Industry blacklist emailed to conference attendees

We are in receipt of the industry blacklist recently sent to the Meeting Association Conference attendees.

Entries include a “’holistic events consultant’ whose website looks like it was designed by a five year old”, a “greasy haired, morbidly obese woman and her Scottish sidekick”, a “loopy and deluded nutcase who claims to be a journalist”, and a “’weasely looking man in a wrinkly beige suit’ and his ‘dull, slightly retarded partner’ from a non-existent company with an ‘under construction’ website.”

More predicable are the inclusion of a certain “bow-tied gentlemen” who claims to be a “wealthy Chinese businessman” and the sandwich shop owner who is “certifiably crazy and in immediate need of being recommitted to the asylum.”

Each entry contains names, aliases, photographs, contact details, and attendance history of the worst industry offenders who have crashed, blagged, mooched, and defrauded hundreds of organisations out of thousands of pounds of food, drink, transport, and accommodation. These frauds have had a good run, but their time is up.

Some have argued that the “name and shame” list is unprofessional.  We’re in two minds. To publish or not to publish, that is the question? Do we tip off these freeloaders that the industry is on to them, or let them slink away into the night, tail between their legs?

For the moment, we’ve decided not to publish, but should we receive details of repeated sightings of the worst offenders (perverts, predators, and child molesters), we might be persuaded to reconsider.