What an interesting story! I was wondering if you where you also working in the quantum computing field back then, or if you just worked on this as a hobby. 6 years ago the entire quantum computing field was not hyped as much yet (this was just about when the ibm quantum experience started?).
Yes, I was working in the field, not as a hobby. The programming language and compiler research certainly preceded IBM's foray into publicizing "cloud quantum", but I think they had just come out with a primitive version of their Quantum Experience by the time we gave that talk. This was definitely before the public hype set full sail—but it was clearly beginning to simmer. Everything was really research-oriented then, but it's, as you observe, around the time companies began to open up a bit more. (This is completely ignoring DWave, a whole different story. This also ignores physics-academia, which on the other hand had all sorts of hype, all of which eventually bled into the public arena, from Majorana qubits to chemical simulation.)
As a personal aside, I miss those days when things were just so much quieter, heads-down, and collegial. It's difficult to describe how the research and commercial environment has changed for its participants over the last decade.
