[gnat]

I was the conference chair (selected keynotes, MCed). When his talk finished I shook his hand, looked at him and asked something like "did you just resign from the stage?" because I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. And he said "yes", and it looked like it was only just sinking in.

Amazingly powerful moment because everyone there empathised with the experience of being on the right technical track to do something amazing but management not getting it. His frustration was under control, but palpable. And ("anticlimactic" reply in this thread notwithstanding) it was clear we were witnessing something we weren't going to see again.