5 ms·

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

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-struggles-with-murder-rate-and-trust 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.

marshray 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    I'd say that counts as being treated horribly.
- cyanbane 13y ago
  "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. " Both the perfectness and absurdity of this sentence is awesome. New Orleans may be bad, but it isn't _that_ bad, especially an area that MS (or any big firm) chooses for a company sponsored gathering. If MS was bright had any respect for their speakers they would have dynamically made room available for this speaker's wife in some area inside the conference center. They are idiots for not bending rules doing it. But to also think they shoved her out a door and steel barred the entrance and left her there by herself in the middle of Voodoo Shantytown New Orleans where the creole shamans and werewolves circled her is just as crazy. I get where the author is coming from and totally understand his stance, but I honestly do not believe that MS intentionally put his (non-invited?) wife in harms way. From his description MS treated him awfully and I hope they realize this and attempt to correct it in the future and see where being human in some instances is indirectly worth more than the price of admission to TechEd, but lets be honest - they didn't make his wife walk the plank to circling sharks.
- kmfrk 13y ago
  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. Gonna put this in my presentation rider from now on.
codezero 13y ago
She's not being left... an adult should easily be able to either get a cab, or find somewhere safe nearby, or have some plan -- I'm sure she had a hotel room, she could get back to that the same way she got to the conference center in the first place. I am not saying the whole situation wasn't ridiculous, but I feel like people here are acting like this woman is a helpless child. I got dropped in Paris one day and my friend never showed up, I didn't have a place to go and I didn't know the area or speak French, but I managed to find a guest house and a grocery store and I lived for a few days -- any adult can do the same, this is not rocket science and being a woman doesn't make this more difficult.
- fusiongyro 13y ago
  It's not about her capabilities. If you mistreat my spouse, you can expect a strong negative reaction from me.
  - Larrikin 13y ago
    Im sure it was a frustrating experience but they already worked around your schedule and got a ticket (although only one way) for your wife. If you emailed the conference or talked to someone a head of time and they said it would be ok to bring her in then you deserve to be mad. If you just showed up with her, I'm not sure why you expected her to just enter with no problems.
    - jasonlotito 13y ago
      > I'm not sure why you expected her to just enter with no problems. Because it's the right thing to do? And because they knew she was coming, and had bought here a ticket? Sorry, they were wrong. Simple as that.
      - Larrikin 13y ago
        Obviously they didn't expect her to come since he didn't communicate his intentions ahead of time. I've worked security at these kind of events before. You say no to any special kind of request and if the guest insist you refer to a manager if they are available. If they aren't you go back to no. If you want a special request you communicate this ahead of time and definitely not 30 minutes before you have to be inside. Everyone has a story for why they should be allowed to bend the rules. Seeing as we were that strict when the tickets were in the range of $30-$200 I personally think it was a failure of the initial security guards to even let her in the building to begin with.
ims 13y ago
I've been to this conference center. It's in a very decent, touristy part of town with plenty of hotels, cafes, and restaurants. In fact there are two hotels right across the street, one of which has a Starbucks in the lobby. The real issue here was conference organizers being officious and failing to use common sense, which the OP had a legitimate reason to be annoyed about given he was a speaker and apparently went to some trouble and expense. No need to be over the top, it was bad enough without the hyperbole.
dionidium 13y ago
This is hyperbolic nonsense. A high murder rate across the city as a whole does not imply that you are in physical danger standing outside a conference center in the middle of the day. That's simply not how murder works.

marshray 13y ago

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 13y ago
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 13y ago
  I'd say that counts as being treated horribly.
cyanbane 13y ago
"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. " Both the perfectness and absurdity of this sentence is awesome. New Orleans may be bad, but it isn't _that_ bad, especially an area that MS (or any big firm) chooses for a company sponsored gathering. If MS was bright had any respect for their speakers they would have dynamically made room available for this speaker's wife in some area inside the conference center. They are idiots for not bending rules doing it. But to also think they shoved her out a door and steel barred the entrance and left her there by herself in the middle of Voodoo Shantytown New Orleans where the creole shamans and werewolves circled her is just as crazy. I get where the author is coming from and totally understand his stance, but I honestly do not believe that MS intentionally put his (non-invited?) wife in harms way. From his description MS treated him awfully and I hope they realize this and attempt to correct it in the future and see where being human in some instances is indirectly worth more than the price of admission to TechEd, but lets be honest - they didn't make his wife walk the plank to circling sharks.
kmfrk 13y ago
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. Gonna put this in my presentation rider from now on.

codezero 13y ago

She's not being left... an adult should easily be able to either get a cab, or find somewhere safe nearby, or have some plan -- I'm sure she had a hotel room, she could get back to that the same way she got to the conference center in the first place. I am not saying the whole situation wasn't ridiculous, but I feel like people here are acting like this woman is a helpless child. I got dropped in Paris one day and my friend never showed up, I didn't have a place to go and I didn't know the area or speak French, but I managed to find a guest house and a grocery store and I lived for a few days -- any adult can do the same, this is not rocket science and being a woman doesn't make this more difficult.

fusiongyro 13y ago
It's not about her capabilities. If you mistreat my spouse, you can expect a strong negative reaction from me.
- Larrikin 13y ago
  Im sure it was a frustrating experience but they already worked around your schedule and got a ticket (although only one way) for your wife. If you emailed the conference or talked to someone a head of time and they said it would be ok to bring her in then you deserve to be mad. If you just showed up with her, I'm not sure why you expected her to just enter with no problems.
  - jasonlotito 13y ago
    > I'm not sure why you expected her to just enter with no problems. Because it's the right thing to do? And because they knew she was coming, and had bought here a ticket? Sorry, they were wrong. Simple as that.
    - Larrikin 13y ago
      Obviously they didn't expect her to come since he didn't communicate his intentions ahead of time. I've worked security at these kind of events before. You say no to any special kind of request and if the guest insist you refer to a manager if they are available. If they aren't you go back to no. If you want a special request you communicate this ahead of time and definitely not 30 minutes before you have to be inside. Everyone has a story for why they should be allowed to bend the rules. Seeing as we were that strict when the tickets were in the range of $30-$200 I personally think it was a failure of the initial security guards to even let her in the building to begin with.

ims 13y ago

I've been to this conference center. It's in a very decent, touristy part of town with plenty of hotels, cafes, and restaurants. In fact there are two hotels right across the street, one of which has a Starbucks in the lobby. The real issue here was conference organizers being officious and failing to use common sense, which the OP had a legitimate reason to be annoyed about given he was a speaker and apparently went to some trouble and expense. No need to be over the top, it was bad enough without the hyperbole.

dionidium 13y ago

This is hyperbolic nonsense. A high murder rate across the city as a whole does not imply that you are in physical danger standing outside a conference center in the middle of the day. That's simply not how murder works.