Apparently, tolerance for perceived marketing pitches at technical conferences is at an all-time low.An audience member at the SD West 2005 conference in Santa Clara, Calif. took exception to the showing of a video Wednesday during a presentation entitled, “Personal Productivity with Visual Studio 2005.” The video featured Microsoft users talking up the company’s development technologies and it hadn’t been running for more than one or two minutes. “Excuse me, can we get off this marketing stuff and get on to what we came for,” exclaimed the audience member, who wore a press badge like the one I was wearing. (Me, I prefer to mix into the background at these events and not thrust myself into the spotlight.) Yes, these conferences are always marketing to a degree. And Microsoft presentations – I’ve seen many – tend to be overpolished and lack spontaneity. But I felt bad for the presenter, Craig Symonds, general manager of Visual Studio at Microsoft, who immediately after the protest had the video stopped. He then continued with what was basically a pitch for Microsoft’s tools platform mixed in with some demos. Public speaking is intimidating enough without open hostility from the audience adding to the situation. I’d even use the word rude to describe the audience member. FWIW, we press people get complimentary passes to these events that the rest of you pay 4-figure fees to attend, with show producers hoping we’ll write something about their event. Maybe if a paying attendee had been doing the yelling, I might have had more sympathy for him. Technology Industry