It seems strange to me you were hung up on this detail.

It didn’t launch immediately into the MLM thing. In fact, at first I had no idea which direction this thing was going to go. My spidey sense indicated it could very likely be an MLM, so I watched and waited for it, but since I was unsure until he made the pitch, I didn’t feel it necessarily appropriate to stand up and walk out yet. Make sense?

I also noticed 3 other well respected members of our community were in the audience, so I followed their cues. Watching their body language, I think we all realized it was an MLM at around the same time.

We go to a lot of professional events, and conduct ourselves with dignity. Usually, these events are legit, but this one slipped under all of our radars. Regardless, how we conduct ourselves defines us, not the situation we’re facing.