I Wish I Was Kidding
In one the strangest interactions of recent months, I was asked to participate in a big name advertising agency’s research event in a European capital, as an ‘influential and inspirational speaker’. When I inquired about fees and expenses, I was told that the internal group running the event had no money for speakers. That group has little money, and is — get this — primarily funded by the speaker’s fees raised by one of the agency’s leaders, and not funded by the gigantic agency, itself. So, alas, they couldn’t fund even my travel.
The irony of this twisted logic was lost on the organizer, even when I pointed it out.


