Meeting Organizers vs. Social Media
Jurors Needed for the Trial of the Century
By James Spellos Lawyers on both sides of this century’s most eagerly-awaited case are frustrated with the difficulty in selecting an unbiased jury for the upcoming trial pitting the Worldwide Widget Federation (WWF) against today’s hottest social media phenomenon, Twitbook. An official Request for Participation (RFP) is being made to the meeting and event community in hopes of generating a large number of people to attend as jurors in order to help decide this landmark legal case, currently set for February 2010 in Cancun, Mexico.
Twitbook, seen by experts as the defining social media application for business success, is being sued by WWF, an association of widget professionals, blaming the application for the failure of their annual meeting and seeking “non-performance liquidated damages,” estimated at $500,000 to pay off their creditors. The city, host hotel, and other vendors are completely supporting WWF, and in a rare move, have made themselves co-plaintiffs in this case.
But is Social Media really to blame for the failure of the WWF Annual Meeting? Is it being scapegoated by meeting organizers, along with the host hotel, to mask real deficiencies in event marketing and customer service? Perhaps other factors, such as having to succeed in challenging economic period, are partly to blame as well. If WWF loses this case, they will likely go into Chapter 11 receivership, due to their precarious financial condition and inability to pay the damages to the hotel and other vendors.
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