That was my feeling when I read the post - that as Kevin said, sometimes e-mail exchanges can come across as terse. I write freely on e-mail and don't make any attempt to keep it "short and sharp" - to me its more like a letter, but others think of e-mail more like a telex or something and confine their e-mails to the strictly minimum necessary to convey the information. I've had wrong impressions of people because of this, then I met them and realized they just don't like to type and in person they were really quite communicative. I think that's what all this boils down to - a misunderstanding that wouldn't have happened had the prospective visitor and the MC met in person.   I can see where the e-mail wasn't especially welcoming butI don't think it was intended to discourage the person from attending - just to convey the information in as succinct a form possible.