I actually made a huge profit at the convention (okay, I wasn't selling phone cards, CDs, or Green Party hats!). Here's how:
Total monetary cost: $578.00
Monetized values of benefits:
Met 5 of my classmates from high school: $500 worth of utility * 5 = $2,500.
Participated in the youth forum: $0 worth of utility in the first session and $76 worth of utility in the second session, thanks to Maitalal Gurung; total = $76.
Utility from the samosa chat and paani puri in the Indian restaurant over the actual cost = $7
High school reunion:
Spoke for 2 minutes, monetized value of the utility derived : $ 5
Listened to other people talk, monetized value of whose words = $ 20
Socio-economic forum:
Utility derived from the presentation: $160
Utility lost from the ambassador's long speech: $70
Annoyance (?) due to the broken microphone: $20
Cultural show:
Rabi Lamichhane's speech: $20
Talking to Rabi Lamichhane afterwards: $8 ($2 is the "induced" benefit from my friend's talk with Rabi Lamichhane)
Rabi Lamichhane's autograph: $7
Loss due to lengthy announcements by the anchors: $25
Loss due to that boring song in the middle: $4
Loss due to threat (I said "Once more" after that boring song. One guy next to me, apparently the singer's friend, understood the sarcasm and stared at me for like 20 seconds): $5
Likewise (I will only present summaries of programs to minimize the loss of my time and effort here; details available upon request):
Meeting some great people, including Mahendra Lawoti and the ambassador to the U.S.: $16
Throwing a question at Deepak Khanal, who seemed to have no clue what he was talking about: $10 * 2 questions
The utility derived from seeing girls, some of them really attractive, including the girl at the Middle-Eastern club: $17
Net benefit from the concert: $12 (it was way more; Karma band pulled it down)
A friend of mine, who was kind of tipsy, became a self-designated bouncer and pushed a guy off the stage. We had a good laugh later. Utility derived from the laugh: $5
Other miscellaneous benefits equivalent to approximately $176.
I don't know what to do with all this profit.
