7 ms·

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

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.

gpcz 13y 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 13y 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?
  - janardanyri 13y ago
    Most already have. Looking backward, the primary competition has been web, not OS X. Looking forward, the ascent of mobile is only making it easier to deprioritise Windows.
  - gpcz 13y ago
    In terms of Windows, developers are already entrenched in the system either through lock-in or business decisions imposing Windows on them. Those types of developers are unlikely to abandon the platform no matter how much Microsoft treats them like cattle. On the other hand, I'd say alienating the developer community would prevent hackers from making things for new(er) Microsoft platforms like Windows Phone or Azure. Things that might have been the killer app for that platform.
    - Silhouette 13y ago
      developers are already entrenched in the system ... Those types of developers are unlikely to abandon the platform no matter how much Microsoft treats them like cattle. The benefit to Microsoft of having developers on-side is that those developers write applications that make Microsoft's platforms valuable to their customers. No developer capable of writing platform-defining applications is ever tied more than casually to a specific platform. If Microsoft alienates the developer community, Windows is dead. Whether its successor would be OS X or Linux or iOS or Android or something else entirely is hard to predict, but that is irrelevant to Microsoft's fate.
      - LaGrange 13y ago
        The benefit to Microsoft of having developers on-side is that those developers write applications that make Microsoft's platforms valuable to their customers. What, Office? No. Microsoft actually writes the core software that makes their platform valuable. There are developers that provide additional value, and that's very important, but I don't think it's easy for developers to force Microsofts hand in that. Edit: in fact, the power gradient goes the other way: as a developer of an end-user application for a PC, you still have to very strongly consider writing for Windows whether you like it or not, because of the software written by Microsoft providing the core value for customers.
        rbanffy 13y ago
        > What, Office? No. Microsoft actually writes the core software that makes their platform valuable. What about the thousands of games, utilities, applications that make Windows so though to eradicate from the average business? Windows RT offers little more than that core value and the market shows clearly it's a failure.
        LaGrange 13y ago
        The games and utilities are there because of Office, not the other way around, and both were made in huge amounts for other systems, then retreated, and are getting ported back to e.g. macs only now (think Autodesk stuff), and this is more due to Office becoming less relevant than anything else.
badclient 13y ago
They mandated the color of pants speakers wore. Am I really reading this? Wow.
- BrentOzar 13y 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.
  - CurtHagenlocher 13y ago
    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.
- skeletonjelly 13y ago
  The colour was fine for an emperor. We know who wears the real pants in this "relationship".
- bittired 13y 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.
  - sytelus 13y ago
    Nop. Have you seen the talk on SOAP fro Don Box (another Microsoft employee): http://blog.mattmags.com/2011/05/19/don-box-the-bathtub-lecture http://blog.mattmags.com/2011/05/19/don-box-the-bathtub-lect... ? If above dress code thing is true then Microsoft has came long way...
    - 13y ago
photorized 13y ago
Color of pants, really? Just wow.
tommi 13y ago
Did you agree to such micromanagement in your contract?
- BrentOzar 13y 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.
  - xradionut 13y ago
    Plus the folks at PASS and local chapters aren't usually anal drones from Redmond.
  - tommi 13y ago
    Sounds like a fun event. Thanks for sharing.
jlgreco 13y 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."
- BrentOzar 13y 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)
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    Well, if you are planning on not giving further anyway talks because of how you are being treated, then there is probably very little harm in not being invited in the future. IMHO, life is too short to donate time to people who are going to treat you like a child.
    - BrentOzar 13y ago
      Agreed, and as I mentioned in the first comment, that's why I quit presenting. There's enough places to volunteer my time already - no need to do it there.
  - Quai 13y ago
    Check I just created a list of conferences to never attend too. I live in the real world.
- ceautery 13y ago
  I agree in spirit, but not details. The dress code is what's unimportant, not the person trying to manage the speakers.
prawn 13y 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_ 13y 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.

gpcz 13y 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 13y 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?
- janardanyri 13y ago
  Most already have. Looking backward, the primary competition has been web, not OS X. Looking forward, the ascent of mobile is only making it easier to deprioritise Windows.
- gpcz 13y ago
  In terms of Windows, developers are already entrenched in the system either through lock-in or business decisions imposing Windows on them. Those types of developers are unlikely to abandon the platform no matter how much Microsoft treats them like cattle. On the other hand, I'd say alienating the developer community would prevent hackers from making things for new(er) Microsoft platforms like Windows Phone or Azure. Things that might have been the killer app for that platform.
  - Silhouette 13y ago
    developers are already entrenched in the system ... Those types of developers are unlikely to abandon the platform no matter how much Microsoft treats them like cattle. The benefit to Microsoft of having developers on-side is that those developers write applications that make Microsoft's platforms valuable to their customers. No developer capable of writing platform-defining applications is ever tied more than casually to a specific platform. If Microsoft alienates the developer community, Windows is dead. Whether its successor would be OS X or Linux or iOS or Android or something else entirely is hard to predict, but that is irrelevant to Microsoft's fate.
    - LaGrange 13y ago
      The benefit to Microsoft of having developers on-side is that those developers write applications that make Microsoft's platforms valuable to their customers. What, Office? No. Microsoft actually writes the core software that makes their platform valuable. There are developers that provide additional value, and that's very important, but I don't think it's easy for developers to force Microsofts hand in that. Edit: in fact, the power gradient goes the other way: as a developer of an end-user application for a PC, you still have to very strongly consider writing for Windows whether you like it or not, because of the software written by Microsoft providing the core value for customers.
      - rbanffy 13y ago
        > What, Office? No. Microsoft actually writes the core software that makes their platform valuable. What about the thousands of games, utilities, applications that make Windows so though to eradicate from the average business? Windows RT offers little more than that core value and the market shows clearly it's a failure.
        LaGrange 13y ago
        The games and utilities are there because of Office, not the other way around, and both were made in huge amounts for other systems, then retreated, and are getting ported back to e.g. macs only now (think Autodesk stuff), and this is more due to Office becoming less relevant than anything else.

badclient 13y ago

They mandated the color of pants speakers wore. Am I really reading this? Wow.

BrentOzar 13y 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.
- CurtHagenlocher 13y ago
  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.
skeletonjelly 13y ago
The colour was fine for an emperor. We know who wears the real pants in this "relationship".
bittired 13y 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.
- sytelus 13y ago
  Nop. Have you seen the talk on SOAP fro Don Box (another Microsoft employee): http://blog.mattmags.com/2011/05/19/don-box-the-bathtub-lecture http://blog.mattmags.com/2011/05/19/don-box-the-bathtub-lect... ? If above dress code thing is true then Microsoft has came long way...
  - 13y ago

photorized 13y ago

Color of pants, really? Just wow.

tommi 13y ago

Did you agree to such micromanagement in your contract?

BrentOzar 13y 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.
- xradionut 13y ago
  Plus the folks at PASS and local chapters aren't usually anal drones from Redmond.
- tommi 13y ago
  Sounds like a fun event. Thanks for sharing.

jlgreco 13y 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."

BrentOzar 13y 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)
- jlgreco 13y ago
  Well, if you are planning on not giving further anyway talks because of how you are being treated, then there is probably very little harm in not being invited in the future. IMHO, life is too short to donate time to people who are going to treat you like a child.
  - BrentOzar 13y ago
    Agreed, and as I mentioned in the first comment, that's why I quit presenting. There's enough places to volunteer my time already - no need to do it there.
- Quai 13y ago
  Check I just created a list of conferences to never attend too. I live in the real world.
ceautery 13y ago
I agree in spirit, but not details. The dress code is what's unimportant, not the person trying to manage the speakers.

prawn 13y 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_ 13y 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.