I don’t know the solution. This seems to be an attempt to manage the flow of requests, though since it results in fewer bloggers posting about the event because of blogging budgets and dented egos, it’s not the right solution, yet.

I sometimes think that someone (not me) should create a bonded agency for CSR and event management – one that protects designers from theft of their property through commercial insurance so designers can feel secure in leaving these requests and other customer service issues in the hands of someone else without fear of theft.

Another solution that occurs to me is for events to have someone who is sort of a blog wrangler – and asking designers to provide NO COPY/Transfer items to the wrangler to give out to bloggers. They could ask designers to give 3 or so copies of each outfit to pass to bloggers, ensuring that one dress is not blogged 10 times while another is ignored. Bloggers could be limited to requesting no more than 2 times the number of days in the event outfits – since few blog more than twice a day, keeping the distribution fair and realistic.

I am sure there is some way that both the goals of maximizing publicity and of managing demands on designers can be achieved if we approach it with a cooperative spirit instead of simply picking up our toys and going home.

I made the event list, not the 25 selected and you don’t see me bitching about it! I went, had a blast checking it out and picked up fabulous freebies, looked around and saw many things displayed that I already owned and could incorporate into my blog posts.

But then again, I don’t think I am “entitled” to get things just cos I’m a blogger.