Why I cancelled my TechEd talks

http://goodenoughsoftware.net/2013/07/18/the-charlie-foxtrot-aka-teched/

by ohjeez • 13 years ago

495 177 13 years ago

singular• 13 years ago

I can understand (though find it ridiculous) that they didn't want to give his wife a ticket, but to propose simply leaving her outside the venue alone? What the actual fuck? Was there not a human-based moment of common sense here, or at least marketing sense from Microsoft?

When people behave like that, the umbrella of some corporate behemoth doesn't prevent me from from feeling pessimistic about people (both those in question and often generally.) Sigh!

codezero7• 13 years ago

While I completely agree with the general sentiment and I think Microsoft went in the wrong direction here, presumably his wife is an adult and could find a Starbucks or something to entertain herself for an hour or two.

While it would have been completely reasonable and courteous of MS to accommodate the speaker's wife, it's kind of wild to equate not letting her in to kicking her to the curb/abandoning her.

protomyth2• 13 years ago

From the article "What man would just leave his wife in a foreign country stranded outside a conference hall for almost two hours without even letting her know what was going on."

How is that not kicking her to the curb?

kstrauser5• 13 years ago

What would it have cost Microsoft to let his wife come inside and hang out for an hour to watch her husband speak? It wouldn't require giving away an expensive ticket, or buying meals for her, or giving her a swag bag. It would only have required one decision maker to say, "sure, you can go with him but should probably leave afterward so other attendees don't wonder what's up". That's all.

I wouldn't have been nearly so polite if I were in his situation, and my wife would have a conniption if I were banned from watching one of her talks.

Again, I can't think of a single legitimate reason not to have let his wife go to his talk, and that simple act would have bought a lot of goodwill. The fact that no one was able to make that simple judgement call is a sign of terrible organization.

droithomme2• 13 years ago

New Orleans right now has the highest murder rate in the US. It is not only a very dangerous city, it is in fact currently the most dangerous city in the entire country.

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/05/155986277/new-orleans-struggle...

Leaving someone out in a strange foreign city of this nature to just deal with it is absurd.

darkarmani2• 13 years ago

While it would have been completely reasonable and courteous of MS to accommodate the speaker's wife, it's kind of wild to equate not letting her in to kicking her to the curb/abandoning her.

It is if they had told her they would let her in and then when they got him separated from her, they lead her out to the street. How is that not kicking her to the curb?

dsuth• 13 years ago

No she was actually kicked to the curb, when she was physically escorted from the building by security. That right there is unacceptable behaviour. No one gives a shit about your precious bureaucracy and petty little power plays. Accommodate the people you've invited to your conference!

rmc3• 13 years ago

The problem isn't that it's dangerous or physically harmful, the problem is that it's rude and disrespectful.

GrinningFool• 13 years ago

Picture having been left outside while your SO goes to figure out what's going on. She tells you she'll be right back.

Two hours later, she comes back. "Sorry, I had to give my talk. They didn't give me a choice. I hope you didn't get too bored standing out here waiting for me."

Personally, I applaud the author for realizing that there was, in fact, a choice - and then choosing it.

edandersen2• 13 years ago

I don't think they expected him to bring guests to a tech conference. What if he brought his kids as well? Grandma? Free $2000 tickets for all? Remember that the hired guns at these events are not paid to think, just follow orders. He should have got special clearance weeks in advance for free entrance for his family - that's the uncomfortable truth.

He will probably live to regret this as a speaking gig at TechEd as a non-MS employee is not to be sniffed at and now he has shunned the Borg - whom he must be pretty invested in skills wise to be invited in the first place. His wife could have gone and done some sightseeing while he works for a few hours.

snikch• 13 years ago

I think the core issue here is more about the treatment than the expectations. If they had handled the situation differently, it would not have been an issue. The problem was there was no consideration for his wife in the slightest. It definitely feels like a commoditised arrangement rather than a human interaction.

tptacek6• 13 years ago

I've spoken at lots of conferences, brought friends to many of my talks, and would do exactly what he did in the same circumstance.

edandersen2• 13 years ago

The scale of these conferences necessitates a strict badge rule. To get a badge, you need a registration. No badge = asked to leave. The security drones don't have the authority to issue badges on the spot and are programmed to kick out non-badge holders. Good for you that you would have cancelled 30 mins before the talk but it still would be a breach of contract most likely.

pyoung2• 13 years ago

As a counter example, I have been to a number of conferences where the speakers/presenters/panelists and volunteers were expected to pay the full registration fee, so as you can imagine, friends/family and +1's wouldn't get special treatment.

While some events are pretty laid back, it looks like the registration for this event cost ~$2000, which is a pretty penny. My gut instinct would be to check with the event organizers first before trying to bring a +1, but I think the OP assumed that because he was able to negotiate with the travel coordinators for two one way tickets, one for his wife (instead of one round trip ticket), he probably assumed that this was implicit consent for his wife to tag along at the conference. Seems like a big mis-understanding that was confounded by poor treatment from security staff (and before we start ragging on the security staff, it is worth mentioning that event security tends to be a thankless, miserable job. Crappy wages and hours, and depending on the event, you spend most of your time dealing with people who treat you like shit.)

marshray4• 13 years ago

But would you have tried to show up more than 30 minutes ahead of your speaking slot if you were bringing a wife who didn't speak English who didn't have a conference preregistration?

Lest anyone think I'm being judgmental I personally might have shown up about 0 minutes before I had to talk and behaved exactly like he did.

akandiah• 13 years ago

I don't think they expected him to bring guests to a tech conference.

I wouldn't consider TechEd to be a tech conference. It's more of a Microsoft sales event that requires an entry fee.

eli3• 13 years ago

You could say that about any vendor conference. It still has value.

eli3• 13 years ago

Even if that's true and this was an unexpected situation, they handled it in the most inhumane and callous way possible.

protomyth2• 13 years ago

He will probably live to regret this....

I hope nothing in life makes you regret more than canceling after security escorts your significant other outside.

As to the admission money, we pay the $ because we gain something. Expecting a speaker not to bring someone is just plain foolish.

bjornsing4• 13 years ago

Yea, I must say it's a bit weird to assume you can bring your wife to an event like this, with such absolute certainty that you feel it would be entirely incomprehensible for her if you did not manage to get her in but instead had to give your talk...

eli3• 13 years ago

They paid for his wife's one-way plane ticket to the event, so it probably shouldn't have been a total shock. Regardless, that's just not a nice way to treat people.

tptacek6• 13 years ago

It's not weird at all, and not only that, but you should expect your +1 to be seated for your talk, not shown to a speaker's lounge.

tomp• 13 years ago

You didn't read the article, did you?

Him and his wife were traveling together. He didn't bring her with him to the conference; they changed their travel plans so that he would be able to speak at the conference.

jamesaguilar• 13 years ago

It's not like it costs them $2000 to give her a ticket. They don't have to spend any extra resources on her, she's not a foregone sale, and she's not displacing anyone who would have paid. It's a $0 ticket that they would have given to her.

darkarmani2• 13 years ago

Free $2000 tickets for all?

You mean free $0 tickets. It doesn't cost them anything to have her in the speaker lounge. They paid for her plane ticket which actually cost them money, but they wouldn't let her wait for him?

chris_mahan• 13 years ago

Besides, she can get the content of the talk at home anyway, over beer.

Spooky23• 13 years ago

He didn't ask for free tickets, just admission to his talk.

It's a common courtesy and necessary. You need to be able to take pictures on your own to safely be able to use those pictures in your own marketing or other material.

I've never spoken at a major conference, but the folks whom I've worked with who have at a corporate/organization always bring an assistant or friend to take pictures to memorialize the appearance. I've been the assistant role a couple of times early in my career -- 2/3 times I was given a "exhibitors hall" or "sponsored session pass" gratis.

Ovid• 13 years ago

Agreed. I've spoken at quite a few conferences, including a couple of talks at OSCON. While I've been to disorganized conferences, I've never been to one that would have treated me so poorly.

CamperBob2• 13 years ago

At some point Microsoft has to trust their invited guests to behave like professionals. Believe me, if I ever decide to abuse Microsoft's hospitality as a guest speaker at one of their conferences, I will get a LOT more creative than merely inviting my kids and family members to sit in the audience.

I don't know exactly what I would do or say once I got behind the mic, but you'd probably read about it on here, if not on CNN.

jakethehuman• 13 years ago

Well clearly bringing in 'the fam' as opposed to ' the wife' would be whole other story.

Buy I would think a company such as Microsoft could figure out basic common courtesy for guests that they invited.

danso• 13 years ago

What I appreciate about the OP is that he has plenty of reason to get mad, but he also recognizable the failure as a result of systematic flaws: the lack of point people and support staff, for instance. I hope I can show as much reasonibility as the OP if I ever get caught in a shitty bureaucratic mix.

Yhippa2• 13 years ago

He's definitely a better man than I. Surely there is someone(s) responsible for their UX and I think it's too lenient to say "them's the breaks". Unfortunately there's apparently nothing he can do about it as evidenced by their non-response and even threat. No point in getting worked up over things you can't control.

Stealx• 13 years ago

As someone who as exhibited at TechEd before, it's a poorly run event contracted out to the lowest bidder... just like he said.

It's the Microsoft way, their events are a reflection of how Microsoft truly is.

bruceb2• 13 years ago

I worked for a company that had a contract with Microsoft and I must say our travel and accommodation was handled well and they didn't cheap out. One piece of anecdotal evidence to throw out there.

rubinelli• 13 years ago

In my experience, it all depends on who's picking up the tab. I assume you were hired as a consultant for a project. In that case, their client was paying, so there wasn't a reason to be cheap.

(And, of course, Microsoft is a huge organization; even if some policies are standardized, the way they are implemented can still vary wildly.)

chadkruse• 13 years ago

I wonder how many +1-as-a-service startups we'll see in the next YC batch.

kstrauser5• 13 years ago

I think that's only legal in Nevada.

BrentOzar7• 13 years ago

I've spoken at TechEds in the US and Europe, and been in the top 10 for attendee feedback twice.

I'd never speak at TechEd again, and I told Microsoft the same thing, same reasons. The event staff is overly demanding and inconsiderate of speaker time. They repeatedly dragged me into mandatory virtual and in-person meetings to cover inane details that should have been covered via email. They mandated the color of pants speakers wore. Just ridiculously micromanaged.

gpcz2• 13 years ago

I wonder if blog posts like this will cause some kind of reform. I was under the impression that Microsoft was aware of how important keeping 3rd-party developers happy is toward the long-term success of any OS or platform they publish.

unknownian• 13 years ago

I was under the impression that Microsoft was aware of how important keeping 3rd-party developers happy

If Microsoft started alienating the very high number of Windows (desktop) developers (which is going to be higher than the OS X community for a foreseeable future), do you think they'd just abandon the platform?

badclient• 13 years ago

They mandated the color of pants speakers wore.

Am I really reading this? Wow.

BrentOzar7• 13 years ago

Khakis, with brown shoes. Not tennis shoes, although trendy sneakers (but not athletic shoes) would be considered.

The most insulting part: the Microsoft keynote speakers - MS employees - were in jeans and track suits. They were trying to look approachable. Hilarious because you couldn't approach them and ask a question during keynotes.

skeletonjelly• 13 years ago

The colour was fine for an emperor. We know who wears the real pants in this "relationship".

bittired• 13 years ago

Apparently you were really reading that. I don't think dress code is out of the question though. Thong swimsuits would be a horrible thing to speak in.

photorized• 13 years ago

Color of pants, really? Just wow.

tommi2• 13 years ago

Did you agree to such micromanagement in your contract?

BrentOzar7• 13 years ago

Did you agree to such micromanagement in your contract?

No, funny thing with TechEd - there's a million different people involved in running it, none of whom appear to know anything about the others. So you sign the contract, which is fairly innocuous, and then the crazy emails start trickling in, one at a time.

When I talked to my MS track leader about it, even he didn't know about all these meetings and the departments that we're requiring them.

At one TechEd, just after the Surfaces had been released but no technical details were out yet, I found myself in yet another mandatory speaker meeting. We were told that we weren't allowed to answer any questions about the Surface, and that instead we were to just say, "I'm very excited about what's coming."

I'm a SQL Server community guy, not an MS employee, not a Surface advocate, but that meeting was mandatory. That was the last straw.

jlgreco6• 13 years ago

Realistically, what would they do if you showed up in jeans? "Sorry folks, the talk is cancelled. Your speaker decided to wear jeans today."?

That is the sort of bullshit that I always call bluffs on. Worse case scenario you get someone all huffy and upset that their rule has been ignored (making them feel unimportant, as they should), and you give them a "whoops, too bad."

BrentOzar7• 13 years ago

Realistically, what would they do if you showed up in jeans?

Nothing at that talk, but you may not be on the invite list for next time. Microsoft's invite list for TechEd is notoriously political. The leader for each track (an MS employee) picks the session list.

To give an extreme example, one of my submissions was called something like "Fixing Slow SQL Servers." I was told, "At TechEd, there are no slow SQL Servers." It was changed to Building the Fastest SQL Servers. (sigh)

ceautery2• 13 years ago

I agree in spirit, but not details. The dress code is what's unimportant, not the person trying to manage the speakers.

prawn6• 13 years ago

Is a dress-code for presenters really that insane in an age of such care and attention to branding?

I frequently visit pubs that tell me what shoes I'm allowed to wear! Sounds like micromanaging, but it's really just a "No singlets, no thongs [flip-flops], no visible tattoos, no sneakers, etc."

dsr_• 13 years ago

You go to a pub where you are forbidden from having a visible tattoo?

I have no tattoos, and I'm shocked (a) at the existence of such a place in 2013 and (b) that anyone with a tattoo would put up with it.

joshuaellinger2• 13 years ago

Repeat after me:

    Microsoft 201X is IBM 199X

Then everything starts to make sense: Surface. TechEd. Windows Phone.

alan_cx• 13 years ago

Off topic, but I do love his web site.

joshuaellinger2• 13 years ago

Yeah, lots of good .Net stuff

He might have convinced me to port to Mono.

joeevans2• 13 years ago

Duh. Microsoft.

interpol_p• 13 years ago

Wow this is horrible. I hope Microsoft does something to rectify this.

I had the complete opposite experience speaking at One More Thing in Australia. The organisers completely took care of my wife and infant son, were constantly on-hand to provide any assistance. They went beyond what I expected.

blackprawn• 13 years ago

Too bad to hear of your experience. Having stopped MS development 15 years ago I don't miss the way that company treats developers.

shanselman2• 13 years ago

This sucks. However it's never been my experience, and I've brought my wife to a half-dozen techeds on three continents. Sounds like systematic misunderstandings that added up into one big mess.

(I've ignored the dress code for 15 years, FWIW)

janjongboom• 13 years ago

Then again, you're MSFT employee.

jasallen• 13 years ago

And well known. Nobody wants the boss to find out: "uh, we alienated Hanselman".

manojlds• 13 years ago

He's talking about 15 years, but has been a MSFT employee for 6 years or so - http://www.hanselman.com/blog/BlueBadge.aspx

BrentOzar7• 13 years ago

This sucks. However it's never been my experience,

This just in - Scott Hanselman treated better than other presenters at TechEd. Film at 11.

joeevans2• 13 years ago

Developers! Developers! Developers!

sriramk• 13 years ago

This is sad because this is the opposite of my pre-Microsoft TechEd experience.

When I was in school, I got asked to do a demo for a Senior VP's keynote at TechEd to demo how a student would use Visual Studio. My parents happened to be in the vicinity and I was chatting with them outside the conference venue when a Microsoft employee walked by and asked who they were. When I told him, he asked me to get them inside so they could watch my talk in the big keynote hall, no passes required. That's the only time my dad has ever seen speak me in public and was a very special moment - it probably influenced how I perceived Microsoft and it's employees at a young age.

This particular case smacks of no one with any such decision making authority (basically a full time employee at Microsoft) present there who could help.

aaronbrethorst• 13 years ago

This particular case smacks of no one with any such decision making authority (basically a full time employee at Microsoft) present there who could help.

Seriously, this should have never happened.

subsystem• 13 years ago

Meh. While they sure could have been more accomodating, 30 minutes before a talk is not the right time bring up your deal breaking demands.

x1024• 13 years ago

"My wife should not be thrown out of the venue" is hardly an unexpected and entitled demand, though. It falls more into the "not going to mention it because it's implied" category.

mark-ruwt• 13 years ago

Totally agree. If you pause to think about it, for a conference as large and expectedly bureaucratic as this one, asking for a last-minute ticket for your wife is no different than asking for one for a colleague. It's something that should have been taken care of more than 30 minutes before the talk.

kstrauser5• 13 years ago

He didn't ask for a ticket. He asked for her to be allowed into his own talk for the hour while he was giving it. That's a pretty tame and reasonable request.

mikeash• 13 years ago

Indeed. Why didn't they bring up potential guests beforehand?

Oh, you think the onus is on him? Weird.

ohnjohn• 13 years ago

Isn't releasing the detail about the color of pants allowed in breach of some NDA ;)

Goon• 13 years ago

So let me make sure I get this correct - you brought your wife to a conference that it costs nearly $2k to get tickets too and you expected your wife to be able to get in, sans purchasing this ticket. I think your expectations of what you bought are off. Would you expect to get your wife into a movie theater free? A music concert? Unless you worked out special arrangements well in advance how did this even evaluate to a workable situation in your head? Now you rant on HN to get some publicity from the easy to please anti-MS crowd.. can you please post up a "How Go changed my life" article next while we're trolling?

shawabawa3• 13 years ago

He expected his wife to be able to stay and see the talk that he had been invited to give and had gone out of his way to go to.

You seriously think it's unreasonable to get a +1 to your own talk?

kstrauser5• 13 years ago

Would you expect to get your wife into a movie theater free? A music concert?

If it's opening night for a movie I'm in and the studio invited me to attend, or I'm going to be on stage playing during the concert, you better believe I'd expect my wife to be allowed to attend with me. That doesn't mean she she get to watch other movies in other theaters, or get to watch the rest of a weekend-long music festival for free.

ceautery2• 13 years ago

It sounds like they treated you poorly, and I'm naturally inclined to side with people who would abandon the exposure that a set of TechEd talks would bring in favor of not ignoring his wife, but...

...did you make your wife's inclusion part of the contract? To the folks you dealt with on site, it may have seemed that you were springing something unexpected on them at the last second. "Hey, my wife gets in free to take pictures or I walk."

Yes, it should have been trivial for them to allow that, but is it possible you came off as a bully? I wouldn't have made the same decision as they did, but I can imagine a scenario when bringing up your wife in the 11th hour would have gotten my ire up a little.

lnanek2• 13 years ago

I've run into some bad situations due to lowest bidder staff at conferences as well. One travel agency agreed to a bulk rate, then started charging everyone full price after the first 5 or so people. Meanwhile there were plane and visa deadlines and the like and they did this while they had visas in hand, preventing people from going elsewhere for travel and still making the trip.

thehme• 13 years ago

This conference doesn't seem to be about tech anymore. Glad people are spreading the word, so MS can control & fix the damage. Tech conferences should be cool, interesting, and educational, all regardless of what you wear.

xutopia• 13 years ago

I know a conference that refused to let a pregnant woman in.

marcamillion• 13 years ago

I think this is definitely one of the more reasonable 'rants' I have seen.

I would be hella pissed if this happened to me too.

Thanks for the heads-up. After this, I wouldn't even go to a TechEd much less speak at one - I know that you need to be invited, and I am not being so presumptuous to assume that I would be, just saying that if I were....after hearing this story and MSFT's non-response, I wouldn't entertain it.

lancewiggs• 13 years ago

For the antithesis of this: webstock.org.nz Famous for spending love and effort on speakers.

lazyant• 13 years ago

OP acted correctly, actually he could have gone to his talk and explain briefly to the attendees why he was leaving.

Why I cancelled my TechEd talks

Related Stories