Events

Symbian show: but will I be allowed in? or the IMS World Forum?

I suspect the Hunky Mouse of interfering with my credentials at the 2005 Smartphone Show - the one we used to call the Symbian show. I honestly don't know if I'm registered. Perhaps, I've fallen off the "A" list?

I do, it's true, have an email from the organisers, saying "Thank you for registering as a member of the press to attend The Smartphone Show, presented by Symbian." The thing is, I actually tried to register about a month ago

At that time, the registration form threw me out. No full stops, it said, rejecting NewsWireless.Net as a valid company name.

Of course, I've said the odd tactless thing about Symbian in the past, but normally, they are pretty tolerant of dissent. This year, they have kept mailing me - I have at least a dozen emails, all warmly insisting that I register. So, encouraged and reassured, I tried again; and again, was rejected. No press registration available.

A week later, another email, offering me free attendance as a member of the Glorious Press. A link to the registration page!

But again, the registration page wasn't a press registration page, and again, it rejected me. This time, however, the complaint was different:

There is already a user registered with this email address

I tried logging in with that as my username, but it insisted that "we don't have you on file."

Hm, tricky; almost a Catch-22, you might say. I can't register because I'm already registered; but I can't log on because I can't register.

This morning, another email. Again, an attempt to register is thwarted by the Catch-22 above; I can't register, because There is already a user registered with this email address someone else registered with my details. I can't log in, until I register. No, they don't have my details.

Half an hour later, email saying: "Welcome to the Smartphone Show!"

I suspect a trick, and will be heading to Amsterdam for the IMS World Forum, instead... mind you, they don't exactly roll out the Red Carpet there, either. I'm supposed to be chairing a panel session on IMS billing - and today, a flunky from Informa rings me to say that Huawei is organising a dinner trip. Flattered, I point out that it's late, and I was hoping to get home - but, if Huawei is offering hospitality in the form of a room...?

The brush-off is particularly brisk. "I hardly think they'll run to a hotel room just so you can go out with them!" says the flunky dismissively, and hangs up...

Times are obviously harder than we realised. When I started my career as a seminar speaker, back in the late 1970s, people used to cough up business-class fares to fly me to San Francisco. And that was just as a writer! - this year, even with dual credentials as industry observer AND seminar chairman, I can't even raise Informa sponsorship for a single night in Amsterdam.

It wasn't like this last year, when the IBC asked me to chair a session for them...