Comped scribblers the bane of conferences

[Tim May]

On Thursday, August 23, 2001, at 03:32 PM, Greg Broiles wrote:
> That's not bad, as things go, for a week of classes, if they're giving 
> MCLE credits and have a nice continental breakfast. It's not like the 
> attendees are expected to pay for this out of their own pockets.
>
>

Conferences are as dysfunctional, in my view, as our system of paying 
doctors is.

I mostly stopped going to conferences when I was faced with escalating 
fees apparently based on the model of "But _you_ won't be paying the 
fees, your conference-care-provider will!"

The working assumption for medical care is that the "insurance company" 
will be stiffed with the $300 fee for a 15-minute consultation. Pity the 
fool who walks into an office without his Pseudo-Socialized Health Care 
Freebie Card and is told a simple consultation will cost him $300 for 15 
minutes of time from a distracted doctor from some Turd World country.

Ditto for conferences and paid classes, which are now priced at 
stratospheric prices because 50% of the attendees are "comped," and b) 
because most of the other 50% are attending as a kind of bennie or 
freebie or paid vacation from their employers.

Hence I rarely go to professional conferences.

I blame the tax system (deductiblity for some, nondedeductibility for 
others--no conference I have attended since 1986 has ever been 
"deductible" for me), the comped journalist system, and the whole notion 
of people trying to get others to pay for their costs system.

In a way, it's hilarious. I see programmers now going down the route of 
lawyers. The bookshelves in my local Borders are now filled with vast 
numbers of "MSCEE" or somesuch bullshit books on how to become a 
"Certified Microsoft Annointed Trainee Expert" drone. Apparently to help 
lugnut businessmen install "Windows Me!" one is now expected to have 
"completed" X number of hours of training in how to insert a diskette, 
how to attach a USB printer, etc.

The pendulum will eventually swing the other way, toward where 
competency (reputational, demonstrated) will count for more than numbers 
of "MCEE" and "CMATE" hours.

Meanwhile, don't expect to see me at the next CFP conference!  Plenty of 
comped scribblers, though.

--Tim May