Quote:
Originally posted by Peaches@Nov 7 2003, 06:56 AM
I never went to an AWE show, but in reading the boards, there was only one sponsor who was allowed to do business there and when others showed up, they were treated like red headed stepchildren and asked not to return.
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Not defending AWE, but as someone who worked within that event series for quite awhile - the problem wasn't with sponsors, it was was with folks who showed up to these events NOT sponsoring. I'll admit - THEY were the ones treated as red-headed step-children.
See... it was the higher-ups' idea with this was that only companies who sponsored should be allowed to market to the attendees. It was to be a smaller webmaster event - attendees who were mostly newbies or individual webmasters, with a marketing opportunity for the bigger companies who sponsored to have the full attention of the attendees without having to fight the crowds of sponsors @ say an Internext level.
Now... while the theory made sense - in practice it just didn't. They would have been better off IMHO to charge a registration charge like Fay does and the new Webmaster Access does if they want all who attend to pitch in and pay for stuff. More time was spent policing the events for non-sponsors handing out stuff (I even got in a face-to-face with Max Hardcore in LA once - NOT my idea of a fun afternoon!)... when more energy should have been put into the actual event.
The exclusive sponsorship idea was noble in the beginning - on behalf of the sponsors, but on the boards and within the community - due in part to the behaviors of some of the folks involved with the show - it became regarded more as an elitist event than anything else. Politics are a fact of life, but there's nothing that I hate more than *playing* politics while trying to do a quality job - fortunately as fate would have it, I was lucky enough to be out of that event series in it's final, fateful year.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions... <_<