Missing Gary Tweddle Book Part 15 – CHAPTER 2: ORACLE’S 2013 SALES CONFERENCE
During a cold wintry July of 2013, Gary, along with Oracle’s Australian sales force (team), were required to attend Oracle sales ‘team’s fully-paid 3-day mid-week conference at the 4-star Fairmont Resort and Spa in Leura in the famous Blue Mountains 100km west of Sydney.
It was a compulsory work function for Gary.
SO A QUESTION:
Why did Oracle choose to direct its sale team to attend a sale conference at a location distant from its North Ryde headquarters in Sydney? It was containment control and they could not escape. It was a secret ultimatum pressure, during a time of plummeting sales and profits for the organisation, to achieve sales with good profits else be terminated. ‘Larry’s way or the highway’ culture. Am I close to reality?
Media reports state there were 46 of them, so a sizeable group and likely the entire Oracle sales ‘team’ in Sydney, perhaps with a few managers from its global headquarters, then situated in Austin, Texas (though since 2024, currently in Nashville, Tennessee, USA).
Perhaps Oracle’s extreme pressure upon its young sales team had been ramped up to an anxiety threatening ultimatum crescendo? So, instead of Oracle’s sales pep-talk conference mid-week in July 2013 being a reward to the team, perhaps Oracle’s underlying message staged at this rather isolated sales conference in the Blue Mountains was always a pre-staged ‘do-or-die’ sales performance ultimatum to this young team, if not a last supper?
May be Gary’s sales colleagues at Oracle at the time may have more to say, so long as they are no longer under Oracle’s spell. But one surmises, from one’s own corporate IT stressful performance pressure experiences in Sydney.
From this author’s corporate team event experience, following standard corporate procedure presumably Oracle’s sales conference took place from arriving from Sydney at the Fairmont Resort likely by chartered coach on the Monday 15th July 2013.
A keen corporate-compliant lad: Gary shown here participating in Oracle corporate team sports during a work lunch break on the lawn area under Sydney Harbour Bridge off Lower Fort Street. [Author: been there, no showers afterwards before back at one’s desk.]
The first day of the sales conference after arriving by coach from North Ryde (allow 2 hours), after room check-in, would have been in-house at the Fairmont Resort utilising a very private team unifying U-shaped seating arrangement say in the Fairmont’s smaller Blaxland function room which accommodates 46 seated guests.
Classic corporate team building U-shaped seating arrangement = nowhere to hide to the table heads. [Ed: Been there]
Only those 46 Oracle sales staff and managers in attendance know what was discussed on Day 1 (Monday 15th July 2013) of the Oracle sales conference.
Given what Gary decided to do the following night, maybe the discussion wasn’t a so rewarding a celebration by the corporation, but instead, Oracle management’s threatening dressing down ultimatum in light of its 2013 zero sales growth results?
So what took place during that Oracle sales conference on Day 2 in the Fairmont Resort private function room? It was the day of Gary’s sudden walk-out after a workplace dinner event is not known.
The Oracle Sales Dinner Event at Silk’s Brasserie
Silk’s Brasserie, when it was situated at 128 The Mall in Leura, in the upper Blue Mountains at the time in 2013. The naming possibly to appeal to the local exclusive legal ‘silks’ clientele demographic who own holiday homes in Leura.
For instance, nearby ‘Leurella’ mansion (below), is situated at 43-69 Balmoral Road in well-heeled Leura, just 1.5km from Silks Brasserie at the time with extensive views to the horizon looking over the Jamison Valley.
Got a lazy $10 million? Leurella’s 2 hectare property has been on the market since November 2023, following the lockdowns (Nov 2019 – Nov 2022).
Back to Gary…
On that second night of Oracle’s internal sales conference on Tuesday 16th July 2013, Gary attended an outside pre-booked dinner as part of the 46 work colleagues/managers from Oracle. It was from 7 pm at Silk’s Brasserie in retail Leura Mall, situated about 3 km west of the Fairmont Resort.
[Note: This author, as a former coach captain with Australian Pacific Touring (APT, 1991-1992) and others including Blue Mountains Bus Company (of local Leura, 2012-2015), one surmises that in 2013, Oracle rather than utilising distant Sydney-based Murrays Coaches, Oracle would have been instead chartered the only local Leura-based Blue Mountains Bus Company (a Mercedes Benz coach) to locally transfer its sales group from the Fairmont Resort to the restaurant and back that Tuesday night.
One has done similar such corporate transfers for the same company locally (including from the Fairmont Resort to The Carrington Hotel in nearby Katoomba and return).
However, those dinner attendees who chose to ‘party on’ at Silk’s after the restaurant bill was paid and on their own time and expense, notably including Gary, would have been advised by Oracle management attending and departing that the group would be responsible for paying their own separate way back to the Fairmont by local taxi.
Of relevance, the urban backstreet route between Silk’s in Leura Mall, on the high street, and the location of the Fairmont Resort on the south-eastern cliff edge of the village is not straight forward, but its a rather complicated route for visitors to navigate, especially at night.
The juxtaposition of the Fairmont Resort with Silk’s Brasserie then situated in retail Leura Mall in a 3 km zig zag route through the residential backstreets of the well-heeled village of Leura.
Being a Tuesday and normally closed (Mon-Tue), Silk’s Brasserie would have specially have hosted this corporate dinner as a pre-booked dedicated private function for the whole restaurant, re-setting the tables to suit the Oracle sales ‘team’ seating layout specifications.
[SIDE NOTE: Some seven years hence in 2020 (pandemic lockdown regime), locally renowned ‘Silks‘ copped its landlord hiking up the rent, so prompting the restaurant owner Stewart Robinson to relocate well away from Leura Mall (high street) to nearly 6 km away to lesser know exclusive Silvermere Guesthouse at 1 Lake St in Wentworth Falls.
Following the NSW Government socio-economic lockdown imposts [11-Nov-2019 to 30 Nov 2022], by March 2023 Silk’s finally closed down. Read below.
Continuing on…
Presumably all 46 of the Oracle sales staff (being a large a coach load) would have had their Oracle Corporation Australia workplace management pre-arrange their chartered coach (typically Murrays Coaches) transfer directly from Oracle’s North Ryde headquarters in north-shore Sydney to/from the Fairmont Resort in Leura in the (upper) Blue Mountains. This is a motorway/highway journey distance of about 100km each way, taking about 90 minutes each way outside peak hours.
Materially in this case, Leura village is quite distant from Sydney (north-shore suburbs of North Ryde and Cremorne).
Similarly, the transfer from the Fairmont Resort to Silk’s Brasserie in Leura Mall (a 3 km driving distance through residential backstreet Leura village) may also have been by Murrays Coaches. However, due to the varying departure times of sales staff from Silk’s back to the Fairmont, local taxis were to be utilised for the 3 km return to they stay.
Materially again, both the 3 km distance and the confusing backstreet route (Silk’s return to Fairmont) would not have been feasible on foot, because it was late (after 11pm), very dark and mid -winter so freezing conditions outdoors at the time, and the sales team would have been mostly intoxicated from an indulgent corporate dinner night.
Gary was observed by the restaurant owner/manager, Stewart Robinson, as having very little alcohol during dinner event. A drinks tab would have been in place. Mr Robinson later stated to the media that Mr Tweddle had not had a lot to drink during dinner, but remembered him being ”unsteady” and ”wobbly” on his feet as Mr Tweddle left.
Tweddle was one of the last people to leave the restaurant. Mr Robinson says. ”It was an unremarkable night. Nobody had drunk that much. They were in a celebratory mood.” Mr Robinson said that he observed by the time Mr Tweddle left at around 10:40 pm, Mr Tweddle was “affected by something“, despite observed hardly having any alcohol to drink whilst there.
[Note: Had Gary been intoxicated or under the influence of substance abuse before the restaurant? During this work dinner event, just how many times did Gary (and likely with his mates) retreat to the restaurant’s rest room? Did he/they snort cocaine? This is surmising so based upon the two independent witnesses accounts in the media.]
Then upon Gary’s departure from the restaurant the taxi driver from Leura-Katoomba Radio Cabs told Fairfax Media he remembered Gary’s colleagues having to help Gary get into the passenger seat of the taxi and then dropping Mr Tweddle with three of his work colleagues back at the Fairmont Resort.
The taxi driver, who did not wish to be named, says he remembered well the 10-minute trip to the hotel. ”He was wasted, seriously wasted,” the driver said. The driver dropped the group off back at the entrance of the Fairmont Resort.
Local taxi driver (right) was interviewed
This is a telling observation, which we shall elaborated on. How was Gary observed so “wasted” according to two such unrelated independent witnesses?
It means that Gary would have missed the scheduled return coach charter from Silks Brasserie (we calculate pickup at 10:45 pm) back to the Fairmont Resort and instead elected to stay on at Silks with a few selected work colleagues.
So, this meant the smaller group relying upon a taxi return trip as their only sensible option for the 3 km backstreet twisting journey back to the Fairmont Resort. It was mid-winter, near midnight and freezing temperatures.
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