Dave Winer: “I found out about this when I ran the first BloggerCon at Harvard in 2003. I asked for sponsorships from some of the biggest names in the tech industry, and was told by each of them that they required a prime speaking spot as quid pro quo. I said maybe they could sponsor a meal, and speak at it, but I’d have to label them as paid speaking slots. I was told that was not acceptable. I told them to keep their money. We’d find a way to make it work without sponsors, and we did.”
Wow, I really had no idea this is how things worked at conferences. Naive? Yep, completely.
It’s no wonder Dave doesn’t dig how conferences work.
