Jeff at Midcourse Corrections thinks big-name speakers who are hired just for their big names actually are beyond the “becoming” phase when it comes to irrelevance, and that they may just make your meeting — and your organization — irrelevant too.

Read his post for all the reasons he thinks celebrity speakers who don’t customize their messages should go the way of the dodo bird. I agree with him, for the most part, though, as I noted in a comment on his post, I’d hate to see a conference get so insular with its content that ideas that aren’t directly related can’t get in. While I can only speak for myself, of course, I’ve found that some of the best ideas come from things that have nothing to do with the topic at hand, but spark me to think differently about that topic. I can’t tell you how often something from meeting planning has changed the way I look at journalism, for example.

Targeted content should of course be the main course of any conference mental buffet, but I wouldn’t rule out throwing in some unrelated, yet thought-provoking, appetizers as well.

This is so despicable: Fake Boston bridal show signs up thousands. What makes it even more despicable than just scamming brides-to-be and vendors out of an estimated $50k for a show that was never intended to actually happen is that the organizer promoted it as also donating a portion of the proceeds to Haiti relief efforts. Just made me sick to my stomach to read this one with my morning coffee.

I don’t know how attendees and vendors can guard against getting scammed in something like this. According to the article, the Web site looked legit. Have we come to a place where you have to actually call the venue to make sure that a show is actually booked? I’m not sure how else people could have caught on to this before plunking down their money (a quick Google search found this advice, but I don’t think it would have warned anyone off the phony bridal show in Boston). I know this has happened before, mostly with international scientific congresses. What can we do to stop it, other than find the scum who do it and prosecute the living daylights out of them?