Some of you may have heard this already, but I was under the expectation 
that I would be giving a talk in Toronto at Real World Linux  ( 
http://www.realworldlinux.com/ ).  I prepared my slides and talk, and even 
did a test run of it.  After not hearing anything recently from the company 
doing the show and checking the website, I discovered that my name was not 
listed on the speaker list (despite even having a time allocated)!  See the 
quote from one of the emails which follows.  The rest of the conversation was 
done over the phone for the most part.

> Your name has been forwarded to me by Bruce Cole of Real World Linux.  I am
> aware that you are interested in speaking at RWL03 coming up April 28-30,
> 2003.
>
> On April 29, we have four tracks.  One is devoted to Linux for System
> Administrators.  Under that track we are offering "Linux on the Desktop"
> which we think would be a good fit for you.  This is a one-hour session from
> 11:15- 12:15 p.m.
>
> Please let me know if you would be interested in presenting this seminar.
> If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

   Since the time of our last conversations, I see that certain KDE unfriendly 
marketing forces (Ximian, Sun) have appeared as major sponsors of the show, 
and even have several important speaking positions.  Needless to say, it 
looks to me that my talk was cancelled for suspicious reasons, but I won't 
take that any further.  It would have been nice if they had even -called- or 
-emailed- to tell me that my talk would be cancelled. 

   I spoke with Bruce Cole today and he explained that it was a 
miscommunication, and that I did not have a speaking position.  (Ironically, 
it was they who originally contacted *me* regarding the speaking position, 
not the other way around.)  Funny how clear that was to me, since I had it 
booked in my calendar for months and had already completed my slides.  The 
phone conversations and emails sure led me to believe that I was speaking.

   During our conversation tonight he did propose an alternative.  While KDE 
is not going to be given a speaking position, they did propose a 10'x10' 
booth on April 29, 30.  I cannot be there at all on April 30, and I can only 
be there for a few hours on April 29, at best.  If someone else can come to 
staff the booth and bring promo materials, then we have it.  If not, well, 
too bad for KDE since we don't have to market our stuff to make most 
Linux/Unix users use it I guess.

   Please contact me privately ASAP if you want to do something with this 
booth.

-- 

George Staikos

 
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