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September 09, 2004
Microsoft Company Meeting Coming Up
The annual Microsoft Company Meeting is next Tuesday, the 14th.I haven't attended one of these for about 10 years, through a combination of being a) in Montreal b) too busy/uninterested to bother and c) not employed at Microsoft.
In the old days, the meeting was followed by a company-wide party. In 1990, the first year I attended, they had the meeting in the Mercer Arena at the Seattle Center, and then we adjourned to the party, which was at the Key Arena where the Seattle Supersonics play (except it wasn't called the Key Arena back then). The party featured a concert by the band Chicago, and a typical (for those days) lavish food spread. It wasn't as fancy as the old company-wide Christmas party, but it was pretty nice.
Eventually they stopped having the party and replaced it with a sort-of trade show where different groups could demo their products. This year, instead of trying to have one huge meeting, they are having a meeting which 2500 people can attend, and simulcasting it to all Microsoft sites. It will run from 9 am to 11 am, which I guess was chosen because it the best chance of people worldwide being awake during it.
The expectation is that most people in Puget Sound will watch it online, since 2500 people is only a small fraction of the local workforce. Email went out earlier this week saying that someone would be in the lobby to hand out the allotment of tickets for our building, starting at precisely 2:01 pm. I wandered by at around 2:10 and observed a few people standing in line, but no apparent great rush (the woman was writing down the names of people who had received tickets, and there were maybe 20 names at that point). Next to her was a sign announcing that our building had received less than 100 tickets for the event [grumble grumble fewer not less grumble grumble]. I didn't get a ticket, but I'll probably watch the webcast.
They will still do the trade show, but over two days, in the conference center. This is the same building that the Microsoft Home is in, so perhaps they will be allowing people a peek in there.
Posted by AdamBa at September 9, 2004 10:24 PM
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