RE: HUMOR: STC Conference Time! - Ooops! Got long!

["Sharon Burton-Hardin" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>]

I do a highly technical talk on Getting Good PDF that is REALLY popular. But
let's remember, the STC conference is:

$444.00 from Ontario CA to Nashville (leave
        May 4, return late May 8)
$500.00 to go the entire conference
        and attend all the lunches and stuff.
        I think it is less if you speak but not
        much so assume this is a fair number
        right now.
$640.00 hotel= $160 a night for 4 nights
--------
$1584.00

to get there and have a place to sleep. Now I assume I want to eat -
contrary to those who know and love me, I do occasionally slow down long
enough to remember to eat. I think that $50 a day at the Graceland (if I
choose to not walk somewhere else) is fair. That means another $200. Giving
me a total of:

$1784.00

to attend. Plus any little thing I forgot to pack and general pocket cash.
Fair to say we are looking at $2000.00 for me to attend! If I speak, it is a
little less.

I am self employed and responsible for 6 other people getting paid. I have
never gotten one single client out of attending a conference ever. I enjoy
myself, usually, but we (and no one I know) never get any work out of it. I
cannot help but think that my bookkeeper and my CPA can think of a better
use of $2000. Like marketing or something. As I think about it, that amount
is about what we are spending a quarter on advertising... And that gets
clients, which provide money. Hell, if I want to blow cash, I can go visit
my kid for a week in Tulsa. And spend about half that amount.

I am very pro STC - I started the local chapter. I think there is a ton of
good stuff that can happen at the local levels, certainly. But in this
economy, or frankly, and economy, I have a hard time spending that much of
my company's money with no revenue return. It just seems like a lot of money
to go, even if I am speaking. Which I am not this year.

These are my personal opinions and do not represent an official or
unofficial STC position. Just stuff that I think about when I think about
going to a national conference.

sharon

Sharon Burton-Hardin
CEO, Anthrobytes Consulting
909-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-71429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-71429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Andrew
Plato
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 4:58 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: susanwg -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
Subject: Re: HUMOR: STC Conference Time!




Susan W. Gallagher" <> wrote

> Since 1997, I've been presenting sessions
> on object technology at both regional and
> annual STC conferences; so don't tell me
> there's no hard technology. I bring it
> with me.
> <hrumph>

Yes, that is true. You were one of the ONLY hard-tech topics last year. I
remember seeing it. But since you're out this year, that's it. No tech
topics.
It seems pretty pathetic that out of a membership of however-many-thousands
of
people, only one person does a technical topic.

Andrew Plato



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