CES 2008: Bill G., The Unknown Side Of The Story

Bill Gates gave his final CES keynote Sunday night, which I unfortunately missed for reasons out of my control. I’ve had the pleasure of attending a number of Gates’ keynotes in the past, at CES, WinHEC and elsewhere, and I’ve always been struck by a few personality traits which are generally under-reported by media obsessed with his (and therefore his company’s) aggressive grabs for power and profits:

• Gates is a genuinely funny guy
• He’s admirably at ease with himself, and
• He rarely gives a ‘flat’ presentation, and in fact I’d argue that he holds his own against Steve Jobs, albeit admittedly with a different pitch style

I fondly remember, for example, a ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ clip he showed at his 2005 Microsoft PDC keynote:

And, as another example of the first two bullet points above, check out the clip from Sunday’s CES keynote, which IMHO is well worth your seven minutes’ viewing time:

Best of luck, Bill, in your admirable Foundation efforts and in your broader life post-Microsoft (although, yes, I know you’ll continue as company Chairman and advisor).