>I understand the need to advertise.

This is a key point, I believe. Without advertising, I doubt that any of the Fox conferences would exist. This forum, (and others like it), while a great venue for sharing information and opinions certainly doesn't have sufficient traffic to generate enough attendees to support a conference.

We advertise here (see our banner at the top of the main UT page) and in FoxTalk and CoDe Magazine. (We don't advertise our conference in FoxPro Advisor because they won't accept our advertising for the conference.) However, even at great cost, these "conventional" media don't deliver enough attendees to make a Fox conference a financial success. (Financial success for us means break-even or better.) We hope to achieve break-even or better at Essential Fox 2003. Obviously, we won't continue to do these conferences at a loss. (But I could live with break-even.)


>>>>>I didn't realize one email constituted spam. ...
>>>>
>>>>I think one single email can very well be spam. I am not sure about the present case, but a single email would be spam if it is sent to a large amount of people, who didn't ask for it.
>>>>
>>>>Now, is such an individual email a problem? I am sure it is. Even if I, personally, receive only a single e-mail from an individual company, I might also get thousands of single e-mails from other individual companies around the globe.
>>>>
>>>>Hilmar.
>>>
>>>I agree. I don't care that it's one email: I didn't ask to be mailed their info, they clearly got my name from someone's list, and I have added them to my "junk email" list. That is spam in my book.
>>>
>>>I had heard about this conference through word of mouth and was considering it. Now I am not sure (yes, I feel THAT strongly about getting unsolicited email).
>>
>>Jeesh guys, lighten up. At least it's on topic email. Or would you like to have some of the crap I receive to lengthen your member or refinance or whatever else? I get plenty so I can share...
>
>Oh, I get those too, don't worry!!
>
>But, it doesn't make this any better. I don't care if it's on-topic. It's unsolicited mail, and as a result it is no more or less spam than those offers to naturally improve my breast size.
>
>-- If the conference organizers received my name from a list that they believed included only folks who want to receive such mail, no harm done on their part. But, I want to know where they received it (I've emailed that request to them already).
>
>-- If they went trolling around the UT or experts-exchange or wherever, than I would factor that into any decision to write them a check for their services. It wouldn't disqualify them automatically, but it would factor into the decision of which of the half dozen potential conferences I should spend money on this year.
>
>I understand the need to advertise. And I'm under no illusion that any purchasing decision that I make will have an affect on a product's ad campaign. But, on a personal level, these campaigns factor into my decisions. Again, if these organizers believed they were sending to folks who wanted this mail, then there's no harm and no foul. Frankly, I mainly want to know where they got my email address so that I can keep track of which sites are selling my info (even when I opt out).