November 03, 2011 at 7:26 PM

Go to any conference, and everything is sponsored. Lunch is sponsored. The coffee is sponsored. The Wifi is sponsored. The salad fork is sponsored (and the sponsor gets upset if you don’t know which one is the salad fork). Like banks, conference producers have found increasing ways of getting companies to offset the cost of doing business while giving them visibility in exchange. (OK, banks don’t give anything in exchange, they just take more money when they want it, so that’s probably an uncharitable comparison. Sorry guys….)

But today I saw a first: the restrooms had a sponsor.

What?? Does that mean that, without a sponsor we would be denied access to the bathroom? Or we’d be charged? (Call it “Pay per …” oh, nevermind) Is nothing sacred or free in this world? Is that a stupid question?

I asked around a bit, and we can all relax: things aren’t as dire as they appear. Turns out a company wanted to buy a sponsorship when none were left. So they found a creative tongue-in-cheek way to do it.

So you may continue to rest in peace.

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Dick Selwood

RyanAir, a low cost Ireland based airline, notorious for charging for anything they can, was rumoured to be thinking of installing pay toilets on their planes. They denied it but we conspiracy threorists feel they may have been just grabbing more publicity. Damn - they did it again. Posted on November 04, 2011 at 5:20 AM