[kingu]

While I'm sure there's some fire under all that smoke, the reply that there was no space may be legitimate. Many contributors are given space in the exhibit hall, many of which pass up the opportunity to utilize it. This is true for quite a number of ‘minority’ conferences.

I remember one year getting a press release from the Congress of American Indians about selling out exhibition space, and when I arrived there, the hall was less than a quarter full, and even then, it was obvious that people were using double or triple the space they paid for, or were simply given the space to use.

When I asked the PIO about it, she noted the large number of spaces that were pre-paid for that no one occupied, and a number of spaces given to the largest contributors that they also elected not to use.

Ran a story shortly afterwards about the topic; if I recall correctly, the USDA paid for over 420 exhibit spaces they never used at minority conferences, stating at the time that they had purchased the space for use by local programs who elected not to use the space. It was close to 2 million dollars just funneled away.

[bicyclerepair]

A commie would rather reserve the space and not use it, than allow a conservative use it.