambly McRambleston from Rambletown over here. I want our crew to know that we are not price gouging attendees so we can bathe in your money when we get home.
Please please please shoot me DM's or email me at
corrie@overlandbound.com or reply here with questions, feedback, etc.
High fives and hugs - Corrie