Dis-Incentives to keep things simple…
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 08 Sep 2008, 1:55 PM – 5 Comments
I saw this notice at the TechCrunch50 conference (which is simply awesome)
It says:
“$500 replacement fee for lost badges. NO EXCEPTIONS”
You can ask people to be careful with their badges because if they lose it, it adds cost to the organizers. Or simply announce a powerful (dis)incentive to make sure that they ARE careful with the badges 
Have a great afternoon!
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5 Comments so far, Add Yours
Rajesh Setty on September 13th, 2008
Nagesh,
Thank you for your comments. I should have made it more clear. I didn’t say there was anything wrong in it and of course, all of us understand why the organizers do this.
The point I was that the effectiveness of something depends on the incentive or dis-incentive offered. If the dis-incentive was that “replacement will be $10″ than this would not have been as effective as “replacement will be $500″
Have a great weekend.
Best,
Raj
Dr.Mani on September 14th, 2008
Dis-incentives work awesomely well in parenting too (as I often tell my wife).
She asks our little daughter to do something… and gets non-compliance.
I give the child a choice – do this, or else get a punishment AND then do it.
9 times out of 10, obedience is instant.
Dis-incentives are powerful
All success
Dr.Mani
Jack Hayhow on September 18th, 2008
REALLY? $500 for a replacement badge? Exactly what “problem” does this solve for TechCrunch? Is the problem THAT big? Really?
Is A $500 replacement badge policy one of the first things Tech Crunch wants you to experience? Does it seem helpful to attendees? Does it make you want to go out and tell all your friends about the awesome Tech Crunch experience?
I think this is another case of navel gazing that it pretty darn close to idiocy. Does it work as a dis-incentive? Probably. But at what cost?
Rajesh Setty on September 18th, 2008
Jack,
The conference was really awesome with a ton of good content and great speakers.
I just wanted to make a point about dis-incentives and it is no way related to how the conference was. The notice happened to be at TechCrunch that’s all
Best,
Raj
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Nagesh Belludi on September 13th, 2008
Rajesh,
I do not understand. Is something wrong with this? What is the take-away?
I see it as an obvious measure. If a registrant loses her entrance credentials and somebody else finds them and uses them to participate in the event (assuming that this is a large event,) the organizers just cannot issue replacement credentials for the original registrant. To prevent loss and thus minimise misuse, the organizers announce a penalty.
Sincerely,
-Nagesh