Gates seeks goodwill from EU

The agenda at Microsoft's annual government leaders' forum, which comes each year right on the heels of Davos and draws some of the same crowd, is not for the faint-hearted, a strong mix of technology-speak and Euro-speak.

There are "e-parliament initiatives" and keynotes on "ethical globalisation", "innovating in today's Europe" and "the e-commission and the information worker". To top it all, there are panels on the "e-parliament roundtable".

Speakers this year ranged from former Irish president Mary Robinson to the current president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso - with Bill Gates hanging out in Barroso's home country, he wasn't about to miss an opportunity to schmooze.

Denmark's minister of education, Bertel Haarder, was there along with the former prime minister of Finland Esko Aho, the current UN high commissioner for refugees and former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres and chairwoman of Spanish bank Banesto, Ana Patricia Botin.

And of course, Microsoft founder, chairman and now "chief software architect" - clearly, when you are the boss, you can make up whatever job title you like - Bill Gates was also on hand.

Not everyone tried to be best friends with Bill or even overly respectful of host Microsoft. Reflecting the EU's edgy relationship at the moment with the big corporation (the EU wants more concessions from Microsoft on anti-trust and monopoly issues), Barroso took a little dig at the company in his keynote.

"This is an impressive setting which shows the organisational capacities of Microsoft," he noted of the forum's takeover of the Four Seasons hotel on a hill overlooking the city.

"We can all agree on this. But as you probably know, the European Commission and Microsoft do not always agree on all issues."

At least he conceded that this topic "is not the issue for today".

That introduction definitely ruffled some Microsoft feathers, going by a few grumbles during the coffee break later. But the rest of Barroso's opening keynote set a thematic tone for the two-day forum.

Those themes included:

While it is easy to dismiss such an event as a talking shop - and certainly even delegates viewed some sessions this way, with low attendance in the main hall and a sporadic presence by the press - the calibre and profile of most speakers is consistently impressive, with some clear favourites.

Among the big draws was Robinson, whose own passion for subjects such as the gender gap in the developing world and globalisation enlivens a potentially dry topic - although who else would encourage an audience to read an online report on migration and development by noting "it's only 88 pages"?

London School of Economics director Sir Howard Davies gave a fascinating presentation on underfunded, underachieving European universities, and, of course, Bill Gates packed the house for his closing keynote.

Gates, who somehow manages still to look like he should be skulking around the corridors of high school, figuring out how to get more time in the computer lab rather than running one of the most powerful corporations in the world, is a considerably more confident and relaxed speaker now than 10 or even five years ago.

His keynote, a typical Gates performance, mixes a bit of praise for the locals, a thumbs up to some other European countries with good IT projects, including Ireland, some futuristic predictions, a caution or two on the need for more focus on innovation and IT, and blatant pitches for Microsoft products (global citizens "with a Windows computer and browser" will always have a head start on a better future over those poor sods with no computers at all - or by extension, those using Apple Macs or Linux or Unix, presumably).

Gates notes that there will be some additional Microsoft funding for a couple of its initiatives, the main one being a further $25 million (€20.7 million) towards its global community technology centres - takes a few questions from a surprisingly bashful audience, then all that is left is for a breakneck closing speech by the prematurely greying Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates.

So what is the point? Isn't it all just an opportunity for Microsoft to generate some goodwill, improve its European image and sell some software? Certainly, that's part of the overall objective.

Like many US technology companies, Microsoft has come relatively late to the realisation that it needs to have a good European profile, not just an American profile. With regular threats still emanating from Brussels long after the company sorted out its anti-trust woes in the US, the European Commission has remained a major thorn in Microsoft's side, an unexpected foe that the company clearly never expected would be so tenacious or so prickly.

Such publicity is never good for business, and the company wants to be seen as a good corporate citizen on this side of the Atlantic while the problem gets resolved.

Gathering the great and good at such a forum, which provides a more open platform to politicians and civil servants than the more rarified and exclusive environment of Davos, lets Microsoft be seen rubbing shoulders with some prominent European figures, also helpful to its image.

And obviously, networking of the highest order can take place in such an environment. Very useful for cornering the minister who just might be considering an open-source alternative to Windows for his or her next big government project.

But, on a more fundamental level, European decision-makers do not often get a chance to exchange views and hear facts, figures and opinions in the concise, targeted and relatively energetic context of a forum like this.

Press are excluded from some working sessions where participants throw around ideas, draw some conclusions, and presumably get a better pan-European sense of what is happening with technology, society, culture and policy.

Given how much ground Europe needs to cover in these areas, such a gathering surely can't hurt and may well be one of the few places that influential European heads get to meet up in a constructive way.