Comped scribblers the bane of conferences

[Tim May]

On Saturday, August 25, 2001, at 07:59 AM, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 23, 2001 at 04:14:04PM -0700, Tim May wrote:
>> Meanwhile, don't expect to see me at the next CFP conference!  Plenty 
>> of
>> comped scribblers, though.
>
> CFP is in SF next year, so you may want to stop by.
>
> As for "comped scribblers," I am one. But look at it from a
> journalist's perspective: We may attend two conferences a week, say at
> $1,500/per. Rough estimates, then, would be over $150,000 a year, more
> than most journalists make.
>
> Paying that much in conference fees is not feasible, and conference
> organizers generally understand this and let us in free (we may pay for
> meals) in exchange for publicity.
>


First, $1500 per conference sounds way too high, even by today's 
inflated standards.

Second, I can't believe there are 100 such conferences a year! If you 
are going to 2 conferences per week for most of a year, you're going to 
way too many conferences!

Third, even scaling back the prices and numbers, I wasn't suggesting 
that no journalist be comped. Just that comping nearly a third or more 
of all attendees says something is out of whack.

Fourth, as for publicity, I don't recall seeing hundreds of articles 
about the last CFP I attended ('97, I think). And I know for a fact that 
a significant fraction of all the attendees (several hundred) were 
comped. Except for a handful of articles by the Usual Suspects, the 
organizers were getting a small bang for their buck.

Conferences are subject to market forces. If organizers want to comp a 
lot of journalists and charge amounts that only corporate law firms will 
be willing to pay for (probably charging-back some of their clients), 
then their model may be working.

I see this in another conference I used to attend regularly (but won't 
name, because search engines may cause my critique to get back to the 
organizers, who may stop inviting me...and I haven't given up on it 
completely yet). This conference started out in the 80s being 
affordable, sort of like science fiction cons used to be. Fairly rustic 
accommodations, fairly basic meals. Then they had the chance to invite 
some of the Big Luminaries: Esther Dyson, John Perry Barlow, Mitch 
Kapor, etc. They upgraded the venue, raised the rates, and sought 
corporate sponsorship. So the rates rose. (And the Luminaries are, to my 
mind, not worth listening to. I really have gotten fed up hearing Esther 
Dyson flit in to a conference, shmooze in the equivalent of the green 
room with other Luminaries, give a canned speech about cyber rights or 
computing in Russia, and then flit out to her next appearance. For this 
I am expected to pay exhorbitant conference fees? No thanks.)

CFP could have been a conference where tech types mingled with policy 
types. Alas, very few of the Cypherpunks meeting folks ever go to the 
CFPs, even when they're held locally to the Bay Area.
Mostly lawyers and spooks.

But there are more than market forces at work, too. For one thing, the 
tax laws don't allow folks like me to deduct our attendance fees in the 
same way law firms (and even general corporations) can. This is wrong.

I'll probably attend the next CFP the way I attended the very first 
one...by sitting in the comfortable chairs in the lobby area.

--Tim May