It’s a very busy period with conferences merging into one another. Earlier in the year, Microsoft canned its European Convergence event then out of the blue contacted me to say they are running a sort of road show and would one of the dates fit. The only date that looked reasonable is 29th October when I am in Vienna.
I’m scheduled to fly back that day but in any event you’d have thought the PR could have suggested (or organized) a flight change and stopover. From their perspective it’s a saving as I’m not requiring a two way ticket. Or I could have seen about changing the return flight details and let them know any cost difference. (Yes – I expect tech companies to cover my travel.) Either way, it would have been better than trying to organize what would otherwise be an extra two day trip on dates that are unlikely to work. But oh no. That doesn’t work in a PRs mind.
Maybe I didn’t communicate terribly well: “I’ve seen where it is being held. It looks as though my scheduled return flight won’t allow me time to get there and unfortunately there is no later flight that day.” To which the answer was? “Totally understand, though sorry we can’t coordinate. Might you be interested in a phone interview with one of the US exes either under embargo ahead of the event or after it? If not, no worries just wanted to offer you the chance to speak to Microsoft around the event.”
Let’s think about this…well maybe not because clearly the PR didn’t.
Oh yes – and if you’re a buyer then remember that all this PR effort has to be paid for – in your eventual licence and maintenance fees.
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