I don't know if they've addressed the issue this year, but last year professionals were caught in an ugly Catch 22. They were being more selective in what constituted a "professional", but they didn't make the decision on who could and couldn't get their pro badge until AFTER the regular memberships had sold out. I had a couple friends who were enough on the fringe (technical TV crew rather than actors/creators) for this to be a problem. One was OK'd, the other not.