[Paddlewise] Symposium rant

I tend to agree with Wes on this one.
I don't know about all symposiums and their costs but I do know that at the
West Coast Symposium even featured speakers are lucky to get their
transportation costs paid for. Most usually trade speaking for entrance
fees, dorm lodging and food (and it takes three talks to get all three).
Most of the help is volunteer (actually usually a trade for the entrance
fee). Vendors are forced to join the trade association to the tune of
several hundred dollars if they aren't already members and then it will cost
several hundred more dollars at the minimum for beach or booth space (plus
an entrance fee for each additional worker).
 I quit attending as a vendor years ago. In the recent past I traded a talk
for the entrance fee mainly because I liked the dance and fun race, but last
year I was turned down as a speaker so I bought a one day pass so I could
try out about 25 new kayaks I hadn't paddled before. The rates seem
outrageous to me too but I believe this is a real profit center for the
trade association. In Pt. Townsend they get upwards of 1000 attendees at
over $100 each. However, If they lowered the rate a lot at Pt. Townsend they
would probably have way to many attendees to handle.
You don't have to pay to visit the beach and talk to your friends though,
only if you want to listen to the speakers promote their wares in classes or
paddle their kayaks. I don't know this for sure but I'll bet the full time
trade association workers are very well paid and symposium profits as well
as member dues are what pays those salaries. Most of the work is done by
"volunteers".
I am not a member of TAPS. I do not agree with the policies or goals of this
organization and I don't want them speaking for me. They have used the
symposium to try to force me to join and for a few years I paid the dues to
go to the one symposium but refused to let them list my name as a member. In
the face of further pressure to join I quit displaying our kayaks there.
We have an uncrowded mini-symposium nearly every day our store is open (we
talk sea kayaking, answer questions, and a customer can try our and several
other brands of kayaks at our lakeside location and NWOC has many other
kayaks and they are almost under our location. We don't need to be at the
symposium lugging a lot of kayaks around and paying through the nose for the
privilege. What burns me is that in advertising TAPS lists me as a "speaker"
("present and past speakers") is how they put it to be technically correct
while misleading the potential attendees. It pisses me off that they will
trade on my name but then turn me down when I volunteer to speak. After
first accepting they called and claimed the speaking time slots were all
full (but then later they invited a member of paddlewise to give a talk on
the subject that I had volunteered to speak on, so it smells a lot like
politics to me). If TAPS uses my name in their deceptive advertising again
this year they will probably be talking to my lawyer and may find they have
another expense to take care of. I was one of the handful of vendors that
organized the first West Coast Symposium but now I'm sorry I put in the
effort.

Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com


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