Last Wednesday I sat down to dinner with Tim O'Reilly, John Batelle (the hosts of the Web 2.0 Conference) and 75 of our closest friends to discuss next fall's conference.
As you might imagine, it was much more about schmoozing than planning.
I was lucky enough to sit next to my old friend Stewart Alsop. We had a good time poking fun at each other (and everyone around us), as well as reminiscing about our intertwined roles in the Microsoft hearings 10 or so years ago.
I was a Senate staffer responsible for overseeing the hearings; Stewart was a witness at the first hearing, which also included Bill Gates, Scott McNealy, Michael Dell and Jim Barksdale.
Leading up to the hearing Stewart was pounding his chest proclaiming how tough he was going to be on Gates regarding what Stewart he perceived as monopolistic business practices. Well, as it turned out, the morning of the hearing Stewart was invited to breakfast by none other than Gates, and by the time Stewart made it to the hearing room his tone had, shall we say, softened a bit.
I think the term I used last week at dinner was something like "milk toast."
VCMike's Blog 
しかし、開場時間の20分前にも関わらず、このとき既に受付前には170人もの大行列が出来ていたのです。