Bye Bye Bill Gates
Today was a very remarkable day. We attended the last demo Bill Gates ever gave as a chairman on MGX. It was actually his best demo I ever saw. It was very touching, a standing ovation of minutes and minutes before he even said a word, and a great talk about vision, strategy and where the future of Microsoft is. He also gave an extended demo of Surface and ‘the bedroom of the future’… but I already saw those earlier. It was the way in which Gates presented. The emotion… how he felt like it was his last MGX.
Then there was a tribute to Bill, with pictures from his youth, over to his early years at Microsoft, the product releases, his foundation… It was a really captive moment… I really got goosebumps from the reaction of all the employees. It was a weird sensation and you could see everyone was feeling it.
The day was actually filled with good news. The revenue growth, Halo 3, new products, new games… I really love this company and where it stands. We’re at the frontline of the battle and it looks like we will win, no matter what. 15.000 people, fired up with energy were shouting the same. We rock!
The day ended with the long awaited Ballmer show, and it was everything I ever heard about it. It was amazing. I can’t grasp how this one man is capable of firing up an entire arena… people were going crazy from the moment Ballmer set foot on stage, shouting, clapping their hands, cheering… it was a unique experience. I have never ever felt and seen this before.
We had a team dinner after the really long day -it’s been one large keynote session with different speakers that started at 8am and ended at 6pm -and I kinda sneaked out of that at 11 PM because I was really tired and tomorrow is going to be a long day too… so I better hit the sack. Here are a few snapshots of the day.
July 20th, 2007 at 8:56 am
[…] Link to Article bill gates Bye Bye Bill Gates » Posted at - MicroMiel on Friday, July 20, […]
July 20th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Can you explain us, why is it the last one? He would like more to concentrate in development issue?
July 20th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
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July 21st, 2007 at 4:13 am
I was there too - Miel you captured the day and the feelings of those of us in the crowd accurately. It was a mixture of great pride (when Steve Ballmer picked U2’s Pride as his closing theme song!) and a touch of sadness that Bill will no longer be in the same position at next year’s MGX. Yes, Bill is leaving his day-day responsibilities at Microsoft to attend to his foundation starting in June 2008. Microsoft has this “global exchange” every year on the day our earnings are announced in July, so this was Bill’s last one. May his vision, dedication and passion live on at MS!
Thanks for the great post and pics Miel!
July 21st, 2007 at 6:04 am
wow, that looks awesome. You are lucky to have atttended! i will miss bill terribly.
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