Why do you charge for premium passes?
Our summits exist to support creative people in building sustainable careers, and we want that work to be accessible. We also want it to be high quality, well-resourced, and sustainable for the people making it happen. Paid tickets are how we hold those things together.
We're building something different to a podcast
There's already a lot of free creative content out there. Podcasts, newsletters, social posts. Much of it is funded by advertising or sponsorship arrangements that shape what gets made and how.
We're trying to build something different. Our summits are designed to deliver in-depth, considered insight, alongside resources we put real work into making genuinely useful. That kind of quality takes time, editorial care, and proper investment. It's hard to do well inside an advertising model, and we don't want to.
How we think about pricing
- Free access is key. Free Passes give live access to all sessions during the summit week. Cost shouldn't be a barrier to participating.
- Premium passes help pay our team and production. They cover production, the platform, and the materials we create. They also mean we don't have to lean on ads or compromise the experience to please sponsors.
- Supporting speakers. Where it makes sense, we run commission arrangements with speakers so that when tickets are sold through their channels, the majority of that commission goes to them. It's one of the ways we make participating in a summit worthwhile for the people sharing their expertise.
- Extended replay access. Premium passes give you a generous replay window for the sessions, plus lifetime access to the resources we provide alongside the summit. The aim is for the value to keep working for you well after the live week ends.
- Sponsorship is the long-term play. Long term, our model is to bring sponsors in to subsidise access for emerging creatives rather than charging more from creatives directly. Paid tickets in the early summits help us build the audience and credibility that makes that possible.
Premium passes and memberships are different things
A premium pass is for a specific summit. Front Row, our membership through Substack, is a separate ongoing engagement layer that sits across all of Futureative. Some Futureative products may run on a subscription basis, but premium summit passes don't. You pay once for that summit.
Not sure which way to go?
Start with a Free Pass. You'll get the full live experience. If the work resonates and you want longer access, more materials, or membership benefits, you can upgrade at any time during or after the summit.
If a premium pass isn't right for you, the Free Pass is built to be genuinely useful on its own. It isn't a stripped-down version designed to push you toward paying.
A note on climate
A small percentage of ticket sales goes toward climate initiatives, as a way of offsetting some of the impact of running events online. It's a modest contribution, but one we're committed to maintaining.