Back when there was an in-person conference named "SD West" (usually held in San Jose or Santa Clara, California), I used to attend occasionally. I met Bjarne there on multiple occasions, including one time in a hallway between sessions. We talked like people do. I believe I asked him what he though of Qt as a cross-platform C++ GUI solution (this would have been around 2005). He gave me his honest opinion and we discussed one or two other subjects and then went to our separate sessions. He's just a regular guy who is (or, at least, was ) very approachable in such a context. BTW, I'm not "anybody" in those circles. Just another software engineer among many.