In-person registration booth at RightsCon Costa Rica in 2023

→ Our approach to registration
→ Our approach to ticket types
→ Changes to our ticket model
→ Improved registration experience
→ Registration timeline
→ What’s coming up next

We’re just two weeks away from August 14, when registration for RightsCon 2025 (Taipei and online, February 24-27) will open! Today, we’re excited to share our plans, including updates to our ticket types, our commitment to accessibility and transparency, a new and improved registration experience, and more.

Our approach to registration

Registration at RightsCon is centered around lowering barriers to participation and ensuring the summit remains an accessible and welcoming space to all. We are proud to report that, over the years, we have provided more than 35,000 free tickets to RightsCon through our inclusive ticket policy, on top of heavily subsidizing ticket costs overall.

While we are committed to prioritizing equitable access to our summit, we also want to be more transparent about the financial challenges of sustaining an event of this size year-over-year, especially as a nonprofit. Our intention is to provide a broad picture of the costs of hosting RightsCon and the contributions needed to maintain it, so that you have all the information you need when deciding which ticket to purchase.

Ticket proceeds support the growing cost of the event, making sure the community continues to enjoy a high-quality summit experience, as well as ensuring diverse voices and perspectives have a seat at the table through the Community Support Fund. At our last summit, RightsCon Costa Rica, 89% of participants registered for free. When participants who are able to cover their per-person costs do so, they are actively preserving resources and making space for our community members who rely on our inclusive ticket policy in order to participate. This makes it possible for RightsCon to continue serving as a place for our community to convene, especially in the current context of shrinking civic space around the world.

Our approach to ticket prices

Each year, we gauge ticket prices based on historical data on ticket revenue, a comparative review of similar events, as well as an estimation of production and vendor costs, participant numbers, and sponsorship revenue expectations. While this is not an exact science, our goal is to break even with the costs of the summit through sponsorship and ticket revenue. This includes our core staff’s salaries and event production budget, encompassing catering, travel and transportation costs, production staffing, security, online platform costs, venue costs, printing, visuals, and decor. 

In recent years, sponsorship has represented about 85% of our summit revenue. However, in 2023, RightsCon Costa Rica was the first summit where sponsorship nor ticket revenue was able to cover the full cost of the summit. To maintain RightsCon as an accessible platform while ensuring the sustainability of our summit, we have decided to reevaluate our event budget, ticket model, and pricing structure for RightsCon 2025 and beyond.

Changes to our ticket model 

Historically, tickets have been categorized into five stakeholder groups to encourage individuals to contribute to the cost of their tickets based on their own sector. Yet, this model doesn’t account for the variance in size and budget that can exist within one sector. We also found that at times, participants didn’t select the correct stakeholder group and, in the end, the majority (72%) of all paying participants for both in-person and online registered in the same stakeholder group. This indicated that the broad stakeholder model was both not meeting the community’s needs and failing to transparently guide participants on how to contribute to the cost of their ticket, if they are able.

This year, we are transitioning to a new model to simplify the registration process and offer clearer opportunities to contribute to the cost of participation, whether in-person or online.

While the ticket types will change, the average cost of a ticket is not increasing. We hope this new ticket model promotes a deeper understanding of the direct impact of ticket purchases, and encourages ticket contributions at the level that is appropriate for each individual, based on their resources, regardless of which stakeholder group they come from. 

The following ticket categories for in-person and online will be available on our registration page:

Ticket Type	Early bird prices	Description	Recommended for
Supporter	$250 (online) $450 (in-person)	This ticket is intended for those with additional resources who would like to contribute towards the cost of their participation, as well as support purchases of the Community ticket for those in our community with fewer resources.	•Private sector companies • Investors • Foundations • Donors
Standard	$85 (online) $300 (in-person)	This ticket is intended for general participants who are in a position to contribute towards offsetting the cost of the event and their participation.	• Civil Society and NGOs • Academia • Creative sector • Governments • Intergovernmental institutions
Community	Pay-What-You-Can (online) $150 (in-person)	This ticket is intended for community members with limited resources, and for whom ticket fees are a barrier. This ticket is subsidized by Access Now and is supported by our sponsors and by the purchases of the Supporter ticket.	• Community organizations with limited resources • Students • Individuals without institutional support

We believe that ticket prices should never be a barrier to participation, and we will continue to offer free online tickets to participants, along with our usual distribution of in-person discount codes for program participants, community support fund recipients, as well as special rates for groups. This year, we’re also introducing a “Pay-what-you-can” online ticket option, allowing participants to choose their ticket price based on their financial resources.

This new ticket approach aims to maintain the diversity of perspectives at RightsCon while encouraging those who can afford it to contribute to their own costs and support fellow community members. If you have questions about discounts or group tickets, you can reach out to our team anytime at [email protected]. 

Improved registration experience

This year, we will be hosting registration for RightsCon 2025 through Humanitix in order to streamline the process: you’ll now be able to purchase your tickets directly on the RightsCon website! Humanitix offers a socially-impactful approach to ticket sales, with 100% of booking fees going to charitable initiatives, and an accessible, WCAG 2.0 compliant platform.  

While you’ll be purchasing your tickets through Humanitix, you will continue to use the RightsCon Summit Platform to access the program and all online sessions. Once our Summit Platform opens, registered participants will be invited to access or create their account on the TechChange platform.

Registration timeline

What’s coming up next

Mark your calendars for August 14, when registration officially launches for RightsCon 2025 (Taipei and online, February 24-27)! Sign up to our newsletter, the RightsCon Rundown, to receive the latest updates on travel and visas, program opportunities, tickets, and more. Stay tuned – we’ll be sharing information on final program notifications and travel support shortly.

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