Five ways to bootstrap yourself into TNW’s Latin America Conference

TNW’s Latin America Conference is around the corner. In six days the Latin American tech industry comes together in Sao Paulo.

We get a huge number of requests for free tickets. Apparently in Brazil people are used to free lunches although the chef still has to cook, pay rent and buy its delicious meat and fish. I’m sorry to tell you that we just can’t give away free tickets because you have a great company (which you have), because you bought me or a TNW member a beer once (which is still appreciated), because you are a bootstrapping startup (aren’t we all?), because you don’t have any money (if you really want to join, build and extra website, wash dishes, mow the lawn).

We offer a great conference, with awesome speakers and an international crowd so you can do 20 interesting meetings at the same spot (without traffic), so you could find new clients, new investors, new talent, new partners, meet up with journalists and bloggers to get your story out, and share stories with your peers while drinking a beer at one of the parties. All this at a super price, starting at 100 dollars for students up to 600 dollars for normal tickets (don’t get me wrong 600 dollars is still a lot of money, but a. its worth every dime of it and b. its great value for money).

So here are some tips to help you with some ideas on how to be at the conference

1. Patron tickets

Get someone else to buy a patron ticket for you. A patron helps you to finance your ticket. The Patron pays 80% of the ticket and you pay 20%. Expect a Patron to ask something in return (no free lunch here either). Maybe the Patron wants to get a presentation after the show on all things you’ve learned or will ask you to help out with testing a new website. A Patron could be a person (your uncle, investor etc.) or a company. Be creative and you’ll succeed.
PS Papaya Ventures gives away Patron tickets via their FB page

2. Join with a group

Save money if you come with multiple people. You save 20% when buying 2 tickets at the same time and 33% if you register with 4 or more. That’s a quick win right there.

3. Join the Hack Battle

Are you a developer? Check out the Hack Battle. By joining the Hack Battle (free) you’ll not only have a great time hacking, meeting peers and talking to developers from our API partners. You’ll present your hack on main stage at the conference! How is that for showing off your skills. And if you want to see Werner Vogels’ Keynote… just walk 30 meters to the main conference room. It’s free, but no free lunch as you’ll be producing a cool hack.

4. Check the sponsors

A great tip that goes for any event. Sponsors often have tickets included in their package and sometimes they have some tickets left. Do you know someone at one of the companies that sponsor TNW Latin America?

5. Win tickets

To get yourself an almost free lunch (you still have to do something) you can join the sweepstake and win a ticket to the conference. Join the sweepstake below (you can join via email or facebook and increase your chances by sharing). Good luck!