Hope to see you in Brussels and clarify
Thomas, in my books this looks like misalignment of expectations: I didn’t know or wasn’t made aware that the payment was too low for you for the estimated work or that you would be doing a favor to anyone by taking on the gig. From my very first email I specified what the work would entail, part of it being outreach and part postproduction: “It should take a small build up to the event, namely call for participation with maybe a video of you and your own story as exhibit A? (posted until Feb 20) + 3 hrs session (on location in Bxl or a dedicated corner for this… dunno) + a couple hrs of work after to upload the materials (no edits needed).”
What you saw as uncalled-for outreach responsibilities looked as lack of commitment to the other side as over two weeks passed, hence the disappointment in both parties.
I guess sprinting to get the event done in time and posting work-in-progress writeups is not how you are used to work, which is not right or wrong, it just is. Even when the work is paid for, there’s always a process to build it up, which is where the community engagement comes in - I can see some of the confusion and would have welcomed request for clarifications of terms, in one of the weekly community calls maybe? It’s why I am here all the time, facebook, hangouts, emailing, and everywhere. Having channels to discuss this at length - with suggestions and going back and forth - well it’s how most stuff gets done. NB: None of the event pages are final, in fact just today I managed to clarify stuff for my own session and change it to a great extent! It’s the reason why you could edit yours - fb event and wikis at a minimum. All our comms say speakers are not speakers per say, and everyone contributes to the event. The speakers pictures on the event page I add personally and gradually, simply because folks need to be reminded. Why take offence? I don’t get it… If anything was a deal breaker to you, you should have said so. Instead what we got was agreement to terms.
Not trying to minimize your distress or other people mentioned in your post (they may be distressed too), hope we all learn from this.
Honestly and in peace,
Noemi