
Why I cancelled my TechEd talks - ohjeez
http://goodenoughsoftware.net/2013/07/18/the-charlie-foxtrot-aka-teched/
======
BrentOzar
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.

~~~
badclient
_They mandated the color of pants speakers wore._

Am I really reading this? Wow.

~~~
BrentOzar
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.

~~~
CurtHagenlocher
I'm a Microsoft employee who has spoken at one TechEd and staffed a booth at
another. Rest assured, the style cops were all over us to conform to the dress
code. I can believe that there's a different standard for keynote speakers,
who are usually notable or "important" in some way.

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singular
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!

~~~
codezero
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.

~~~
droithomme
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...](http://www.npr.org/2012/07/05/155986277/new-orleans-struggles-
with-murder-rate-and-trust)

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

~~~
marshray
I've never seen a major conference center that didn't have a place to drink
coffee and read for 2 hours without being killed. There are even large, open
pre-registration areas in the center for folks to chill for exactly this sort
of reason.

That said, it sounds like he and his wife were treated horribly.

~~~
nknighthb
Security removed her from the building. You don't go back in a building you
have been forcibly removed from unless you want to be arrested.

~~~
marshray
I'd say that counts as being treated horribly.

------
sriramk
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
> 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.

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danso
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.

~~~
Yhippa
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.

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Stealx
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.

~~~
bruceb
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
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.)

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shanselman
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
Then again, you're MSFT employee.

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

~~~
jlgreco
Right.. so his experience is either out of date, or as an MSFT employee.

~~~
shanselman
No, the little red shirt vendor kids don't know me from anyone. I'm just
saying there's multiple sides to every story and perhaps there's more to this
one. I wasn't there.

My point is that I've never had a problem like this at any conference
anywhere. Being pleasant and explaining one's self has always worked well for
me when traveling with relatives to these conferences.

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interpol_p
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.

------
joshuaellinger
Repeat after me:

    
    
        Microsoft 201X is IBM 199X
    

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

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ceautery
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.

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lnanek2
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.

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

~~~
kstrauser
I think that's only legal in Nevada.

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alan_cx
Off topic, but I do love his web site.

~~~
joshuaellinger
Yeah, lots of good .Net stuff

He might have convinced me to port to Mono.

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edandersen
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.

~~~
tptacek
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.

~~~
pyoung
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.)

~~~
tptacek
Who would speak at an event that charged speakers to do so?

These events may charge $2000 a head, but it doesn't cost them $2000, or even
$5, to let a +1 watch your talk.

~~~
tingletech
I think I've had to pay to talk at any association for computing machinery,
association for computing in the humanities, american library association,
society of american archivists, society of california archivists, and
collation for networked information meeting I've given a talk at. Didn't used
to have to pay to talk at digital library federation meetings; but that was
when your organization had to pay a 5 figure membership to send folks. I've
even had to pay to talk at the university of california computing services
conference. I din't have to pay to talk at the library of congress or the
national archives. Those are pretty much the only places I've given a speech
(besides in high school when I was on the speech team).

~~~
seanmcdirmid
At many acedemic conferences, it might be only speakers showing up. Anyways,
increasing the number of papers you accept is a good way to boost attendance.

------
marcamillion
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.

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subsystem
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.

~~~
mark-ruwt
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.

~~~
kstrauser
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.

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joeevans
Developers! Developers! Developers!

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

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thehme
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.

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

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

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joeevans
Duh. Microsoft.

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

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

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Goon
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
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?

