@SoCalMama wrote:
@ColoKate63 wrote:
I have been to four IMSC Conferences, beginning in 2009, and have been a speaker at three.
My opinion? They *used* to be useful and good ten years ago, but quality went downhill after two competitors (MSPA and VideoCon) began holding shopper conferences as well.
Save your money and take a pass.
There used to be many companies and schedulers present, but now it’s less than half - and it is mostly the problematic companies with “slow and/or low” pay. Very few video companies, they’ve all migrated elsewhere.
Lots of drama, the organizers love to screech at the attendees on the mic - very unpleasant and unprofessional. Virtually every presenter wants to sell you something; it’s like going to a MLM convention. Not a lot of useful information in the sessions, except for someone who wandered in not having any experience at ALL.
My backpack and laptop were stolen from my room at the last IMSC convention I attended, in November 2018. When the LV police arrived, they advised me to get a better hotel; the one that the IMSC had chosen was one of highest crime-rate hotels in the city.
My advice: Save your money and instead build relationships with companies and schedulers. Don’t forget that, in addition to the money you are spending to attend a conference (registration, hotel, travel, food) that you are also losing money by not working as much those conference days.
Finally: There are “shills” on this board who hype IMSC conventions because they get a free ride. Beware and be cynical of folks who over-promote.
Is this the convention where there were paid "seat-fillers"? If it was at the Flamingo, people claimed it wasn't "bad".
Yes, there were “randoms” from Fill-A-Seat there.
I spoke with several of them; they had zero interest in mystery shopping, and were there in order to collect free tickets to Las Vegas shows.
It was the second year they were there, they first were brought on in 2017 in order to fill all the empty seats in the ballroom meeting areas. (With higher attendance comes higher fees for the vendors and MSPs who want a table.)
While the genuine mystery shopping conference attendees were on breakout sessions, the Fill-A-Seat folks wandered through the main floor, grabbing up the freebies and candy from the attending companies. In 2018, the second year Fill-A-Seat was used by the IMSC, more effort was made to keep them away from the tables and other attendees.
From the Fill-A-Seat website;
*** Fillaseat is a members-only seat filling service. When a theater or venue has unsold tickets to an event, they contact Fillaseat to offer the unsold tickets to our members for FREE. No one likes to see empty seats - not the performers, the management, or the audience. Fillaseat members literally fill the seats, improving the overall experience for everyone.***
Edit: I have no idea if a Fill-A-Seat person was in on the theft of items from my room. The hotel (Flamingo) had no security cameras in hallways or elevators, and LVPD said that it had a reputation for room thefts. It would have been great if the IMSC had cautioned us about this; nothing was said.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2020 10:16PM by ColoKate63.