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The Company Meeting

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So, you may have heard that the big Microsoft company meeting was held yesterday at Safeco field.  A good event, all around.  This year Microsoft turns 30 and Windows turns 20.  Gee, let's see, if MS is 30, then judging by those early photos of of BillG I would say he founded the company when he was about 9 years old.  Regarding Windows' birthday, I thought it was interesting to learn that SteveB was the dev manager for Windows 1.0.  Steve pointed out that Windows 1.0 was a failure, but used it as an opportunity to highlight the Microsoft culture of constant improvement (it's easy to be snarky about MS' historic need for constant improvement, but I feel good about where we are today in terms of code quality and security).

All of our execs are good speakers, but to see Steve Ballmer at work at an event like this is amazing.  There are very few people in the world capable of making 17,000 people in a stadium feel like they're a part of an intimate gathering.  Really, Jimmy Buffett is the only other person that comes to mind that also has this remarkable ability.  While it's easy for a "corporate suit" to come off as formula and plastic in that kind of setting, Steve just sort of exudes this sincerity and passion that folks connect with.  And coming from the Bay Area as I do, Steve totally reminds of professional fan "Krazy George" Henderson, who famously pumped up Bay Area sports fans (as well as fans in several other cities).  Heck, looking at the photographic evidence, it's entirely possible Steve and George could have been separated at birth. You be the judge.

Bonus TexBlog trivia: Krazy George was also an innovator in his field; he invented "The Wave" at the Oakland Coliseum during an ALCS game versus the hated New York Yankees on October 15, 1981 (sorry, U-Dub).

We also got to enjoy a few outtakes from the Napoleon Dynamite PDC video.  Most amusing part: after the director says "cut" at the end of the slap fight scene, Jon Heder quickly and sincerely asks Bill, "are you okay?"

The meeting also featured an "American Idol" type thing where about 6 Microsofties took the stage individually to do their thing.  My quality expectation going in was somewhere between kakoke night and coffee-house-guitar-guy, but I have to say that all of the contestants were really good.  Several different musical styles were represented, too, from ballads to rock to rap.  The guy that did a solo version of Barenaked Ladies' One Week was particularly entertaining.  Honestly, who among us can't dig lyrics such as, "Like Kurosawa, I make mad films / 'K, I don't make films / But if I did they'd have a Samurai"? I'm inspired to start training for next year's company meeting.  Now where did I put that accordian?...

All-in-all, it was neat to see the vast pipeline of products we have coming, the amazing work that my colleagues are doing, and the problems that are still ripe to be solved.  I came out of the company meeting feeling pretty pumped up.  I was a little worried that I had drunk a bit too deply of the Kool Aid since this was my first company meeting, but when I saw that Mini-Microsoft was also pumped up, I knew it wasn't just me and became totally okay with it.  :)

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