I will tell the whole story, and you decide whose side you are on. I speak at IT conferences often and a lot. Usually, I don’t care who organizes them, whose money they are organized with, and how much they earn from them. What matters to me is who comes to listen to me, and whether they are satisfied with what I have to say. But this time everything turned out to be more complicated, and I declined to speak at two conferences in my hometown.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to speak at the IT conference Run-IT in Dnipro. Looking at their schedule, I asked in which stream and slot they wanted to put me. After receiving the answer, I asked who would be speaking at the opening of the conference. Opening it is always a quite honorable mission, and those who definitely deserve the trust of the whole audience are invited to do so. The answer was - Yanika Merilo (deputy mayor of Dnipro).
I asked what valuable contribution the deputy mayor had made to the IT industry to open a conference where programmers would be speaking. The answer was, I quote: “We were strongly recommended.” I shrugged and declined to speak.
Next, I became interested if the same thing would happen at another Dnipro conference ITEM, where my presentation had already been accepted. I asked the organizers from afar: “Won’t there be any officials at the conference?” And I got the answer: “No, of course, only Yanika will speak at the opening.”
I asked again, what exactly had she done for IT? What had she done to deserve the honor of opening the conference, other than her well-known invitation to “enter the wonderful world of IT”? The answer was, I quote: “If we don’t befriend the city authorities, we will be banned.” I shrugged again. So, that’s how things are with IT and city authorities in Dnipro.
Programmers pay money to come and listen to me and a few dozen of my colleagues who create software products, write books, develop new technologies. And officials from the City Council led by Filatov, using administrative resources, put pressure on the organizers, forcing them to place their people prominently among the speakers. Thus, people like Merilo, without really contributing anything to IT, earn themselves a name: later she can say that she was listed as one of the main speakers at the country’s most important IT conferences, and therefore has a direct connection to the industry.
Certainly, the City Council not only pressures the organizers, but also offers something in return. Both conferences explained to me in conversation, I quote: “The City Council helps us negotiate venues for the conference.” By “helping to negotiate,” it is obviously also understood as some administrative pressure on the owners of these venues to lower the rental prices. So, both ITEM and Run-IT not only do not resist this corruption, but also indulge it.
So, apparently, the City Council pays these two conferences. Not with money, of course, but with the services that corrupt authorities usually use to thank their lackeys.
In this case, I have a fair question - why should we, as speakers, advertise City Council officials for free? Why should I spend a full working day to help someone who has nothing to do with my industry become a respected figure in it, and get nothing in return? Meanwhile, ITEM and Run-IT will profit.
This, at the very least, is unfair.
I offered ITEM three ways out of this situation:
The first option is right and honest: refuse the City Council. In this case, there will probably be problems with the venue - its cost will increase. I suggested to the organizers - let’s make this situation public. Let’s bring this issue to all the programmers who are guests of the conference. Let’s tell them that we are against corruption, and therefore we need to add another $10 to the cost of the entrance ticket. We don’t want to dance to the tune of the criminals from the City Council, and the conference will be opened by those who truly matter in IT. I was ready to help with this. ITEM refused, arguing: “You can play fair when you have nothing to lose.”
Option three: remove me from the conference speakers. ITEM agreed.
So, I will not be speaking at ITEM this year, even though I was planning to and had prepared an interesting presentation.
In conclusion, I suggest to all those reading this article, who are mainly, I am sure, people from the IT industry, to think: is it worth attending the conferences that our criminal authorities use for their own purposes. I propose that both speakers and listeners boycott such conferences.
This will be a real response to the corruption that is happening in the country.
Not just in words, but in actions.
Translated by ChatGPT gpt-3.5-turbo/42 on 2024-04-20 at 14:24
