VFC 25: The Quote Lab - Pricing Real Briefs Together
📅 Schedule
6:30PM – Arrive, Mingle, Pizza
7:00PM-7:10PM – Intro + How It Works
7:10PM-8:40PM – Quote Lab Rounds (3-4 briefs, new table each round)
8:40PM-9:00PM – Group Pricing Q&A
9:00PM-10:00PM – Social
📍 New Venue
This month we’re at a new location! Soundhouse Studios is hosting us for the first time. Exact address is shared after you register.
🎒 What to Bring
Your laptop and/or a notebook. You’ll be building out quotes with your team, so bring whatever you like to work in.
📝 Want to Share a Brief?
The briefs come from people attending, and we need your help to make this work! If you’ve won a bid on a project and are willing to share the brief and how it played out, tell us when you sign up. Please submit by October 16th so we have time to follow up and pick a good mix of industries.
🎟 Tickets
$15 VFC Early Bird (first 10 returning attendees)
$20 VFC Member (returning attendee)
$25 General Admission (first-time attendee)
In-person tickets cover venue rental, pizza, and drinks. Space is limited!
The Quote Lab - Pricing Real Briefs Together
Pricing is one of the hardest parts of freelancing, and most of us figure it out alone, usually by guessing. This month we’re trying something new: a hands-on workshop where we price real projects together.
The briefs come from real clients and are shared by people attending, so the person behind each one will be in the room. In small teams, you’ll work through the quoting process, compare notes with the group, and then find out what really happened. After each brief, you’ll rotate to a new table and a new team, so you’ll work through several briefs and meet a lot of new people along the way.
We’ll finish with an open Q&A on pricing, followed by time to hang out.
How It Works
Each round takes about 20-25 minutes:
Quote it (5-10 min): In a small team, work through scope, deliverables, crew, gear, usage, revisions, and timeline, and land on a price.
Compare notes (5-10 min): Teams share their quotes, and we talk about where and why they differ.
The real result (5 min): The person who won the bid on that brief tells us how they priced it, whether they over- or undercharged, and what they learned.
Rotate: Switch tables, meet new people, and get a new brief.
We’ll get through 3-4 briefs, then come back together for a 20-minute group Q&A on pricing. Questions are submitted at sign-up, and everyone is encouraged to chime in with their own experience.
What You’ll Take Away
A clearer sense of how other working creatives approach quoting
What you should be charging for (and what often gets left off the quote)
How scope, usage, revisions, and timeline affect your price
Real examples of over- and undercharging, and what they taught
Confidence in defending your rates to clients
A stronger network of peers to trade pricing insight with
What This Is (and Isn’t)
The goal isn’t to get everyone charging the same rate. We all work in different fields, markets, and experience levels. The goal is more transparency around pricing, a shared understanding of the line items every quote should include, and a community that raises the bar together.
Why You Should Come
This session is for working creatives who want to quote with more confidence, whether you’re pricing your first commercial gig or have been freelancing for years. The briefs will span different industries depending on who’s in the room, so you’ll get exposure to how pricing works in corners of the industry you may not work in yourself. Come ready to participate: the more you share, the more everyone gets out of it.
About Vancouver Freelance Creatives
VFC is a community of camera-based creatives (filmmakers, photographers, cinematographers, videographers, producers, and editors) who connect, collaborate, and support one another through in-person meetups once a month. While we focus on working creatives, everyone at any stage of their creative journey is welcome! It’s a space to build community, share ideas, and spark new creative opportunities.