A letter from Canada.

(From Financial Director)

Byline: Tom Berry.

Press trips hosted by technology companies - especially American software companies - are usually formulaic affairs. Journalists are flown half-way around the world in business class, are put up in a skyscraper hotel straight out of a 1970s disaster movie, conduct a couple of interviews with company executives and customers, and then get down to the serious business of being plied with booze.

In July it was Microsoft's turn to be descended upon by hacks as technology journalists were flown to Toronto, care of Messrs Gates and Ballmer, for Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference 2004.

But Microsoft does things slightly differently where conferences are concerned. As you would expect from the world's largest software company with a massive cash surplus ($75bn at last reckoning), Microsoft didn't make itself rich by flying hacks business class. Even chairman Bill Gates refuses to pay to fly at the pointy end of the aircraft. (Of course, as one Microsoft manager told Financial Director, it's amazing how many times Gates gets upgraded - twice - when he reaches check-in.)

Microsoft's Worldwide Conference, being an event primarily for its partners and customers rather than a dedicated press and analyst event, was never going to be a run-of-the-mill jolly, anyway, as more than 6,000 colour-co-ordinated, polo shirt wearing people crammed into an ice hockey stadium for a mutual backslapping session. The delegates whooped and hollered as the house band played Don Henley covers and Microsoft's own rock anthem Velocity; CEO Steve Ballmer leapt about the stage yelling how "excited" he was to be there; and software engineers and techie journalists earnestly swapped stories about pieces of code and service packs over coffee and muffins.

OK, so it is easy to mock Microsoft's sweet, Chardonnay-style culture - especially when its executives get the words 'partners rock!' tattooed (henna only) on their arms after conference parties. A video of company execs doing a rendition of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (cue more whoops and hollers from the audience) during keynote speeches does not appeal to UK journalists' sensibilities either.