He should just avoid these types of conferences all together so that things like this don't get negatively construed by association.
Absolutely. And this shows how useless this type of conference really is. If there's only one right answer to the question, the only benefit to attending is to pose for holy pictures about how sensitive you are to the needs of $DISADVANTAGED_GROUP.
I wasn't there, but the article says that both the question and his response addressed women:
> Earlier at that conference, Nadella was asked to give his advice for women wanting to ask for a raise. He said it's not about asking for raises, and that women should trust in the system to reward them as they go along.
He was asked what he thought about women who are too afraid to ask for a raise. And he said he thought they were better off because people shouldn't ask for a raise anyway. The question did specify women, though really it's applicable to anyone who is too nervous to ask for a raise, and Nadella responded with a non-gender-specific response except an attempt to pander by saying being afraid to ask for a raise "might be an additional superpower" of female employees, in effect stating that women have superior political instincts.
That he admits to having learned something from this experience, though, is surely a positive.