Question for Evangelists | The Coffeehouse

So, I have been to a grand total of two microsoft events. At both of them there were guys in the audience asking questions that were obviouslyt designed to point out the flaws in Microsoft and make the presenter uncomfortable.

I wonder if Microsoft trains Evangelists in how to deal with those people?

PaoloM

SaraJoRedux wrote:

So, I have been to a grand total of two microsoft events. At both of them there were guys in the audience asking questions that were obviouslyt designed to point out the flaws in Microsoft and make the presenter uncomfortable.

I wonder if Microsoft trains Evangelists in how to deal with those people?

They didn't train me, I usually jump down the stage and try to bite the debater's ears.

Smiley

SaraJoRedux

hahhaa, what is with those people? I think that's a really weird way to spend your time.

Why do they care so much?

evildictaitor

SaraJoRedux wrote:

hahhaa, what is with those people? I think that's a really weird way to spend your time.

Why do they care so much?

Usually they are developers/IT guys who strongly believe that their time has been massively adversely affected by either new software or recent changes to the software, and by coming to the Microsoft event they can vent their rage and get it changed back.

Usually they just make themselves look a fool.

One of the recent very good presentations I saw online was from Jensen Harris on the evolution of the Office 2007 ribbon - and during the questions and answers one guy said "Why the Hell did you put an X at the end of the .doc - now nobody can read the file".

This just showed him up to not understand that .doc files arn't all the same and not realising that the aesthetic HCI guys (of which Jensen is the top Office bloke) have nothing to do with the file format or general underlying machinery of the system.

Isshou

PaoloM wrote:

They didn't train me, I usually jump down the stage and try to bite the debater's ears.

Paolo, any relation to Mike Tyson? Wink

I think for some, their life isn't complete unless they have something to complain about or can "one-up" someone else.

Minh

Isshou wrote:

I think for some, their life isn't complete unless they have something to complain about or can "one-up" someone else.

This is more true to the case of SaraJo's question. Usually it's a smarty-pants, either wanting to show off (I've never done it Expressionless

), or someone who used those same reasoning to reject that tech, and wanting to justify their decision.

In a way, the MS guy must be able to effectively answer the question, no matter how unconfortable they feel. Because, it's the developers who are stuck trying to use the tech.

The evangelist guy is long gone, probably heading for the bank with large bags marked "$$$" twirling their handle-bar mustaches. I don't know what the girl evengelists do.

blowdart

Minh wrote:

The evangelist guy is long gone, probably heading for the bank with large bags marked "$$$" twirling their handle-bar mustaches.

Heh, not MS evangelists. Their pay is rather weak.

Minh

blowdart wrote:

Minh wrote:

The evangelist guy is long gone, probably heading for the bank with large bags marked "$$$" twirling their handle-bar mustaches.

Heh, not MS evangelists. Their pay is rather weak.

I don't think that's the case. Mustache wax is very expensive these days, so MS must be paying them a bunch.

Charles

I usually call my cousin Giovanni who then calls his friends at a not-to-be-named auto body shop in a not-to-be-named city. What happens after that is unknown to me. Best to just shut up and listen. Capice?

Carmine

Minh

Charles wrote:

Capice?

Cat fish?

ixdatul

Minh wrote:

I don't think that's the case. Mustache wax is very expensive these days, so MS must be paying them a bunch.

No way, I get mine in bulk, on the cheap. Chicks love the Snidely Whiplash look, very dapper.

Muahaha!

Charles

Minh wrote:

Carmine wrote: Capice?
Cat fish?

No. "Understand?"
C

blowdart

PaoloM wrote:

They didn't train me, I usually jump down the stage and try to bite the debater's ears.

However usually Paolo leaves his false teeth behind after the chomp. That's expensive, but at least MS provides full dental.

Minh

Charles wrote:

Minh wrote:

Carmine wrote: Capice?
Cat fish?

No. "Understand?"
C

I know. That was just an obscure "The Simpsons" reference. Smiley

littleguru

PaoloM wrote:

SaraJoRedux wrote: So, I have been to a grand total of two microsoft events. At both of them there were guys in the audience asking questions that were obviouslyt designed to point out the flaws in Microsoft and make the presenter uncomfortable.

I wonder if Microsoft trains Evangelists in how to deal with those people?

They didn't train me, I usually jump down the stage and try to bite the debater's ears.

Holy cow. That would be a lot of students without ears here Tongue Out

jason818_253.33

In the case of people being viewed as obnoxious in their questioning, they can be asked to leave.

Pigyman

jason818_253.33 wrote:

In the case of people being viewed as obnoxious in their questioning, they can be asked to leave.

Well, yes, but then they'll say things like, "Hey, they only threw me out because they refused to admit that I was right," or, "They threw me out because they didn't know the answer," etc.
I say look the jerk right in the eyes and say, "Hey, shut up!"

Matthew van Eerde

Technically it's capisce... oops, fell into SaraJo's trap.

LaBomba

Charles wrote:

I usually call my cousin Giovanni who then calls his friends at a not-to-be-named auto body shop in a not-to-be-named city. What happens after that is unknown to me. Best to just shut up and listen. Capice?

Carmine

Hey that sounds a lot like a video game that just came out...

Mark Brown

SaraJoRedux wrote:

So, I have been to a grand total of two microsoft events. At both of them there were guys in the audience asking questions that were obviouslyt designed to point out the flaws in Microsoft and make the presenter uncomfortable.

I wonder if Microsoft trains Evangelists in how to deal with those people?

We don't have specific training for dealing with these types in the crowd. Most are well aware of the hot button issues that will be asked and are prepared for them.

But every once in a while you get someone who goes off the deep end about something that is completely off-topic or is obviously trying to be inflammatory. In those cases the stock answer "come see me after the session and I can address your concerns or gather your feedback in better detail" works well enough.

But I have to admit I've been tempted to fire back a stinging quip in full view of the audience. Smiley

PaoloM

Matthew van Eerde wrote:

Technically it's capisce... oops, fell into SaraJo's trap.

That would be very formal. In the proper sense, and how it's pronounced and used, it would be "capisci?"

kettch

I always enjoyed when Rory was on the event circuit. There would inevitably be some Linux or Java zealot there. Since he has a strong background in both of those areas, it was always rather like watching the cow being lowered into the velociraptor pen.

However, he always seemed to be appreciative of well crafted heckling. Or maybe he was trying to knock me out with the tightly bundled t-shirt.

Sven Groot

I was watching a video recently from the Hadoop Summit where some dude from MS research was explaining DryadLINQ, a method for automatic distributed data processing on large clusters, comparable to MapReduce.

There was someone in the audience who during the questions basically said "you guys are light years ahead of the others, but because it's based on proprietary technology it's useless."

Okay...

Cybermagellan

Alot of these people are the ones that are searching for that "Developer from <insert company name here> pwns Microsoft PdM, which then they post it to their blog, then get their blog dugg, then get scouted by GOOG, YAHOO!, or etc....

Honestly Scoble did that (I'm arguing with him on his posting ADVERTISEMENTS in his tweets now), but once he left Microsoft he posted about how wrong MSFT was, how things were so much better everywhere else, etc....

Recently he posted about how MSFT loses because they didn't bump up to Yahoo! expectations on sale, everyone links to him, etc...more advertisement money. Now, Yahoo! sunk in stock, people want them to sale, etc....doesn't matter if Scoble was right, he posted controversy and people followed it....and he gets $$$

Dollar Dollar Bill Yall....

littleguru

Sven Groot wrote:

I was watching a video recently from the Hadoop Summit where some dude from MS research was explaining DryadLINQ, a method for automatic distributed data processing on large clusters, comparable to MapReduce.

There was someone in the audience who during the questions basically said "you guys are light years ahead of the others, but because it's based on proprietary technology it's useless."

Okay...

This could be made into a joke Big Smile

hah!