Catchword: lobbycon

Gloss: to attend the site of a professional conference, without enrolling or paying entrance fees, for the purpose of meeting with attendees in the site’s public spaces.

Note: From lobby + conference.

Filed Under: English, Business

Part of Speech: n.

Quotation: Some of Silicon Valley’s digerati don’t let $3,600 admission prices keep them from attending technology conferences. They simply loiter in the venue’s lobby—without paying—in hopes of mingling with other entrepreneurs, collecting business cards and cutting deals. The phenomenon has become so prevalent that it has been given a name: lobbycon.…“The sessions at technology conferences are often like plots in porn films,” said Ben Metcalfe, a technology consultant from San Francisco who said he lobbycons about four conferences annually. “It’s required for the context, but it’s not really what you paid for.”…Lobbyconners acknowledge that they could, in theory, be asked to leave, although none was aware of it ever happening.

Article or Document Title:
“‘Lobbyconners’ crash tech conferences to schmooze, cut deals” (URL)

Author:
Verne Kopytoff

Article, Document, Publication, Web Site:
San Francisco Chronicle

Date of Publication:
Oct. 14, 2007

This catchword has yet to be researched.