14 DAY TRIAL // The Fifth Annual 'D: All Things Digital' Conference at the end of this spring will host a historic meeting: on May 30, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will openly discuss the digital future with none other than Chairman Bill Gates, Microsoft cofounder.
The two leading figures in the computer business will talk about the history, the present and the future of digital technologies with co-producers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. This would be their first joint session at 'D: All Things Digital', though they both had several appearances at D conferences in previous years.
Secondary to this joint appearance, Jobs will also have a separate segment dedicated to recent developments at Apple, about the iPhone and Apple TV. CEO Steve Ballmer will appear on behalf of Microsoft to talk about their latest technologies, including Vista, Office, Zune, Xbox and other topics.
Several industry leaders have confirmed their presence at the fifth 'D: All Things Digital' Conference: Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Cisco CEO John Chambers, Palm founder Jeff Hawkins, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley of YouTube, director George Lucas and many others.
The D5 conference is going to be an all-interview event that will take place near San Diego, California, between May 29 and May 31. The discussion on May 30 will potentially be the most interesting one as we'll see how Steve Jobs and Bill Gates talk about the future of computers and digital technologies.
I doubt there will be much chemistry between the two on stage, considering they both have strong points of view, usually opposite. I'm assuming Jobs will act as usual and create some controversy with his words, especially since his co-speaker is Bill Gates, but let's hope he'll keep a fairly low profile.
