All he needed to say was he had no before pictures,
I agree and do think he used poor judgement in using a last minute photoshopped image. But, I don't think that mistake alone should be the criteria for him not being invited back to the Summit.
At any rate, what Gene did last year is not the issue. His being invited back is the issue to make me forget about coming to Summit. I'm having second thoughts.
The thing about the Summit is that it serves as a venue for very diverse presentations on all sorts of hoof related matters. Sometimes you will get one speaker who advocates a certain methodology to manage some condition and the very next speaker will contradict what the previous speaker just presented. You would think the organizers of the Summit would try to get every speaker who gives presentations to be on the same page or in agreement with their methodologies, but as Tom mentioned
Lessiter's "Hoof Care Summit," like AFJ, is a profit making enterprise that is as related to the scientific method as fish are to bicycles
The bulk of presentations are not usually given by researchers in academia. Most presentations are given by working farriers and vets. Farriers like Simon Curtis, Dave Caldwell, Chris Gregory, Jim Ferie, Patrik Reiley, and Bruce Matthews and vets like Dr. Ric Redden, Dr. Amy Rucker, Dr. Stephen O'Grady, and Dr. Myers.
It's interesting that you should say:
I've had it with the new age crowd - NB, barefoot, boots etc stating as fact a raft of things that range anywhere from unproven to absolute lies.
It isn't "just the new age crowd" that does this. When it comes to hoofcare in general, most of what is assumed as "fact" has never really been proven or studied scientifically.
Denise