We are grateful for the initial finance provided by the Champions for Change Millennium Awards Scheme, which is managed by the Peabody Trust and funded by the Millennium Commission. This has enabled us to hire a major venue capable of accommodating 500 visitors, and we have therefore advertised this widely within London, hoping that established LETSers will be able to welcome a number of newcomers. Further support from South East Region Cooperative Group has enabled us to extend our mailed-out information to a much wider group of LETS activists all over the UK. We are open to additional sponsorship from relevant organisations and individuals and will give them space accordingly - one option in the application form enables you to donate into a bursary fund for travel.

Attending the Event
Having gained sponsorship for the event, we then had some difficulty in establishing an appropriate fee. On the one hand we wanted to say "free for all", on the other hand we did not want to expose ourselves to the risk of losses because of catering for large numbers etc. We also wanted this to be a trading exercise. We have therefore come up with a formula, which allows those who can afford it to pay the full fee in sterling, and to support Letslink UK as well, but also allows those who need to to "trade their way" into the event: The fee of £20 covers £5 Letslink London membership, £5 to set up a "links" trading account, £5 to join the conference, and £5 worth of "links" currency, which can be used to buy food and other goods and services on the day - further currency will be available from the Bureau de Change in the foyer. If you have already joined Letslink London you can thus participate at half price, and if you are a paid-up member of an affiliated local LETS group you may pay half the fee in your own local currency provided your LETS organiser verifies your membership and agrees to convert your fee to "links" currency from the scheme's account.

Paying for Stand Space
In order to support those who are promoting relevant local and cooperative projects, rather than charge for stand space, we ask all participants to pay the minimum conference fee as set out above - in case of individual difficulty please let us know. There will be no specific charge for relevant information display but commercial trading be done on the basis of an agreed commission.

Trading your Way
For those short on sterling, some or all of the £20 fee can be traded for by helping us run this event at 5 links per hour or equivalent value and you can also earn extra: we will need help in the following areas: Bringing, Cooking & Serving FOOD, Registering, Stewarding and Creche-work, Looking after the main Information & Trading stalls or OFFERING ACCOMMODATION for visitors, preferably for "links" - please let us know ASAP - we will put details of accommodation on the website.