How are you today?
I am writing to you from XYZ’s office. I would like to invite you to <event> as a part of our social media team of 4. <event>, is the first ever festival for <professionals> and A, B and 6 other award-winning <professionals> from across the globe will be on the panel. We have divided the 4 days of festival into seminars, workshops, critic night and parties, and if you are onboard to help spread the word during the four days of event, we’d love to send you a ticket. You can get in touch with me on the email ID or you can directly call me on <number>.
Do let us know either way, we, would love to see you as a part of the <event>team.
Cheers!
<name>
I responded with the Naina.co rate card and they let us know that “your rates are too high for us to consider”. Yup. Maybe you should’ve checked rates before trying to “give away” a ticket to an event that I wasn’t interested in attending anyway.
This was a “photography” event. Four days of it.
You’re asking me to “help spread the word” because I’m a photographer with a blog and a following that none of the photographers speaking at your ticketed event have. So you’ll get to access a captive audience – get people from my viewership to maybe buy tickets to your event. So all the photographers doing the workshops get paid and all I get is a “ticket” to learn from people that I really have nothing to learn from? Except maybe one or two of them, who I enjoy watching on stage, I could teach all of them a thing or two. ( I wish I could legitimize your doubt that I am just jealous I wasn’t invited to be a speaker at this event – but I don’t do workshops. I don’t feel like I’m ready – to teach a “photography” workshop. I can talk on stage of course, but creating a photography workshop module is not something I’m ready to commit to just yet. What I do is a whole lot more than “photography” anyway. )
There was no mention of “accommodation” or taking care of expenses either. The event was in a city different from the one I reside in. This is called “lack of empathy”.
To top it all, one of the photographers who was part of the organizing committee is someone who has openly, publicly, in writing no less, made fun of me and my work a handful of years ago. I guess I should be flattered. ( Of course I’m not. Quite annoyed really. )
And you’re asking me to join your “team”. Which sounds like an organized “work-related” collective, created for the specific purpose of “spreading the word” via “social media”. Stop fucking around then and offer to pay me instead of offering tickets to an event where you have everything to gain and I get nothing in return.
It’s 2016 for fuck’s sake.
Grow at least one professional bone in your body.
I wish everyone unimaginable sky-is-the-limit success ( yes, even those I don’t particularly like as people – what do I care – if you’re doing well, more power to you! ) – but not at the cost of fucking me over. Bye.
More anecdotes and stories in the #WTFNaina series. ( These are all inspired by true stories. Some written emails, some from face-to-face meetings. They have all been piling up for years now and I’ve decided to put them to use! )
( Image from Flickr. Creative Commons License. )
