Discover more from Out of Patients with Matthew Zachary
CAUTION ALL ADVOCATES
If anyone receives an email inviting you to speak at this conference — MEDLAB Middle East / Medical Expo and Conference Dubai February 2024 — know that this is a predatory event looking to poach talented, experienced patients to their speaker roster with all the blustery sheen and allure you would expect.
But it's a bait-and-switch sham.
While they offer to cover travel expenses, invited speakers are never paid. What's worse is that events like these often have the invited speaker cover registration fees in exchange for travel and expenses.
Talk me off the ledge here, but WHY do we put up with this, and how do we clap back besides collectively telling them to piss off or change their tune? Moreover, how do we prevent this industry's exploitation of our fellow less experienced advocates?
We didn't choose to go to "Healthcare Shitstorm University" only to have amassed the professional wisdom, experience, and communities these businesses seek to poach. Our lived experiences are the very collateral they want pro bono, perceivably, to enhance the attendee experience and increase their profits.
Another note of clarification: Patient advocates do not attend these events via our employer's expense accounts. We are often in no position to shell $$ out of pocket for your benefit.
My suffering is my currency, not your revenue.
So, if you're looking to profit off my experience, it will be a cold day in hell before I agree to let anyone sell me on "But...but...but the exposure!"
Patients can do the pay-for-play thing, too.
Final note: This event is one of scores worldwide whose entire business model thrives on the belief that we are token pieces on a chess board, ripe for the plucking for free and at their discretion for the sole purpose of ticking a box in their agenda and meeting their margins.
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