Ever since associations started giving out press attendee lists as a service to those exhibiting at their conferences, I have been inundated with phone calls, e-mails, faxes, snail-mails, overnight packages, notes delivered by carrier pigeons, the pony express, skywriting and singing telegrams from vendors, all pleading to get together with me at some upcoming meeting. It's driving me and my fellow editors crazy, and the bottom line is that I haven't agreed to meet with any of them. There are far more effective ways to get an editor's attention at a busy conference.

My office has been a madhouse the past four weeks, with communications coming in waves, first from those who exhibited at IIABA in Washington, then from those at RIMS in New Orleans, and now the past two weeks from tech vendors showing at the ACORD LOMA Forum.

I try to be as polite as I can, but franky, this trend is really getting on my nerves. It sounds as if they are all speaking off the same script. “I hear you are going to be covering the FILL IN THE BLANK conference at LOCATION next week. We'd love to sit down with you AT OUR BOOTH, FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER, COFFEE OR A DRINK with our NAME SOME VIP to talk about FILL IN SOMETHING THAT SOUNDS EXCITING at our company.