How Pricing Works
Every ticket to Biggest Little Dreamin’ is $99, the Community Rate. That’s the whole price, no tiers, no early registration discounts, the same for every Trailblazer in the room. This page explains why, how we landed on the name, and where the money actually goes.
Why $99
Conference budgets have gotten tighter across the board. Fewer companies are sending employees to conferences than they used to. More Trailblazers are paying their own way, out of pocket. Some are between jobs right now. Under the old pricing model, a single ticket cost more, and that was quietly pricing people out, not because anyone intended it to, but because that’s what a single higher price does when budgets tighten. That runs against what Biggest Little Dreamin’ is supposed to be: a conference built by the community, for the community, not one that only works for people whose employer covers the cost. So the price dropped to $99 per ticket, the Community Rate, for everyone, no exceptions and no tiers deciding who gets to be in the room.
How We Landed on “Community Rate”
The name went through more consideration than it might look like. “Pay What You Want” was considered and rejected, since a hard $99 floor exists, that name overpromises flexibility that isn’t real. “Pay What You Can” was considered too, an established, respected term at other events, but it implies the price is calibrated to what each person can individually afford, and $99 isn’t calibrated per person, it’s the same floor for everyone. Both names would have read as slightly dishonest once someone thought about them for more than a few seconds, and being straight with Trailblazers matters more to us than a catchier name.
We landed on splitting the idea into three separate, purpose-built names instead of trying to make one name do everything: Community First Pricing is the overall approach. Community Rate is the fixed $99 ticket price itself. The Biggest Little Dreamin’ Community Fund is where anyone who wants to give more can do that, separately and optionally. Three names, three specific jobs, instead of one name trying to explain a fixed price and a flexible option at the same time.
The Honest Part
$99 doesn’t cover the full cost per person to put on this conference. We’re doing it anyway, because pricing people out isn’t the alternative we want. We’re calling this what it actually is: an experiment, not a guaranteed formula. We don’t yet know for certain that enough people and sponsors will choose to cover the difference every single year. What we do know is that we’d rather try this and be transparent about the uncertainty than go back to a price that quietly excludes people who can’t get an employer to pay for it.
The Biggest Little Dreamin’ Community Fund
At checkout, anyone who’s able to give a little more than $99 can add to the Biggest Little Dreamin’ Community Fund. It’s completely optional, $99 gets you into the conference either way, no one is asked to justify why they’re only paying the Community Rate. The Fund helps close the gap between what Community Rate tickets bring in and the actual cost of running the conference. Anything left over after the current conference is fully paid for rolls forward into the next Biggest Little Dreamin’, rather than sitting unused.
Sponsors Are Part of This Too
The Community Fund isn’t the only thing closing the gap. Sponsors help cover it as well, and the Community Rate actually makes sponsorship more valuable, not less. When cost isn’t the reason a Trailblazer stays home, more of them show up, including admins, small consultancies, and Trailblazers between jobs who might not otherwise make it to a Salesforce conference at all. A fuller, more engaged room is exactly what sponsors are looking for. Affordability for attendees and a strong return for sponsors aren’t in tension here, they’re the same mechanism.