UPDATE 30 Oct – Good news! The SQLbits organizers reversed course on this decision and let presenters opt out of the pre-con recordings. I’ve submitted sessions (including pre-cons) and I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll get accepted. Hope to see everybody in London! Here’s the original post:
I’ve glowed about how much I love SQLbits, but I’m going to have to miss the 2015 version. Session submission is going on right now, and the speaker contract includes a tricky line:
“If I am selected to present a Training day, then I understand that SQLBits may record the session. Distribution of the session, if undertaken, will only be to attendees of that Trainign Day, under a DRM license and for a fee. Speakers will receive a percentage of that fee, in addition to their normal fee for delivering the precon.”
Ooo, ouch. That’s a no-go for me.
In the past, I’ve given my SQLbits pre-con attendees free access to an online version of my pre-con as a nice-to-have perk. I’m all for it because I think it helps people keep the learning going after the conference, and it doesn’t cost our company much.
However, I’m not okay with someone else doing it, and the reasons might surprise you.
Live pre-cons have bugs. Sometimes a demo will fail, an attendee will ramble on with a question, the microphone will malfunction, the recording tools won’t copy the right portion of the screen, etc. I’m anal retentive about quality, so I record these in a controlled setting.
DRM is harder than it looks. Just ask the recording industry – they’ve been struggling with copy protection for decades. In our training site, we’ve put work into keeping the training usable for the audience while making it tougher for pirates to redistribute our stuff. I bet the SQLbits guys will put in similar efforts, but…I need to see it in action.
Training pays my rent. I love teaching, but I don’t just do it for the love. I need to make sure that I’m compensated fairly for my work. The contract has no mention of costs, and I have no bargaining leverage. It could be put on sale for $1, and I could get 1% of it.
So I won’t be a part of the next SQLbits, but I know it’s still going to be wildly successful. It’s always a ton of fun to attend (if it was here in the US, I’d still attend!), and I wish them the best of luck with this new phase of their journey.
8 comments. Leave new
Very sorry to hear that Brent 🙁
I attended one of your sessions at the last SQLBits, and it was excellent.
Andy – aww, thanks sir!
that is good news. NOT
Calin – well, it’ll still be a great event. Me being there was never what made SQLbits successful!
Even though I understand your reasons, I am sorry to hear that you will not be at SQLBits.
However, have you considered submitting only regular sessions and no pre-con? Or is the more generic “normal sessions will be recorded and available for free to everyone and their dog” even more of a no-go for you?
Hugo – I wish I could afford to do that, but it’s really expensive for me to fly over to Bits. I can’t justify the expense without being able to make some of it back on pre-cons. I’ve never made money when I present abroad, but I just can’t afford to lose that much.
Brent
First of all let me say thanks for supporting our event, we really appreciate it. SQLBits is determined to give the best experience for attendees paying the premium for a training day and the recording of that day is one way of delivering value add to attendees of the training day. We believe a DRM solution is a way of allowing an attendee of the workshop to review what happened during the day and to be able to do it in their time and at their speed. That said we completely understand the sensitivity for presenters around materials being distributed without their consent and therefore being a potential impact on revenue streams for them.
You and I have spoken numerous times over the last few months about an “Out” clause. Never let it be said we do not listen. The wording now includes just such a clause. If you do not want us to record your day then we respect that and will not do it. In the future we may make recording a prerequisite of delivering a training day but we will listen to what people (our membership as well as presenters) want before making such a decision.
Allan
Allan – WOOOOHOOOO! That’s awesome to hear, man. I’ll go submit sessions now and update this post.
I didn’t expect that change at all, but I should have known better because you guys always surprise me. You are unbelievable. I really appreciate how hard you guys work on this. I really didn’t expect the change because I think recording the pre-cons makes sense for attendees and for most presenters, and I think you’d have a great event, so now I’m really humbled that you’d make the change. That’s just awesome.