Discussion: Surveillance Pricing

* * EXCEPTIONAL SCHEDULE TIME CHANGE * *
TAKE NOTE THIS EVENT STARTS AT 5pm, NOT 6pm!!

* * Shoes-Off Venue * *
This venue requires that you remove your outdoor footwear on arrival.

* * Feel free to bring food or drinks * *
* * Participation is optional - you can join us to speak or to listen * *

Surveillance pricing was famously pioneered by Uber under the name "Dynamic Pricing". It meant that they would raise their prices during busy periods. It's 3am on New Year's Eve and you along with everyone else wants a ride home? That's gonna cost you!

This new pricing model is only made possible in our app-focused, data-driven age. Previously, you might have stood on the corner for a while before you could hail a taxi, but you didn't have to worry about your driver being connected to a network with live data from 100 other drivers in the vicinity that could optimize the cab owner's profit-taking.

Uber is not alone in testing this strategy. Online retailers are attempting to harvest data about your web browsing habits to guess your spending limit and charge you the optimal (maximal) price that you're wiling to pay. Imagine a world where you browse Amazon.ca, but the prices you see for any product are different from what's offered to others. Cafes, restaurants and grocery stores are studying whether they can vary their prices throughout the day or year. Are you in a hurry to get coffee before work or dinner to bring home to your family? That might cost extra.

Is this unfair profiteering, or simply a more precise and perfected implementation of free-market principles? How do you feel about living in a world where profitable businesses know so much about us and our habits? What do you think about surveillance pricing?

Join us for fun, friendly and substantive discussion about the important topics of the day. All viewpoints are welcome for this friendly, moderated discussion.

How it Works
Everyone will be invited to share their opinion, share relevant facts and reasoning, and respond to the views of others.

Our moderator will ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to speak and that dialogue will be kept respectful. All viewpoints are welcome. After the event, you are invited to stay for friendly, informal discussion if you wish.

Name and Pronoun Preferences
If you have specific pronoun preferences or any other requests to help ensure that you feel comfortable and respected, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the event organizer. Your needs and preferences are important to us, and we want to make sure our gatherings are supportive and inclusive for all attendees.

Aren't you worried about having an event with 50+ people?!?
No because there will not be 50 people at the event. On Meetup, many attendees cancel at the last minute, and many are no-shows who skip the event without cancelling. I set the RSVP limit to 55 people, I reduce that limit to 45 in the last two days before the event, and then 20-30 people will actually attend.

This allows us to hit our attendance target of 15-30 people, and it ensures that attendees have their spot guaranteed weeks in advance. This makes the guest count inaccurate, but it's the simplest way to provide you a reliable and positive RSVP experience.

Suggested Reading
Surveillance Pricing (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_pricing

Ideals
Please read the Studio 42 Ideals before attending the event:
http://stu42.co/ideals

Admission
Admission is free. We accept donations to help fund our events.

Latecomers
Latecomers are welcome but we start promptly at 6:05pm so if you arrive late, you will miss out!