Event at UCL - speakers leaving early

[cyrkus]

Hi all. I went to a public event last night at UCL. The speakers were Ash Sarkar, Thomas Piketty and Gillian Tett. The event was scheduled to run from 6pm to 7.30pm. However, Piketty (who joined on Zoom, obviously no problem with that) left at about 6,40pm, as he said he had to be with his teenage daughters (I don't think his daughters are teenagers, but whatever). Tett left the stage at the same time with no real explanation. Leaving Ash Sarkar and the moderator on stage, and the event sort of fizzled out at just after 7pm. Am I alone in finding this strange? Surely if you agree to take part in an event then, short of emergencies, you commit to participate for the whole thing? I am absolutely fascinated by this! Would love to hear what others think?

That is very odd! If I was going to an event with a panel discussion I wouldn't expect the panel to wander off part way through (unless - as you say - there was an emergency)

I think that is unusual. I wonder with Piketty if there was any chance of a miscommunication/understanding around the time zone? If he though it would finish at 7:30 french time? That doesn't explain why Tett also left though.

That is bizarre and very odd. But perhaps the organizers miscommunicated? Hope it was free!

Very odd, particularly at a public event where the audience may be broader and there is more of a priority on outreach and public engagement and therefore it's important to be present throughout.
I would only expect this kind of behaviour at a small scale in-department event for instance where people were squeezing something in amongst teaching and other commitments.

Could it have been to do with the storm?

I'd leave early to avoid Ash Sarkar too.

If two people left I would guess the most likely explanation is that organiser messed up and gave them the wrong times initially.

Similar thing happened to me recently - agreed to do a panel and was told in writing it would run till 2:30. 2 days before an ad was circulated for the panel saying it would run till 3:30. Just a cockup by the organisers who put a typo in the initial invitation.

Was going to say exactly the same. Most normal people would avoid her/they/them like the plague.
Insufferable gobshite.

We are a regional campus university and we have had London speakers recently, who have commented that our seminar culture is much livelier than theirs. I wonder if it's a capital city thing - it would be terribly rude though to leave in the middle, even if you are online, if you saw the audience wasn't large.