The company wanted a “fresh, funny, high-profile blogger” to give an after-dinner speech on PR and bloggers – and since I know a bit about PR and blogging, and am rarely short of an opinion, they thought I’d be perfect. The only complication was that the conference was in Milan.
I knew the gig would mean two days work for me – writing a speech, travelling to the airport, the flight, getting to the hotel, doing the dinner thing, travelling home the next day… so I asked what they were paying.
Turns out, they weren’t paying. In fact, when I told them I would expect to be paid, and told them my day rate (which, trust me, is very reasonable) they didn’t even bother to reply to my email. Now, I’m confused here. How many professionals would be expected to give up two days of their time and spend a night away from home for zero compensation?
The people attending the conference are being paid by their employers. The people organising the conference are being paid by the publisher. And the publisher is charging attendees over a thousand Euros per ticket, so I think we can assume they’re getting a little something out of it. But because I’m a journalist, you think I’m doing it for free, to ‘get my name out there’? Seriously?
