Strange Photography Rules At Satellite 2017
Keith’s note: Like everyone else at Satellite 2017 today I was taking pictures with my cellphone. As I left the exhibit hall I wanted to get a nice panoramic image to show the huge audience and large number of exhibitors so that my readers could see how big an event this is. I was at the top of the escalators several hundred feet away from the nearest booth. Just as I started a female security guard loudly ordered me to stop and not to take any pictures. I asked why and she said “no pictures are allowed at this meeting”. A moment later a male security guard came over, looked down at my badge and also said rather rudely “no pictures are allowed at this meeting”. I replied “Really? Anywhere? Everyone here is taking pictures all over the place”. His response “well they are not supposed to”.
I went to the conference press office but they seemed to be unaware/uninterested in this new rule or what impact it would have on media coverage. No mention is made in the program of any such rule nor was I ever told not to take pictures. Several exhibitors actually encouraged me to take photos. This strikes me as an especially odd way to get one’s message out. The fact that several companies were streaming live video via Periscope and the thousands of people taking selfies seems to escaped the notice of the photo cops at Satellite 2017. There is a lot of really cool stuff at this meeting. I had hoped to go back after lunch and talk at length to several companies and feature their cool stuff. But the rules, as barked at me by conference security, made that pointless since I would not be allowed to take any pictures of the hardware I wanted to feature. So I left.
|
|
Some possibilities:
1) The companies streaming the event were paying a licensing fee of some sort and this was revenue protection;
2) You were the one they noticed taking a photograph after someone else complained; no-one else mentioned the other thousands of people dong it that they knew about so they didn’t have a problem with it;
3) You’re too personally notorious, Keith! They were trying to suppress your reporting of the event! 😉
4) Poorly trained security guards who were given vague instructions (probably about no professional photography because the event hired its own photographer) and decided it was better to shut down all photography than risk the wrath of a poorly trained supervisor.
My guess would be geography. He said he was “at the top of the escalators several hundred feet away from the nearest booth.” I don’t know about this conference, but at most of the ones I go to, the guards are next to the door. They are really there just to make sure no one comes in without having paid the registration fee and gotten a badge to prove it. They would never notice people taking pictures inside the auditorium if they never go inside the auditorium.
The no-pictures rule, with very spotty enforcement, is fairly common if people are presenting preliminary results or results which are still in press, or saying something they don’t want to be misinterpreted as a policy statement on the part of their institution. I think organizers think this will make the presenters comfortable speaking more freely.
Soon this will be a moot point once we have cameras embedded in our bodies. I have seen two tv shows in the last few days that featured cameras hidden IN people’s bodies (one without their knowledge). Add to that the soon to be unnoticeable cameras in wear-ables like google glass et. al. It wont be long before we begin to record EVERYTHING we see & hear by default