update

check the extended entry for a response that I received from KOTESOL
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KOTESOL 2008 is just around the corner and presenters need to register by this Friday. I took a look at the site and presenters/members no longer get a discount on conference fees. The last 3 years that I attended/presented I paid my membership fee of 40,000 + 25,000 conference fees for a grand total of 65,000won. Well this year membership fees are the same, but now I have to pay 50,000 for conference fees (double) - all this for the priveledge of speaking.

I’m not sure it’s worth it especially since the list of invited speakers is a bunch of nobodys - the only ones I’m familiar with are David Graddol (definitely would want to see him) and Curtis Kelly (somewhat intersted). I do know who John Linton is, but he’s not worth seeing if your attending this conference to learn about teaching - He’s a doctor who’s lived his entire life in Korea. I didn’t find his patient interaction to be particularly pleasant and consequently I go to Korean doctors instead.

Anyhow I’ll make my decision tomorrow, but I’m definitely leaning to skipping this time around.

update

Here is the message I included with my conference registration and below that is the response I recieved.

The registration process is too difficult. Your website should have a payment gateway where people can pay via credit card and also charging to use paypal is wrong and possibly against the TOS - you really need to look into that.

Additionally your web site should be able to accept Korean writing by changing the character encoding to UTF-8 which is the international standard.

Finally I’m not impressed that as a presenter I have to pay 20,000 won more than attendees (whom presumably are coming to see presenters) especially since I am not going to use the equpment this fee is supposed to be for.

I expect that you will issue a refund of this 20,000 won since I am not using a computer. Please email ASAP about this issue.

response

In response to your comment below, this is the first year that KOTESOL is charging presenters more than attendees, and we recognize that it may be a surprise to some. However, one will find that it is increasingly an international standard for presenters to pay more because they require more. As examples, more and more conferences are not printing program books, but only timetables. All abstracts and such are “web-only” - to be printed out by attendees prior to visiting the conference. But in Korea, a printed book is a requirement for academic credit for presenters. Also, provision of things like computers and projectors have become the norm - 80% of presenters request them - so it becomes extra work to figure out “who doesn’t want one” and move the machines from room to room. Accordingly, the norm is now to equip all rooms. Presenters expect and require other special attention, including special check-in.

It really amounts to a changing mindset in TESOL towards the scientific community standard - no longer are presenters doing the conference a favor, but the conference is providing an opportunity for presenters do exhibit their work.

We will not be providing discounts for those who choose not to use the basic technology offered in each room, since the pricing is not based on technology, but the overall operational costs of putting on the conference.

As for the Korean aspect of the web site, it is a concern within KOTESOL. It is hoped that some time in the not so distant future this can be resolved. Part of the problem is that various managers work with “English-only” computers that cannot handle Korean data. And the Drupal system KOTESOL is using doesn’t handle Korean code. Again, it is an issue that KOTESOL is looking into.

We hope that the conference committee will be able to meet your presenter needs.
Best wishes,

Regardless of whether this is an international trend or not, it is in my opinion wrong to charge presenters extra to present.