After I had written my last post, I realised that I had forgotten one important group of people attending the conference. This group does not bother to fake an interest in the topic of the talk or presentation and in fact, may not even attend one.No, this group is only attending the conference for one reason: to get as much free stuff as possible!
The sole objective of the so-called common Aasgeier is to collect as many sweets, pens, coasters, brochures, pins and key rings as possible. Whether he actually needs his prey does generally not matter to the common Aasgeier - as long as it’s free, he will have it! But while pins and pens are nice and easy targets for the Aasgeier, it seems that the Holy Grail and ultimate freebies are… dum dum dum… bags in which the Aasgeier can collect his prey.
The German Stand at the Climate Change Response Expo, the part of the COP17 that is accessible to the public, has a few jute bags to give out and the news of that has spread around the Expo quicker than a bushfire in Australia! Every five minutes, someone asks about these bags and begs the exhibitors to give them one.
Please can they not have a bag - they come from Uganda, Zambia or a rural part of South Africa and want to take them home. They would like to take some information material (one really really heavy leaflet) but can only possibly take and carry it if they get a bag. They are so poor and need to be empowered with a bag... The stories are endless!
And people don't just ask once, no - they come back every day and some even get on their knees and start begging and crying - for a jute bag!!!
But even more attractive to the common Aasgeier than free goods is free food. After the German Hour, a daily panel discussions, there is usually some food and drink so that people can network and mingle. Once the Aasgeiers realised this, they started attending the event religiously; some actually come at 3pm and sit through two hours of discussions just to get a free cocktail sausage and Coke at 5pm!
During one of these discussions, I discovered yet another species of conference goers: the professional Aasgeier! Unlike the common Aasgeier, the professional Aasgeier does not merely take everything he can get his hands on but cleverly plans his days according to where the most and best freebies are.
And so I recognised the same Aasgeier from a talk I had attended earlier on in the day. And there is no doubt in the world that he had chosen the talk not because he was interested in the Water Strategy that the Minister of Water Affairs had launched, but because of the mini burgers and chicken drumsticks on the buffet!
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