Cost of free

I am sure this will be a relatable experience. If you have not experienced this yet, I am sure you will experience something similar in the future.

While using a UPI payment app, I received a coupon. This coupon provided an access to a free AI workshop where usage of AI tools would be shown. I thought let's enrol. What's the harm? After all it is free of cost. I went ahead and I enrolled myself for it.

I got the invitation for the workshop. It was for approximately 3 hours. I had nothing to do on that particular day so I decided to attend it. Plus I had nothing to lose. Since there is so much discussion of AI, I thought I would learn something new. 

The workshop definitely was not useless. I did learn a few things which I can apply in my day to day life. The first hour of the workshop was very helpful. Then the problem started. After 1 hour the host started talking about how AI is going to replace the job of each and every person. To certain extent I believe that was true. But what they were doing would be called as "fear mongering" in the latest terminology. This went on for another 30 minutes. Then they presented a solution to the problem which was their flagship AI certification program. They started promoting it. Like, how this course is comprehensive; how the attendees will get benefitted; how some of the attendees have received promotions in their existing companies or better positions at a different company. The usual marketing fluff took the centre stage. That course was quite expensive. The promotion of the certification of the course went on for approximately 1 and half hours. Then came the last part of it where they issued a lot of coupons so that the participants can enrol themselves into this certification course. Frankly, I had lost interest after the first hour. I definitely had no plans to attend their certification course. 

Then came the part that annoyed me. That very day onwards I started receiving sales call from their institute. I would receive a call in the morning, afternoon, evening and even at night. The last call that I had received from them was at 10 o'clock at night. All calls had the same message. A sales person would ask for the feedback on the workshop. Then they would provide information about the flagship certification course. Then they try to persuade to enrol into that certification. The would start talking about the EMI plans, easy payment methods, and how the course is pocket friendly (it was not). Receiving one call is fine but receiving several calls throughout the day was definitely not fine. I blocked various numbers from their Institute. Still there were new numbers from which they were contacting. Their text messages flooded my inbox. By this time, I was close to posting a review on Google for letting anyone know not to attend their free workshop.

This is what happens nowadays. We go somewhere, attend some session, enquire something and then the sales team starts hounding us. The sweet talkers try to persuade us to join their institute, course, or program. This is another lesson not to attend anything that is for free. What they say is true "There are no free lunches".