KEY POINTS:
Microsoft Steve Ballmer jetted into Australia last week for a whistle-stop tour in which he inked a big deal with the Australia Department of Defence, caught up with John Howard and opposition leader Kevin Rudd and did his best to avoid the media.
That's because us tech journalists, as this Sydney Morning Herald article illustrates, like to ask visiting tech sector heavyweights what they think about the dire state of broadband on either side of the Tasman.
The hope is they'll say something inflammatory like: "My company won't put any more money into this country until they fix the broadband," or "I vow not to return until I can get 100 megabits per second from my hotel bathroom".
They never say anything of the sort, but seeing as it is election year in Australia, and given the political football broadband has become in Australia of late, Ballmer was keeping his head down. No wonder he didn't come to New Zealand. The number one topic on the agenda would have been exactly the one he wanted to avoid.
Microsoft wouldn't let journalists attend Ballmer's speech to the American Chamber of Commerce in Sydney, but promised to post a video of it online, an edited video of course. I haven't been able to find it on the web. Maybe Microsoft flagged the idea because Ballmer didn't say much apart from assuring everyone the company was getting ready for life without Bill Gates, who will go part time at the company next year.
"Notably absent from any of the statements issued through the restricted media channels were comments relating to Australia's broadband speeds," news.com.au noted.
One journalist was granted an interview, Joshua Gliddon, writing for the Australian Financial Review. The article is behind the pay wall of the AFR's website so I won't link to it.
It's amazing how sensitive some of these executive visits are treated as. I remember, a few years ago, going to Sydney to sit in on a Steve Ballmer press conference that turned out to be a waste of time, the Pocket PC or some such gadget being the topic of media-managed discussion.
There were no one-on-one interviews allowed for the New Zealand press so we all came home pretty disappointed. I was shocked however to see a sizeable interview with Ballmer gracing the pages of the Sunday Star Times that weekend, written by then business editor Miriyana Alexander, who'd been at the Sydney press conference too.
I put an indignant call into Microsoft asking why I hadn't been offered an interview while she had been. The sheepish reply made me laugh. Alexander hadn't been offered an interview either. She'd talked her way into Ballmer's car after the press conference and persuaded him to let her interview him on his way to the airport. He agreed, she got the interview while the rest of us came away empty-handed. A good lesson learnt there those who ask, get.
What will be interesting is Wednesday's (US time) public appearance at a conference in the US of Bill Gates and Apple boss Steve Jobs. It's the first time the two will have appeared together in public, talking, face to face, perhaps ever. It's a highly anticipated encounter, though I doubt there'll be fireworks.
What would you like to see them discuss? Who is likely to come out looking better?
