Well I see that once again it’s time for TEDxCluj. You might remember my piece on this last year as well as my follow-up here. I never did quite get any answers to my questions, only snobby attitudes and stupidity.

Well here is the line-up for this year’s event. If you’re Romanian you probably know who Mihaela Radulescu is and her current husband, who assures us that he didn’t “steal” her from her last husband, the crooked egomaniac who owns Realitatea among other things. As for the rest of who is announced, doesn’t look like a whole lot of anything worth a shit, at least at first glance.

Furthermore, you’ve got to hunt around the damn website to find out how to register for the conference because they’ve deliberately fucking hidden it. You’re supposed to go to one of the local malls here in Unicorn City and scan a QR code to get the link. This means 1) you’re fancy and go to the mall and 2) you’ve got an expensive smartphone that can scan QR codes. Well if you want to skip all the bullshit, here is the hidden registration page, where you will notice a ticket costs 200 lei. Jesus!

Nobody ever did tell me where all that money went to last year and now it’s even more expensive. Who is getting paid here? Last year the food and the gifts were all donated by corporate sponsors. I know for a fact the TED people who license these things didn’t get a penny (due to the rules they put in place, not Romanian smecherie). The only expense I saw was running a projector on the screen and two microphones and a sound system. Big deal, hardly going to cost anyone thousands of Euros just for that. So I still am curious, who is getting paid? God knows Liviu Alexa, Mihaela Radulescu and her husband of the month do not need the cash but are they still going to get some? What about the other speakers? And if not, whom? That money doesn’t sit in outer space in a magic box. Someone is taking it home.

Theoretically there are going to be other speakers and “local technological innovations” promised by the time the show happens, whatever that is. All I know is that for sure one grenade thrown into TEDxCluj would wipe out 99% of the pretentious elites here in Cluj, who damn sure will be in attendance and that they’ve now hopefully priced the thing so high that they can keep out the filthy students and other non-deserving bums from this giant circle jerk of mutual praise they’re all going to heap on each other using their faux English signage and all the rest.

My question to all of you is do you think I should attend myself and report on what happens? These jokers never bother to put any official videos on their website (where they’d have to, you know, pay for bandwidth) but you can find some with shitty audio on YouTube (link goes to one in English). That’s the kind of things to expect. Is it worth it for me to go just so at least one person in the audience isn’t a patronizing dick? Or is it just better to sit at home and let these guys enjoy their 200-lei-a-person party in peace?

So… time to vote! I can’t promise I’ll do what you vote I should do but I’ll seriously think about it. How’s that for a firm promise? :P