At 2:42 AM 10/16/95, Michael Froomkin wrote:

Those seeking more info on the conference will find it at: Http://www.multicorp.com/wec.

They are asking over $500 in registration fees, which strikes me as wildly excessive, so I'm not advocating attendence.

Excessive registration costs for conferences have long bothered me, as Michael knows first-hand. I just declined to go to the Hacker's Conference this year because the registration has risen to $400 for 2 days. That they supply a midnight buffet is hardly justification for charging $200 a day, in my opinion. (My direct comparison is to science fiction conventions, where the hotel rooms run $70 a day and overall registration--with a nice program book!--is $40 or less.) Doug Barnes informed me that the money laundering conference, for which he wrote those great trip reports, cost $1000 for two days (gulp!). His corporation picked up the tab, natch. It's pretty clear to me that things are getting out of hand. I find myself priced out of most conferences, not because I can't "afford" them, but because I find paying $400 or $600 or more for a short conference to be a poor use of my money, compared to other things (like mortgage payments, books, investments, new doodads for my computer, toys, vacations, etc.). Conferences seem to be priced to take advantage of the tax laws and to soak corporations, which can write off the conferences. (No, I find there is no way I can "write off" the various conferences I'd like to attend.) Needless to say, I'm not saying conference organizers don't have the "right" to charge these exorbitant fees. Clearly they find customers. But it's also my right to avoid these "conference taxes." --Tim May Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."