Re: Way,WAY off topic diatribe -was : Paying to present

[Bob LaMontagne <rlamont@POSTOFFICE.PROVIDENCE.EDU>]

I have a slightly different perspective on this issue. I
stopped going to meetings such as this a long time ago.
Except for a few invited papers, most of the presentations
are "publish for promotion" material. It is rare when you
see a presentation that is more than some inconsequential
tweaking of well know material. Charging someone a fee for
the privilege of self promotion does not bother me in the
least.

I think the event that turned me sour on the value of
meetings was when presentations from the Maharishi
Institute (I'm sure I have the name wrong) were treated
with equal standing as any other presenters in the physics
community. I suddenly realized that if you were willing to
pay, you could have your 15 minutes.

Bob at PC

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 3/5/2004 at 11:59 PM Hugh Haskell wrote:

> At 22:32 -0600 3/5/04, Brian Whatcott wrote:
>
> > To me, it is like  having a guest speaker
> > >   at a graduation commencement and right before they
> > > get on stage and give their speech, you tell them there
is an
> > > entrance fee of $$$ into the building.
> >  >
> In this case, I suspect that the speakers know that the
entrance fee
> for them may well be in the millions.:-)
>
> As for registration fees for speakers, I rather suspect
that it
> depends--on what organization it is, whether you are an
invited or a
> contributing speaker, whether they had an abstract fee for
submitting
> the abstract, and perhaps some other things. At some
conferences one
> can register for only the day they will be on site. At
others, the
> only time when it makes a difference is if you try to
enter the
> exhibit area.
>
> All things being equal, I would say that it was rather
chintzy of
> them to insist on registration in order for you to give
your
> talk--especially if they had not said anything about it
before then.
> I understand your interest in sharing what you had done,
which seemed
> well worthwhile, but I might just have told them to
"****-off" and
> gone home. Maybe not the wisest choice, but then again, I
can have a
> rather low flash point when I think I'm being jerked
around.
> Hugh
> --
>
> Hugh Haskell
> <mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
> <mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>
>
> (919) 467-7610
>
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