Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Is ICANN a trade show?
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 07:34:54 -0500
>From: "Andrew McLaughlin" <mclaughlin () pobox com> >To: <declan () well com> >Subject: RE: ACLU protests ICANN demand of $5,000 to leaflet at meeting > ... >The complaint is mistaken. ICANN holds open meetings, free to attend, with >open mike sessions for public comment. People have always been allowed to >distribute policy drafts, proposals, RFCs, resolutions, etc. The meeting is >not, however, a trade show, and we don't want companies to use it for >marketing purposes. So the distribution of commercial literature is >restricted to sponsors. That's SOP for meetings like this. > What this tells me is that ICANN is a new tradeshow. As the former Director of Technology for NetWorld+Interop (a data networks tradeshow), I can tell you that all tradeshows start with a conference. You try to get the very best speakers and leaders in their field to be at your conference. Andrew says ICANN has open sessions that are free to attend. Well NetWorld+Interop has that too. The keynotes are usually free and open to all. They have open mike sessions in many forms as well. (They also have the conference tracks you have to pay for.) All the successful tradeshows started as conferences and they tend to lose money in the beginning. Then, slowly they get sponsors, and then ultimately exhibitors. The conference expenses are very high and best case is break even. Soon the organizers figure out that the big money is in the sponsorships and booth space. Selling the booth space is the most lucrative. Most tradeshow companies would love to get rid of the conference portion, but it is the conference that brings the attendees, and without the attendees you cannot sell the sponsorships and booth space. So, ICANN is moving right along this path. They have invited speakers for their conference, and they have sponsors. All the elements comprising the definition of a tradeshow are there. The fact that you have to pay $5,000 to distribute commerical information clearly makes them a tradeshow. If they were truly acting as a non-profit, they could just ask those distributing commercial leaflets for a small sum to defray the expense of renting the table, pipe and drape at the venue... maybe $100 max. Of course, if certain parties could review the financial statements and ICANN was open with their accounting of costs for their tradeshow/meeting, then it would be an easy matter to pro-rate the expense and a satisfactory, fair win-win soluion for ICANN, the participants, and those with leaflets could be attained. ---------------------------------------------------------------- --==--==- Chris Wellens President & CEO InterWorking Labs ==--==--= 4113 Scotts Valley Drive, Suite 200 Scotts Valley, CA 95066 --==--==- chrisw () iwl com +1 831 430 3610 x13 +1 831 430 9144 Fax ----------------------------------------------------------------- For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- IP: Is ICANN a trade show? David Farber (Nov 12)