BrightonSEO

Free ballot tickets

We allocate thousands of free tickets each year for brightonSEO conferences via our ballot system.

April 2024's free ticket ballot

Ballot tickets are valid for one day only. When you enter the ballot you can specify which date you’d prefer or let us pick one at random. Content will be different on each day with topics spread across both days so you can pick based on your availability (not by topic theme).

The ballot for April's free tickets has now closed.

How the ballot works

We had to introduce a ballot because demand for our free tickets kept crashing ticketing platforms then selling out in minutes which was all a tad too frantic for us and the internet.

Instead of all that drama we now open a ballot registration form for 48 hours a few months before each conference. If you’d like a free ticket you just enter your details then we randomly select people who will be offered free tickets.

Typically around 20% of the people who join the ballot get a free ticket so if you want to ensure you get a ticket you can buy one of our training or Friend tickets or grab one for our fringe conferences which include entrance to the main brightonSEO conference.

To be amongst the first to hear about future ballots, subscribe to our mailing list and follow us on Twitter.

Why a ballot?

One way to avoid the scramble for tickets would be to scrap the free tickets but that’s not our style and we like having different ticket types for people to choose from:

A free ballot

a one-day ticket option that’s great for people starting out in the industry or who want to try the brightonSEO experience

Friend tickets

a chance to secure a ticket easily (particularly valuable if their time is precious), attend both days of the conference and enjoy perks like our famous merch

Training tickets

for people who really want to get the most from the event. They arrive a day early for a full-day of training to delve deep into one topic and then get the variety of the conference as well

You may have heard how brightonSEO started out – our founding aim was to make the conference free to as many people as possible, especially to those starting out in the industry.

This was all well and good in the beginning but, as we grew, the demand for free tickets all got a little silly.

Our September 2017 conference saw the free tickets sell out in four minutes.

In April 2018, so many people tried to get hold of tickets they crashed the ticketing platform, even though it had previously handled some of the biggest events in tech. Demand was mind-boggling.

We found ourselves with a choice, find a bigger venue (which would mean moving out of Brighton) or handle the free ticket release differently. Most event companies would just make all the tickets paid for, but we decided that wouldn’t work for us.

So we decided to hold a ballot.

We have a 72 hour window to register your interest then we let you know if you are allocated a ticket. If all that seems like too much bother, you can still buy a ticket which will guarantee you entry to the conference.