I’m standing in some strange, cavernous auditorium, waiting for the Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman to get on stage and talk about the new, virtual-reality-based collaboration system he’s been working on.

Standing near me are three women, who are talking quite loudly to each other the way Americans sometimes do. Part of me is hoping they have the good grace to shut up when Kipman comes on stage, so I don’t have to move from my primo position. Part of me is hoping they keep talking, because they seem to know what’s what, whereas I don’t have much of a clue where I am and why I can’t find my guide Lawrence, whom I expected to meet in this weird place.