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Cheap bastards

6 comments on Cheap bastards

Cheap bastards
: There was a minor stink over the pricing of Bloggercon, the Harvard weblog conference (I didn’t sniff at it; I’ve registered, with credit card). But that’s nothing compared with this:

I was asked to be on a panel about blogging at the Online News Association‘s conference in Chicago. Now, I avoid industry professional conferences like the plague — well, actually like I avoid memberships in professional associations — because I find they tend to be insular schoozefests that waste time and companies’ money. But this was about blogging and so I thought it was God’s work to go.

But I just found out that they not only want me to fly to Chicago on my dime and stay there on my dime (in a hotel with no Internet access — did they say this was the Online or Offline News Association?) and ruin my weekend (why would anyone have a conference on a weekend? — I smell a trend here and I don’t like it) and participate in creating the very content that is the conference … but then they want to charge me $475 for the privilege. That’s nerve.

Here’s my first object lesson about blogging for the ONA: Whatever you do to a blogger is likely to be blogged, with snark.

I’ll give you that advice for free.

6 responses to “Cheap bastards”

  1. Anil Avatar
    Anil

    I don’t get it, they’re both selective, insular meetings that cost you $500+travel and a weekend. But one’s okay and one’s bad?

  2. jerry Avatar
    jerry

    So are you a journalist? You sure haven’t made it clear here just how bloggercon differs from ona.
    Oh yeah, here’s what we get:
    A) You like your boss to pay for your vacations
    during the work week
    B) You like to be snarky. “Ooh! Look at me!
    I’m snarky!”

  3. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    The difference is that I’m not part of the content at one, I am at the other. I think $500 is a lot in either case, but I feel a bit of bait-and-switch from the latter.

  4. jerry Avatar
    jerry

    Maybe you should put on the hat of one of the 2nd tier bloggers that is asked to pay $500 for either event, you know one of those guys you snarked over with your comment about the minor stink.
    In my industry, tech, the same guys give the same speaches and sessions at every industry conference. It’s no longer informative, it’s no longer fresh, it’s just an industry based on FUD and parties to separate your shareholder’s money from them. And when you ask what it takes to get on a panel, forget about it.
    I think the problem with the first conference was that some bloggers felt they were being asked to pay for another group of bloggers, the A list of blogger’s parties.
    And as many folks said then, $500 per person for a weekend conference? How much does it cost to borrow a church hall?
    Pay for the party, pay for their plane ticket and pay for their food and board. Just the same old same old nothing changes convention for convention sake forming.
    Except for bloggers there ain’t no corporate shareholders to foot the bill for the other guy’s party.
    In that light, the ONA conference appears to be a lot more ethical. Charge everyone alike and hold it on a weekend, and that way only the $uccessful, dedicated elite will come. An elitist party yes, but at least everyone is paying their own way.

  5. David O'Connor Avatar
    David O’Connor

    Sheesh. Anyone paying to attend a conference on a medium which boasts cheapness as one of its primary virtues merely reproves Barnum’s maxim.

  6. Howard Owens Avatar
    Howard Owens

    I’ve never heard of a professional organizations charging it speakers to ATTEND the conference. I’ve been invited to speak where I had to get there myself and pay for my own lodging, but at least my on-site meals were free and I got full access to the conference (turned those down, since I couldn’t foot the travel bill myself). And one organization paid for all of my expensives to and from London, all for a 30 minute presentation — now that was class (they even encouraged me to show up ONLY for my presentation, so I could have more time for sight seeing).
    You’re right, Jeff .. cheap bastards.