Corporate A-listers visit Microsoft

Don't be surprised a few months from now if some blockbuster corporate deal traces its origins to the hallways of Microsoft Corp.'s conference center.

More than 115 executives from some of the world's biggest companies gathered Wednesday in Redmond for Microsoft's CEO Summit. The closed-door event, in its 12th year, offers the high-powered attendees sessions on the latest in business and technology -- with chances for wheeling and dealing in between.

Microsoft is keeping the guest list under especially tight wraps this year, naming only perennial attendee Warren Buffett and some well-known journalists who were let inside to lead sessions, such as Charlie Rose, Michael Kinsley, Maria Bartiromo and Thomas Friedman.

But with so many notable executives socializing at Seattle's Fairmont Olympic Hotel and descending on Microsoft's campus, their identities end up being something less than a state secret.

Attendees this year included Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com; Jeffrey Bewkes of Time Warner; Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP Group; Kerry Killinger of Washington Mutual; Philippe Dauman of Viacom; Chris DeWolfe of MySpace; and Jim Sinegal of Costco.

In the opening session Wednesday morning, the executives heard Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates talk about trends he sees in corporate technology, including the latest ways of using internal Web sites to track business and employee performance.

The presentation was, among other things, an implicit pitch for Microsoft's Sharepoint software.

Gates also showed a prototype called TouchWall, which the company described as a vertical version of its Surface tabletop computer. Gates gestured across the large screen with his hands to browse files and icons, using a companion software prototype that the company calls Plex.

"Our view is that all surfaces -- horizontal surfaces, vertical surfaces -- will eventually have an inexpensive screen display capability, and software that sees what you're doing there, so it's completely interactive," he said.

Gates' presentation at the CEO Summit is traditionally the only glimpse that outsiders get into the exclusive confab. Journalists covering the event are kept in a separate room and are only allowed to watch a video of Gates' address, which ends when the audience Q-and-A begins.

This is Gates' final CEO Summit as a full-time Microsoft executive, but the company says it will continue holding the event in the future, and Gates is scheduled to participate next year.