Cultural Dissonance

I have taken the DLD conference off my upcoming events. The request for me to speak has been withdrawn.

I have never attended the DLD conference, which is managed by Hubert Burda Media, a German publishing company I have had no contact with, so there is little social capital involved. But I think this is an interesting case in cultural dissonance: since this has occurred in the past few years with two European conferences. In both cases I was asked if I would like to speak, to which I responded, yes. And in those cases, subsequently, the offer was taken back. With apologies, etc., very politely. Nonetheless this has never happened in the US, where I have spoken countless times. Maybe it is some subtle interpretation of 'would' that I am missing, as in 'would you do this if we ask you to?' with emphasis on the if.

Or perhaps it is just a different model of developing conference programs. I have served on dozens of US program committees, and people are solicited for proposals, but once you accept them as speakers you do not reneg later.

Well, I am scaling way back on conferences in general, and I can happily forego yet another travel opportunity. But being called 'Steve' in the last email rankled more than being told there were far, far too many wonderful speakers vying to participate.