My apologies if anyone is already on lugs@linuxusersgroups.org, but I know you do an ITEC show as well. And this is likely a timely posting. Tony ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michael Chaney Reply-To: lugs@linuxusersgroups.org To: lugs@linuxusersgroups.org Subject: ITEC I want to start a discussion on ITEC. I hope that this list has a diverse enough membership to support the conversation, but please bring others in if they are affected. Each year here in Nashville, ITEC puts on a show in the late spring. This year it was actually June 23 (officially "early summer"). NLUG has been "sponsoring" a theatre each year. What this has boiled down to is that we come up with $2000 and they give us a theatre and a booth. The theatre is 20x30, and we pack it full; mostly standing-room only. In the past, they have placed restrictions on what group members can do in the booth and theatre in terms of marketing. I have always demanded that they be able to promote their own businesses, and I actually got it in writing this year. The claim made by ITEC organizers was that a theatre usually goes for $10,000, so we're getting this tremendous bargain and should be very grateful. My retort was simply that they are foolish if they're giving us something for $2000 for which they could readily get $10,000, so obviously they can't readily get the $10,000. Each year I go through this painful negotiation with them which never results in anything beyond what we start out with. The group doesn't want to give them another dime, so this next year that's the deal. ITEC is apparently using our participation as a draw for the event, and in fact they showed us as already signed up for next year's show when they sent a piece of marketing material out just a month after this year's show. My feeling is that LUGs are probably all mostly getting screwed by this company. I would like to unionize a bit and see if we can come up with something together that would strengthen all of our positions. Frankly, my group is split on the show, anyway. ITEC attendance keeps getting worse, and the quality of attendees is generally low (very very few decision makers). I would like to continue to put on a theatre, but the group is clear: we're not going to pay anymore. I am interested in others' thoughts. Thanks, Michael -- Michael Darrin Chaney mdchaney@michaelchaney.com http://www.michaelchaney.com/ - To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@linuxusersgroups.org with "unsubscribe lugs" in the body.