With all due respect, Jeff, do you have any idea of how big these conferences are? The PLA conference in Boston next year has over 400 speakers on the schedule. If all of these people got comped, that’s roughly $75,000 coming out of the conference coffers, and while that may be chump change to you citizens’ media types that’s big money to us library folk.
Being a librarian with a negative net worth myself I sympathize with Jenny’s plight, but the principle here is much less perverse than you make it out to be. What’s not being said here is that presenting at a conference isn’t simply about bringing content to others but building a CV as a librarian. The money one coughs up to attend these events is an investment in one’s own professional development. If you’re lucky you might even get your employer to foot the bill every once in a while, but even if not it’s money well spent.
How many attendees are there at a typical conference? If you’ve got around 400 speakers that indicates to me a membership in attendees in the thousands. If talking low end attendence fees, then the conference can damn well afford a few free memberships for its speakers.
I rather doubt the ALA is making money hand over fist with their conferences, but they’re not losing their shirt either.
With all due respect, Jeff, do you have any idea of how big these conferences are? The PLA conference in Boston next year has over 400 speakers on the schedule. If all of these people got comped, that’s roughly $75,000 coming out of the conference coffers, and while that may be chump change to you citizens’ media types that’s big money to us library folk.
Being a librarian with a negative net worth myself I sympathize with Jenny’s plight, but the principle here is much less perverse than you make it out to be. What’s not being said here is that presenting at a conference isn’t simply about bringing content to others but building a CV as a librarian. The money one coughs up to attend these events is an investment in one’s own professional development. If you’re lucky you might even get your employer to foot the bill every once in a while, but even if not it’s money well spent.
Jersey,
How many attendees are there at a typical conference? If you’ve got around 400 speakers that indicates to me a membership in attendees in the thousands. If talking low end attendence fees, then the conference can damn well afford a few free memberships for its speakers.
I rather doubt the ALA is making money hand over fist with their conferences, but they’re not losing their shirt either.