NASA Pays $66 A Person For Snacks

[The Straight Story]

NASA Pays $66 A Person For Snacks
Food, Drinks For 3-Day Seminar Cost $62,000

WASHINGTON -- The nation's space agency paid the out-of-this-world price of $66 a person a day for bagels, cookies and juice at a conference, a new report found.

The subject of the NASA conference? It was a training session for its procurement officials -- the people who do the buying with taxpayer funds.

During the three-day conference, the 317 attendees snacked on "light refreshments" of soda, coffee, fruit, bagels and cookies at a cost of $62,611, according to a NASA Inspector General report. That's $66 a day per person.

And that wasn't the only problem. The NASA financial watchdog criticized the financially strapped space agency's spending on conferences in general. The inspector general said NASA didn't price shop to get cheaper locations for conferences and that NASA's spending on food and drinks was "excessive."
...

The training conference in December 2008 at a Hilton hotel in Baltimore took the cake for most expensive per person of the eight conferences examined. The conference cost NASA a total of $495,173 for 317 people, a cost of more than $1,500 per person. But the eye-opener was the coffee and snack costs.

http://www.clickorlando.com/technology/22954694/detail.html

[no limit]

1. Training session for its procurement officials? I had to make sure this wasn't the onion

wow

[unhappycamper]

2. I think NASA knows its days are (sadly) numbered.

It takes a shitload of energy to get things into orbit and the cost of launch materials should make launching anything into space cost prohibitive. The military has been using Vandenberg to launch their black satellites.

[peekaloo]

3. Wow. Imagine the cost if the conference had included 'Tang.

}(

[izquierdista]

4. Doesn't seem out of line

If you've ever organized one of these things, you know how hotels rake you over the coals for continental breakfast, snacks, and refreshments. A cookie or muffin that costs a dollar at a convenience store immediately becomes $3, drinks that Wal-Mart sells for $2 a six-pack become $2 each, and so on. Of course, since you are using the hotel's conference room, you can't very well go out and have it catered by someone else.

[no limit]

5. $66 for bagels, juices, and cookies is reasonable?

I never organized one of these events but been to plenty of them. I've seen menus much better than bagels and cookies at training events that were free, so I doubt the company hosting was shelling out anything close to $60 / head. This seems just nuts.

[GoCubsGo]

6. He didn't say it was reasonable.

He just said it was in line with what most hotel conference facilities charge for refreshments. I have been to plenty of conferences, too. The ones at higher-end hotels charge an arm and a leg for snacks. And, no, those cookies and bagels you had were not "free", unless the whole thing was free. Those cookies and bagels and coffee were included in your registration fees.

[no limit]

8. Like I said, it's a free event. No registration fees.

And they always have the standard convention breakfast and a fairly decent catered lunch with around 200 people attending. So I doubt they are paying $60 a head, they wouldn't have these events every year for a few nerdy techs if they were that expensive.

[MindPilot]

16. It's not free -- somebody is paying for it.

[no limit]

17. You are missing my point entirely. No duh someone is paying for it

I am saying they can't be paying $60 a person as NASA did or this event would never take place. My company does very little sales with them each year, and I get an invite each year.

[MindPilot]

20. Breakfast, lunch, room, set-up, take-down, etc

If it's not 60 bucks or close to it, the sponsoring company is getting a REALLY good deal.

[no limit]

21. Remember we are only talking about the food costs. NASA paid over $1500 a head in overall costs

[GoCubsGo]

19. No fees for you. However...

Whoever "they" is are paying for it. And, as you said, you have no idea what "they" are paying for refreshments, use of the facilities, etc. Besides, that was not the point. The prices in the OP **ARE** the going rate in most big hotel chains, regardless of what they cost at the conferences you attend. IF the organizers of your conferences paid less that $60 a head, it was only because they did their homework and worked out a deal.

[no limit]

22. What are the going rates for food at a convention? I dont believe its $60 /head

for simple snacks. I would love to be proven wrong. I'm not able to find any hotels that publish their prices.

[izquierdista]

26. And you won't

It's one of those if-you-have-to-ask,you-can't-afford-it deals. And before you burn that $60/head figure into your retinas, remember that's $20/day for a three day event, which if they cater continental breakfast, a mid-morning snack, and another snack at tea time is probably about average.

[no limit]

30. The $60 figure was a day. For 3 days it would actually be kind of reasonable

[Gormy Cuss]

29. izquierdista is right -- the set up charges for refreshments are exhorbitant

and booking the room for a function without some food service isn't business the hotel wants -- they don't make much money from the room rental fees. When I did conference planning many hotels wanted the snack set up AND lunch service as part of the rental. A one time continental breakfast set up in the early 1990s used to run $15-25 per person in major cities and that was 15-20 years ago.

[Brickbat]

7. Yup, this doesn't seem outrageous to me either. It seems like someone is cherry-picking data to

make a point, IMO.

[rfranklin]

9. They have to make money to stay in business...

Unfortunately, as a business owner I encounter this all the time. People forget that there are costs associated with whatever product or service you provide.

I am a photographer who does a lot of weddings. I have to pay for rent, insurance, association dues, advertising, equipment, transportation, contractors plus the services and materials of my suppliers. I am also up against a low barrier to entry and have to compete against people who have none of those expenses. With the current economy, customers hear only the lower price. Later they are sorry but gee, it's too late because the event cannot be recreated.

[tammywammy]

12. Even our company cafeteria charges a ton

Gallon of iced tea or coffee? $10. The cafeteria's run by an outside company, and the prices are crazy. I ordered 9 (8 slices) pizzas for a working lunch and just the pizzas were $153.00.

[no limit]

13. $17 for a pizza seems a lot more reasonable than what nasa paid for bagels and cookies

[tammywammy]

14. Maybe their coffee was $10/gallon too though

:)

NASA definitely either got gouged by the hotel or is utterly stupid.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. Ain't just NASA. Years ago I ran into a woman from AT&T who...

was attending a conference at a NYC hotel, maybe the Pierre but definitely on Fifth Avenue.

She got a limo ride into the city because AT&T people don't do trains. Of course she has to stay at the hotel because AT&T people can't go back and forth to New Jersey like normal workers do every day. Then, she gets two meals from the Pierre and another one on the expense account anywhere in the city if she's tired of the Pierre's kitchens. The whole shindig costs thousands per person for the three days when the whole tab is added up.

"What's this conference for?"

"Cost cutting."



(Edit-- Ooops! The Pierre is on 5th, not CPW)

[NeedleCast]

15. Funny

I was staying at a Baltimor Hyatt Regency a few years ago on government travel (amazingly, they had the per diem rate). It was a 2 weeks trip and there was a conference during the 2nd week. The speaker was apparently one of these self-help charlitains giving a lecture on minimizing debt. While at the hotel bar one night, I started talking with two ladys who were there for the conference. They asked me if I was there for the conference as well and I said no, other business.

They told me I *HAD* to go to one of the speakers conferences. He was *SO* enlightening about how to stay out of debt and managed your credit. I asked the ladies where they were from and they said Arizona. I asked if they had paid cash or used credit cards to pay for their flights, hotel and to cover the (close to 2000 dollar) cost of the conference and they both said yes.

I said "so, 2000 for the conference, 650ish for five days at the hotel, 350 for the flight? That about right? They said yes. I asked if it was wise to charge 3000 dollars on a credit card to attend a conference about minimizing debt.

They stopped talking to me after that.

Sometimes I'm too much of a smartass for my own good....

[NeedleCast]

11. Seems about in line with ridiculous hotel food costs

After traveling for business for the better part of five years nothing Hotels/Conference Centers do surprises me, price wise.

When a hotel is charging $8 for a package of M&Ms from the mini-bar, of course you're going to end up with prices like this.

(Really sucks when you come back to the hotel hammered because all of a sudden 8$ M&Ms doesn't seem like a bad idea...)

[MindPilot]

18. Yep, you ain't paying eight bucks for M&Ms

You're paying eight bucks for delivery, storage and immediate availability of M&Ms.

[FarCenter]

23. They may have been getting the government per diem rate for rooms

So the hotel jacks up the prices for other services in order to make up for the cheaper room rates.

Note that good "refreshments" during the day means that conferees have their food per diem to spend in the evening.

[LynneSin]

24. Damn! Sounds like my kind of conference (snack wise anyways!)

:D

[Atman]

25. A stupid, pointless story, as anyone who has ever attended a corporate conference can attest

Corporate conferences aren't retail. Maybe you've never had the opportunity (duty?) to attend one, but to expect that you're going to pay the going, over-the-counter rate for a bagel is just wrong. It may suck, the prices may be inflated, but this is what hotels do to corporate clients. There is nothing unusual about this, and to try to parlay this into a "See, NASA wastes money!" argument is the height of stupidity and ignorance. It ain't NASA's fault. Just SOP for corporate events.

.

[Silent3]

27. It's an experiment to see if stratospheric pricing...

...can be used as an effective launch vehicle.

[Echo In Light]

28. .