収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

Napa Trade Show blog #8
Back home - Wed, 10 Sep 2025, 5:30pm.

I'm back home from the trade show in Napa. It's earlier than expected. Booth visits were slow again today, tapering off to nearly nil by 2pm, so our event coordinator encourage those of us not already booked to stay overnight to head home early. I left at 3, which was just an hour before the official closing time, and used that early start to mostly beat traffic on the way home. Still, there was some traffic, making it a 2 hour drive. I got home at 5pm. That's 48 hours + 3 hours after I left on Monday.

It's just as well most of us left early. Our team spirit was close to nil as we spent most of the day trying to figure out what's going on with a layoff today. Oh, we totally put on game faces for talking to customers and prospects. Selling was the one thing we all could be positive about. But the moment it was just us coworkers again, the dismal "WTF is going on?" discussions started back up.

Speaking of those dismal discussions, it looks like tomorrow morning is going to be back-to-back-to-back meetings with various levels of leadership "explaining" the layoffs to us. I quote explaining because do we really need 3 hours of meetings on the topic, with each layer of executive management needing to have their own say? That says to me we have too many layers of executives. Maybe they should have laid off one of them. But of course they didn't.

Napa Trade Show blog #7
On lunch break - Wed, 10 Sep 2025, 1pm.

Almost immediately after I arrived at the trade show booth today the mellow mood I started the morning with burst. "What have you seen about the layoff announced today?" one of my sales colleagues asked. "WhAt LaYoFf?!" I responded. 🤯

Over the course of a few hours my colleagues and I were piecing together bits of information we gleaned to understand the full picture of what was occurring. "I know Kevin and Kevin were dismissed," one colleague said as a starting point. Apparently both Kevins had been notified early in the morning of their termination. They're both account executives (AEs) and apparently texted their AE colleagues immediately about it.

Other than the de-Kevining of the AE team we were left reading tea leaves to figure out the rest. We noticed that Kevinses' Slack accounts were marked (deactivated) so we started checking the Slack status of dozens of colleagues one at a time. That confirmed or revealed a few other departures. Then we observed that one of the Kevins was supposed to staff this trade show but was instructed by his boss at the last minute to stay home. Well, one of my colleagues, Chris, was also asked, by a different boss, to do the same. Was Chris laid off? His Slack wasn't deactivated— yet— but his calendar showed a meeting with his boss, his VP, and HR later in the day. Yeah, that's the kiss of death right there. ☠️

In between casting bones and reading tea leaves we've been doing the work of the trade show. It's been a bit slow again today. Not quite as bad as most of yesterday but also not plenty-busy like during the late afternoon reception yesterday when I dressed as Jenkins and was talking to people left and right.

Right now I'm finishing up a quick lunch break. There's a meeting on the calendar with my immediate sales team— those of us left standing, that is— for 2pm today. Those of us here at the show are looking forward to hearing it straight from our managers.

Napa Trade Show blog #5
Wrapping up Day 1 - Tue, 9 Sep 2025, 7:30pm.

This afternoon I did a costume change at the trade show. During my off-shift time between 1-3pm I shaved my beard down to a mustache, ironed my arm-towel, and donned my tuxedo to become Jenkins.



The show had been extremely quiet up 'til lunch. It was busier, but not busy, at 3pm when I returned. Though right away I started commanding attention in my butler guise. People noticed me and came into the booth to talk. Or they stopped and stared from 20' away, trying furtively to take pictures with their phones, and my colleagues and I beckoned them to come in and talk to us. We even helped them take pictures posing with Jenkins.

Late in the afternoon the conference's technical sessions wound down and there was a reception in the vendors area. There were free drinks offered there— and attendees had to walk past us vendors to get to them! That's part of the logistical strategy of supporting vendors I wrote about in my previous blog.

Throughout the rest of the day, until several minutes after the 7pm closing time, Jenkins continued to be a draw. My cosplay brought people into the booth, people who work at companies we want to turn into customers, who otherwise wouldn't have come talk to us. That is why I rushed out to a fine men's wear shop yesterday afternoon and dropped $50 on a new bow tie and shirt studs.

My company has a split opinion on whether Jenkins should be part of our branding. Our marketing department, virtually all of whom have been hired in the past 2 years, are against it. To them Jenkins represents the past— even though it's the source of 90% of our revenues— and they don't want to associate the company's messaging with it.

I point out, and some of our sales leaders support me strongly on this, that not only is Jenkins the source of 90% of our revenues but it's a strong brand that people recognize. People in the DevOps industry who've never heard of our company have virtually all heard of Jenkins. They recognize the butler on site, they are entertained by seeing a real-life Jenkins the Butler, and they're way more willing to come talk to us. Then, once we get the opportunity to talk to them, we can build on our industry bona fides with Jenkins and then pivot to talking about our newer products— the products we believe represent our future. But to talk about that future we first need people willing to listen. Jenkins creates that willingness.

I emphasize this here because I worry that I am risking my job by dressing up as Jenkins. I'm literally going against the desires of at least one of our C-level executives, the CMO. And quite possibly the CEO as well! But you know what... if they want to fire me over it, it'll be their own colossal mistake.