The official announcement

You mean there's a big pink elephant in the room?  No...really???

On Tuesday, chatter started during the cocktail party as to why a major player in the conference was MIA.  It was noted that he was in the building, but that he must have been jet lagged or some other kind of bullshit like that. It was assumed at that time that this person would show up for session the next morning.

Nope.  The plot thickened when we were all handed newly revised agendas with the person's name missing.  Interesting.  It wasn't until the afternoon that we were told that this person would not be at the conference this year. 

Rumors circulated...strong and hard.  I immediately texted by supervisor, and his response was "METH BENDER" which could have been a possibility, according to what I've heard from the chatter of the conference-goers.  There were many times when the organizers asked why material was not sent to them, and the basic response from the room was "it was sent to <insert name here>."  Even the casual observer could see the frustration building.  There may have also been smoke from ears, although I could have been imagining that.

It wasn't until the end of session today that the rumors were confirmed by the Board President.

The revelation was very PC and carefully worded.  "We've decided to break the contract due to differences in vision."  Yeah...dude was fired.

I wonder if he's still in the building, hiding out.  I googled the person, so I know what he looks like, just in case I do run into him accidentally.