Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to make rare joint appearance

Apple, Inc. CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, the seminal figures in the development of the personal computer, will make a rare joint appearance at The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference this year. The two men will jointly discuss the history and future of the digital revolution in an unrehearsed, unscripted, onstage conversation on May 30 with D co-producers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.

Both executives have made multiple individual appearances at the conference, which will celebrate its fifth anniversary this year, and is known as D5. But this will be their first joint session at D, and a highly unusual event.

In addition to participating in the joint session with Mr. Gates, Mr. Jobs will appear on his own in a separate segment at D5 to discuss the latest developments at Apple, including new ventures such as the iPhone and Apple TV. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will also appear at the conference in his own segment, to discuss Windows, Office, the Xbox, Zune, and other topics.

The D5 conference will also feature an impressive roster of other leaders in technology and media. Confirmed speakers include Google CEO Eric Schmidt; CBS President Les Moonves; Cisco CEO John Chambers; film director George Lucas; online pioneer Steve Case; Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore; News Corp. President Peter Chernin; Palm founder Jeff Hawkins; and Steve Chen and Chad Hurley of YouTube.

Like past editions of the conference, D5 will be an all-interview event, without canned speeches. The conference, which is sold out, will take place May 29-31 near San Diego, California. For more information, see http://d.wsj.com/

To see past D videos, and to sign up to be notified when the all-new D Web site launches, users can go to http://allthingsd.com

D5 is sponsored by Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Houlihan Lokey, IDA Ireland, Kodak, NYSE Group, and Qualcomm.

Related article:
Apple CEO Steve Jobs to speak at Wall Street Journal’s ‘D3: All Things Digital’ conference next week – May 16, 2005

35 Comments

  1. This rare appearance together happened last year at the same conference. As a matter of fact they sat right next to each other and talked it up as old buddies all throughout the evening! I don’t know if the writer of this knew this or not, but it reads as if they’ve not talked in public in years.

  2. “Steve Ballmer will also appear at the conference in his own segment, to discuss Windows, Office, the Xbox, Zune, and other topics.”

    I didn’t know Zune was still considered a topic. I was sure it was just a footnote these days.

  3. Ah, the old “rare joint”, that would not be surprising considering San Fran has some of the best weed on the planet there.

    Perhaps Steve is softening Billy up…..

    Steve “Bill, you hold the smoke in your lungs for a while, then let it out slowly”….. cough cough cough….. ssmmooooottthh

    Bill “Yea, I think I’m feeling something… ooo, I feel giddy”.

    Steve “yea, now put this little piece of paper under your tongue and suck on it”

    Bill “who’s that little guy on there?”

    Steve “that’s Mr. Natural, a, uh, I mean Woz, , yea that’s Woz, Woz loves to have fun”

    Bill “I love fun” slurp slurp, slobber slobber

  4. While the prospective musings of His Steveness and Billy-boy (together) might
    make for some great fodder for MDN and the like… I think a more interesting
    story, .. might be having Cisco CEO John Chambers and Steve Jobs in the same room …
    considering the flack they are giving  over the name “iPhone” …

    Just a thought ..

  5. For those attending the Ballmer “segment” if you are sitting in the first 5 rows you will need a dropcloth. Ballmer is known to squirt, spit, and sweat. If he Zune’s I would just recommend leaving.

    Unbeleivably the MDN Magic Word is

    develop

  6. The “I’m a Mac, and I’m a P.C.” ad comes to life?!

    Vista Security Agent – “Steve Jobs is whipping your ass live and in public, Bill. Cancel or Allow?”

    BG – “Allow…”

    Vista Security Agent – “Bill, Windows Vista is a chrome-plated turd, Cancel or Allow?”

    BG – “Allow…”

    Vista Security Agent – “Steve’s presentation looks better on Keynote, Bill. Cancel or Allow?”

    BG – “CANCEL!”

    Vista Security Agent – “I am unable to process your request, Bill, as Keynote is an iWork application. Steve Ballmer is eyeing up a chair, Cancel or Allow?”

    BG – “Allow…”

    Vista Security Agent – “One moment, please…DRM violation!! Steve Ballmer’s chair is in HD, automatically downscaling video output…setting tilt bits…your video card has been disabled because Vista thinks you are pirating. Cancel or Allow?”

    BG – “Um, allow?”

  7. They could put on a great WWF tag-team wresting match on stage – ‘Uncle Fester’ Ballmer and Bill ‘The Uber Nerd’ Gates vs. His Steveness and Eric “Google-Searcher’ Schmidt.

    Despitre Fester being fairly adept at hitting people over the head with chairs, and The Uber Nerd sending opponents to sleep, they’d still lose in the end as His Steveness and Google-Searcher innovate their way out of trouble…

  8. Metaphorical Physicist wrote….

    Feb 20, 07 – 12:23 pm

    I thought it was dangerous to mix matter and anti-matter….

    Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to say Matters and Doesn’t Matter?

    Just my $0.02

  9. Jeez Louise! Bill Gates is gonna have to actually sound intelligent in front of an educated
    audience like this one. He won’t get away with doing his stupid little lie-infested tap dance
    like he did in his Newsweek interview. Thank goodness there are journalists like Walt Mossberg
    in the world who actually have a clue! Thank goodness they’re not all like most of the morons
    who call themselves technology analysts.

  10. …….”Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will also appear at the conference in his own segment, to discuss Windows, Office, the Xbox, Zune, and other topics.”

    That’s the part that got my attention. THAT is so damned exciting.
    When you say those words in tandem…..Window, Office, the Xbox, Zune…it just leaves me breathless.
    Christ, I need some air.

  11. Clearly BillyG is beyond EVER listening to his PR people, who would, if honest tell him “Do not EVER EVER EVER share a stage with Steve Jobs!”
    But why should he, he’s got billions, he’s riding off into the sunset, he can do whatever he wants and it’s Balmer’s problem. And frankly, when the MS monopolists are screwing up, it’s a better world anyway.

  12. Steve wrote: This rare appearance together happened last year at the same conference. As a matter of fact they sat right next to each other and talked it up as old buddies all throughout the evening! I don’t know if the writer of this knew this or not, but it reads as if they’ve not talked in public in years.

    Steve, they were pictured at the event dinner but they didn’t appear together at any of the sessions. This time, they will be appearing at a session together.

    The article’s author was right.

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