[ghaff]

At conferences and the like I've always been super-impressed by the Google folks I've spoke with and listened to. But it's also my understanding that Google doesn't let just anyone "out in the wild" so I assume I'm pretty much seeing one end of the barbell (or probably a smallish slice of it).

[master_crab]

Yeah all the FAANGs do this. They won't sponsor their bottom half to go to conferences, much less speak at them.

[scarface_74]

I can’t speak for Google. But Amazon has an internal speaker certification and you have to be approved before they let you go out in the wild.

[PaulRobinson]

Let’s be clear here: the certification steps are required to give a talk as an Amazon staff member. You can go to conferences as an attendee, you can mention where you work. You just can’t get up on stage and give a talk about what you work on without going through some steps to make sure you’re not inadvertently giving away secret sauce or putting the share price into a tailspin.