Can a publication force us to attend a ceremony before declaring us a winner...?

Some publication want the finalist to attend an award ceremony and present on their product before giving the award. RedHerring charges over $2,000 to attend their award ceremony. If a company does not pay and attend then they remain a finalist and don't win their RedHerring 100 award. Is this fair, since our company is small and cannot afford the $2,000 fee, but we want the award. The magazine says that these are the costs they have to bear for event management and can do nothing about it - attending is a must to win.

They are making money by doing this. Report them. This is a scam. http://welcome.bbb.org/

Sounds fishy to me. I doubt the award is even close to the value of what you have to pay for the event itself. It reminds me of the old sales pitches you would have to sit through in order to get something for free. After all the agony and grief and even paying upfront for a hotel room, you get a piece of junk that wouldn't even be worthy of the dollar store.

what value is the award then?

if you don't show up, then they give it to the number two guy?

Someone needs to point this out to the Red Herring people. They have diminished the value of their award completely.

with awards...you either win or you don't...your either the best, or not. Showing up for the event is completely irrelevant.

Do you see this happening at the Oscars? ...exactly

It's their damn award show..THEY are responsible for catering it. If THEY can't afford it then they need to get sponsors..that's what most people do.

Sounds to me like this company is full of blithering morons.

You need to find some way of exposing this stupidity to the readership of this magazine.

hell...give me the contact info for their management....I'd like to set them straight. heh.