Why do I have to sign an NDA and release to attend a NAMS workshop?

NAMS team working together / photo by Roger Carr

Newcomers who walk into the Niche Affiliate Marketing System workshop are often surprised that they must sign a Non-Disclosure form (NDA) that includes a release to use your picture, testimonial and audio comments.

The release part of the document isn’t the part that scares people. It’s the non-disclosure paragraph that gives people pause.

“I also agree that I may be hearing proprietary information during the conference, and I agree to not plagiarize the work of others, or share this information with competing parties. However, the concepts and strategies I learn may be assimilated, emulated and modeled from others into my own project, but I will not steal or disclose proprietary information to others, it just wouldn’t be right.“

And further down the one-page agreement, it says:

“I also agree that when I present my project that I do so willingly, and understand that I may divulge proprietary information to my fellow conference participants who have also agreed to the above paragraphs.”

Just briefly, let me explain the reasons behind this document and why its completion is mandatory for attendance at NAMS.

1. Instructors at NAMS are incredibly generous. They share stuff with you that they seldom share with other people or if they do, it’s for a lot of money. A couple of speakers emerged from sessions last year concerned that they really shared too much info about the inner workings of their business and ask if I could edit it out of the recordings. The answer is “No”. That’s one aspect of the workshop recordings that makes them so valuable.
2. This document guarantees that you won’t steal their secrets, so instructors can feel safe about telling you. You can model what they do. But wholesale replication of a business is verboten. (And goes without saying…)
3. Trust is absolutely required to make this workshop effective. As an attendee, you may want to divulge serious issues you’re having with your business. Or talk about serious opportunities within your business. You can even share with your “competitors” in the same niche because the workshop NDA document creates boundaries that people respect.
4. The document clearly states that you can use what you hear. You cannot steal other people’s work.

It’s silly that we have to discuss this, but this document is to make you feel comfortable, not anxious.

And I admit, with the people that we attract, ethics is not a problem.

If you’d like a preview of the one page document, here it is.