UPDATED
Dan Gillmor is a BoingBoing guest blogger.
Former VP Al Gore is speaking at the CTIA Wireless show on April 3. But the giant trade show says:
Special Notice: Photography, recording, webcasting and any other reproduction of Vice President Al Gore’s speaking appearance is strictly prohibited.
The press, whatever that is these days, has been barred from coverage, too, according to a letter on the Romenesko media blog: No one with a press pass will be allowed in.
(UPDATE: The press has now been given permission to attend. Perhaps the idiocy of this policy got Gore’s attention.)
This calls for a) lots and lots of blogging of the event by attendees who are not registered as press; and b) “official” press interviews of attendees and publication of those interviews. (I might also note, just for the sake of noting it, that you don’t have to be obvious about waving around a smart phone with a video camera; audio and video recording gear has gotten really small and cheap.)
It would be great if the good folks attending this trade show could help make clear to Al Gore and others in similar positions that a speech to 4,000 people is not off the record no matter how much they may wish it to be so, not anymore.
My own suspicion about Gore’s reasons: He probably imagines he’s saving the material for a new book or movie. Otherwise the only possible explanation is that he’s giving the dullest speech in history and knows that already.