It seems that my company does not generally send people to conferences, even if they're tapped as speakers. This is not a snub towards me in particular— there are people around here that have to turn down invitations for the same reason, people who are more highly-regarded in speech and VoiceXML circles than I can claim to be in the Open Source arena. It's just a matter of expense and cold, hard numbers.
What they can do, are willing to do, is comp me for the day that I am speaking. So, to do OSCON at all, I will have to pay my own way and then claim it on my taxes next year as a business expense. To be there any more than just the day I'm speaking, I will have to use vacation time.
I find these things sadly unfortunate.
Re:maybe you can talk them into it
rjray on 2003-06-02T21:48:21
Unfortunately, no. My boss' boss is the one I referred to, who has to turn down invitations to talk 2-3 times a year. And these are things that are directly related to our business, no coaxing or convincing required.
Now, it's down to a question of whether I drive or fly to Portland
:-).
