No-show rate

The percentage of people who registered but never arrived. It is the single most important planning number for free community events: the widely cited planning range for free in-person events is 30 to 60 percent, DevOpsDays operates on 30 to 40 percent, and paid events typically see 10 to 20 percent. This is why experienced organizers overbook free events to roughly 1.5 to 2 times the venue target, and why a small ticket price or refundable deposit changes attendance behavior so dramatically.

Source: DevOpsDays Organizing Guide (their 30 to 40 percent operating number); Pheedloop Event Data Lab report 06 (payment, not friction, is the commitment filter); Localist and eventcloud published organizer data on price sensitivity.

First used in: 0.1 · The event lifecycle at a glance. Taught fully in 2.2 · Registration ops: the no-show math.