I was asked to be on another damned panel in February, this one for the Software & Information Industry Association’s Information Industry Summit and I just got notice from them that if I want to attend the whole two-day gabfest, they expect me to pay them and love doing it:
“We are pleased to offer you a special one day registration rate of $495 if you wish to attend the entire Summit; this represents a savings of up to $1,100 off the full conference price of $1,695.”
Well whoop-dee-doo.
What incredible nerve. Though it may be worth the price of admission to see me sitting on the same panel with Roger Simon of PJ media, I nonetheless had a patented Jarvis conniption.
We as panelists come as their trained monkeys to give these conference organizers the only damned content they have and they expect us to pay for the bananas? Well, peel this!
It’s time for panelists everywhere to unionize, to rise up and form the International Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Amalgamated Blatherers, Local 1. We demand free nametags — with ribbons. We demand good bottled water on the table. We demand decent swag briefcases made of real fabric or leather, no plastic. And we demand a cut of the gate.
