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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Gates Touts ‘Web Lifestyle’ Microsoft Chief Tells Fellow Ceos That Success Is Linked To Information Technology

George Tibbits Associated Press

Information technology is the “digital nervous system” of any business, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told fellow executives Thursday.

“No matter what business you are in, it’s my claim that the excellence of that system determines your competitiveness,” he said.

Gates, who invited 100 chief executives for a two-day conference here on the value of information technology to business, also cautioned them not to underestimate the growing role computers will play in everyday life.

While Gates made no overt sales pitch, he said corporations should give their “knowledge workers” the computers and software needed to perform a variety of tasks, a strategy obviously beneficial to Microsoft, the world’s largest producer of personal computer software.

Vice President Al Gore was to address the gathering later Thursday, after a morning visit to Boeing’s Everett plant about 30 miles north.

Attendees also heard from Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine and unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate. Forbes reiterated several of his campaign themes, including the need for regulatory, legal and education reforms, and for a flat tax to replace the income tax.

In addition to listening to speeches, the executives themselves took part in panel presentations and roundtables on such topics as electronic commerce and the Internet.

Thursday’s sessions were at the downtown Four Seasons Olympic Hotel, followed by a cruise across Lake Washington to have dinner at Gates’ still-uncompleted mansion on the east shore. Today’s meetings will be held at the Microsoft campus in suburban Redmond.

Among those here for the meeting were Paul Hazen, chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo and Co.; Charles R. Lee, chairman and CEO of GTE; Reed E. Hundt, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission; Alan Stockdale, Australia’s minister of multimedia; and Robert L. Crandall, chairman and CEO of AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines.

Reporters were not allowed in the sessions but were able to watch the speeches by Gore, Gates, Forbes and Gov. Gary Locke over closed-circuit television. Cutaway shots of the audience showed many of the executives taking notes a handful using laptop computers.

Forbes, whose Forbes Management Conference Group helped organize the conference, said the executives came to pick up a few ideas from each other and to “get a sense of where Bill Gates thinks the future is headed and what the people around him think.”

However, the fact Gates put on the conference wasn’t enough by itself to attract this crowd, Forbes said.

“You can invite. You can’t summon,” he said.

In his speech, Gates said the free flow of information and the technology to make that possible are becoming increasingly critical to businesses.

When Microsoft got started two decades ago, computing was a million times more expensive, Gates said. Only the biggest companies could afford it, and computing was seen as a limited tool.

Over the next 20 years, the cost of computing will again shrink by a factor of a million, creating entirely new markets and ways of doing business, he said.

Year by year, the Internet is becoming more part of the mainstream, Gates said.

“Kids going to college today live what I call a Web lifestyle” - they communicate, shop, plan their schedules and conduct a significant portion of life’s business on the Internet, he said.

As machines become easier to use and access is more widespread, “I think it’s safe to say that within 10 years, a majority of all adults will be living that Web lifestyle,” Gates said.