Paying to Speak at Events is Bush League

It used to be that a large percentage of speaking opportunities at industry events were allocated based on the merits of the speakers who'd submitted proposals. Now it seems like paying for speaking opportunities has become a 100% normalized marketing behavior, and vendor spokespersons are just shuffled through the turnstiles like Johns on their way to the champagne room.

I'm sure this sounds sanctimonious, but I find the whole pay-for-speaking slots system highly offensive ... and don't understand why the same publications that clearly state "this is a paid advertisement" for advertorials that run in print offer zero disclosure at their events about which speeches were paid for and which ones weren't. Does the same ethical obligation to readers not apply to folks that travel thousands of miles to attend an event? I would think that if anything the standard should be higher.

What's at least partly fueling this currently (in the IT industry in particular) is the fact that the trades are still having a heck of a time figuring out how to turn profits in the online world. Events happen to be one of the few remaining healthy revenue arteries for many of the trades -- so when they pick up a pulse on a new technology with a following and carve out a successful event, they ruthlessly sell every conceivable piece of inventory (including the speaking slots) until they bleed it dry. Nevermind the fact that they drag the reputation of the host publication through the mud. Just get whatever money's to be had, then leave move on to the next thing once that particular niche is barren. It's a pretty sad phenomena.

(image by Shanghai Sky on flickr creative commons)