The Marketing to Women conference Day 1 was generally good. As mainstream marketing is not my core function, I learnt more than the average Marketing graduate working in a Marketing role. Day 2 tomorrow should be good too.
As can be expected, there are many more women than men attending the event.
I couldn’t help but notice one guy who remained at his seat while the rest of us had got up for lunch in a nearby room.
The guy was the only one with a 15″ Macbook Pro.
I also couldn’t help noticing he had a working internet connection.
Altogether, that was enough to make me approach him.
“Hi! Are you connected to the Internet?” I asked. He replied yes.
“Did you have to pay for it?” I probed. He said no.
“Oh, are you staying in this hotel?” (he was a Caucasian and I assumed he had travelled from a neighbouring country to attend this conference, and maybe he was given free access).
He said he wasn’t staying in this hotel, and in fact that conference organisers(?) had given him the wireless username and password for free. He even showed me a slip of paper containing the login information.
(At this point I felt like turning into the Incredible Hulk, because I had so very nicely asked the Conference organisers the same question in the morning and they told me there was no wireless connection available. I asked again, if there actually WAS wireless but I had to pay for it, and they said yes.)
On my way out of the conference room, I bumped into one of the organisers and I asked her the same question. She insisted that there was no free wireless internet available.
Just then, the guy with the Macbook Pro and free wireless connection walked up behind her. That triggered off a sense of injustice that only the most wireless-deprived geeks would understand.
I didn’t want to be too confrontational, so I simply muttered, “That’s not what I’ve heard.” And walked off.
On hindsight, maybe the guy needed to use the Internet in an emergency and they gave their account details to him, while agreeing to tell everyone else that there was no free wireless connection available.
Or maybe he was just very charming. After all, how often do ladies get to see a dude wielding a 15″ beauty?