Originally Posted by gleff

You'd be welcome to come into the hotel lobby I'm sure. But folks are paying for the conference room at the hotel. They're personally signing contracts with the hotel and making financial guarantees. So I wouldn't be surprised if folks were asked not to come who hadn't paid their share of the expense for the event.

Plus there's limited seating, the Chicago Seminar DO was full and I expect it will be again, as I expect the April Frequent Travler University event will be too.

So, no, I do not see it as different.

Furthermore, it's not different than past DOs where there were activities that involved buying tickets to things, that's gone on for years, DOs haven't just been meeting in bars. Groups of people have gotten together for all sorts of stuff which involves up front cost, which participations have had to pay in order to join in for the activities. There's really nothing new here.