Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
"I found it amusing to think that they are going to have people from The New York Times and other media outlets and suggest they can't talk about what 400 people are going to hear, much less having Scoble, who blogs about anything, not able to talk about it," Sullivan said in an interview Monday. "It's not a small, private event. Major executives from companies are speaking at it."
Anyone get the FAQ before it got password protected?
[services.google.com...]
Why bother inviting the press if you're forbidding them from writing about it?
One of my minor hats is a member of the press and at least once a year I get such an invitation, (which I can rarely take up). As is the case with the Google event, this restriction is more about making other speakers comfortable than gagging the press.
Some companies may say this mainly to get more publicity about the event. So, Google could have merely declared an NDA event but then it wouldn't have rated a mention as they happen all the time.
As a former reporter, I can tell you that knowing things is useful even if you aren't allowed to write about them.
If you know a fact exists, it is easy to go and get verification from a person who is willing to go on the record. Then you quote the person that person as the source, and you've kept your "off the record" agreement with the other guy.
At least that's the way it works in Washington, and I assume the way it works in the tech industry.
