Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella started his day by dropping all kinds of news at the opening keynote of Microsoft Build and he finished it off by taking a tour of the show floor.
GeekWire spotted Nadella chatting with developers and tagged along for a few minutes as he checked out a couple of product demos at the developer conference in Seattle Monday. Flanked by a staff of about five and a couple of photographers, Nadella held court with knowledgable folks from a variety of disciplines and pivoted quickly to talk about artificial intelligence, cloud computing and drones as he criss-crossed the show floor.
It was interesting seeing Nadella in a setting other than on a stage, talking to thousands of people, or in an interview. He moved fast, shook a lot of hands in a short time and related well to everyone from kids to hardcore developers.
Nadella actually didn’t turn a lot of heads when he walked the floor, as the throng of developers were apparently deeply engrossed in the demos. He did draw quite the crowd when he was hanging out in the atrium area of the Washington State Convention Center, right in front of the main escalators that continually dumped a long line of attendees at his feet. Still, some were too consumed by their phones to notice the crowd forming around the Microsoft chief executive.
Nadella at one point got in position to take advantage of the most popular exhibit on the floor: a pen of cuddly horses and bunnies. But before the photo opportunity of the century came together he called an audible and headed the other way.
He didn’t stay in one spot for more than a minute or two, managing to traverse the entirety of the massive expo area in under 20 minutes. He ended his tour in the same main hall where he gave his keynote speech a few hours earlier.
We weren’t the only ones to spot Nadella making the rounds at Build.
Look who we found at #msbuild . Awesome to see @satyanadella so accessible to attendees pic.twitter.com/ceqdKUHTjP
— Progress Telerik (@Telerik) May 7, 2018
Me at #msbuild, wondering why everyone is taking pictures of the trees in the lobby. Oh, because @satyanadella is standing in the middle of the crowd ??
— Immo Landwerth #msbuild (@terrajobst) May 7, 2018
With Satya Nadella @MicrosoftBuild pic.twitter.com/zHvg1I4Bei
— daryoush (@daryoush) May 8, 2018
Today @satyanadella wanted to meet & hear about the business goals of @iamukasa @AngeNtabana and @rayd_250592, our #WindowsInsiders who are using tech to make a lasting impact in their communities. #MSBuild ❤️ pic.twitter.com/U5prqW9dlG
— Dona @ #MSBuild (@donasarkar) May 8, 2018