Simon on: Suitcasing

There seems to be an increase of interest in ‘suitcasing’ - the process of taking advantage of networking opportunities at conferences without paying the registration fee. Even the New York Times has written about it.

It’s easy to see why it annoys organisers: people are gaining benefits from the event without contributing anything. One organiser quoted in the NYT article claims that between 1 and 3 percent of attendees are ‘suitcasing’. If you have 500 delegates at a conference each paying €1,000.00 registration, you could be losing up to €15,000.00.

There are proven technologies and techniques that can be used to combat the problem but this issue also raises a question: why are people doing this? It’s because they want the networking benefits of being at the conference.

That’s something that you don’t get with virtual or hybrid events. The promoters of these technologies will disagree but recent experience suggests that trying to be a virtual visitor can be a frustrating business. The technology works but people at events don’t want to stand around talking to a tablet on a stick.

People want to talk to people. The best way to do that is face to face. That’s why people are ‘suitcasing’.

Originally published in Conference News