X-Message-Number: 20423
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 18:06:16 -0800 (PST)
From: Jeff Davis <>
Subject: Re: Video cassettes

Cryofolk,

Before Asilomar, I volunteered to tape the conference,
at no cost to Alcor.  My contact with Alcor was Linda
Chamberlain, of whom I am quite fond.  She received my
proposal and passed it on to the decision makers.  The
turndown was almost a carbon copy of the reasons
recently given by Ralph.  Seeing them again makes me
think there's a form  letter filed somewhere from the
first turndown, which now gets sent out routinely.

If I may be blunt, I think it's bunk.  Cryonics is
filled with rip-roaring egos, and I suspect someone at
Alcor just wasn't interested in anything he wasn't in
control of, and which wasn't his idea.

First, you don't record the conference for profit. 
You do it for publicity.  Cryonics is not a Spielberg
mega-bucks entertainment blockbuster.  It's a movement
in need of promotion.  We need to dispel myths,
counter ridicule, and get the word out to the
multitude.  These conferences can help do that.  But
someone has to realize that this is advertising.  And
Advertising is something you pay for, not get paid
for.

The conference itself is already paid for, so the
opportunity to record it is a near freebie.

In some bygone age video cassettes might have been the
medium of choice, but nowadays you put the video on
CD, obviously a better medium for distribution.  

Distribute the CD's free. (Or for cost, or sliding
scale, or whatever.  But use your head, and do it
rationally.) Later if a substantial demand develops,
you can rethink the matter.     

And the complaint about disruption of the event is
solved quite simply.  Set the ground rules: disruption
not allowed.

Same goes for Foresight Conferences.

As always, people need to get out of their own way. 
When they will one can only guess.

Best, Jeff Davis

   "Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
                           Ray Charles


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos
http://launch.yahoo.com/u2

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20423