Simon Willison’s Weblog

Where can I sell the tickets of a conference I won’t be attending?

6th October 2013

My answer to Where can I sell the tickets of a conference I won’t be attending? on Quora

Most conferences are too niche to support a full scale online marketplace for unwanted tickets -it’s not like concert tickets where millions of people might want to buy your unused Kylie tickets.

Some events refuse to allow transfers of tickets, so it’s worth finding our if that is the case. Usually this is for logistic reasons—they might have ready printed up the badges for example—but for really large events this might be to avoid ticket touts.

In my experience it’s worth contacting the organisers directly. Popular conferences will have a waiting list and will be thrilled to allow someone else to go rather than leaving an empty seat. They may refund your ticket or help you find someone else to sell it to.

Otherwise, there’s always social media—out the word out in Twitter or on a mailing list or community related to the event it event topic that you have an unused ticket going spare.