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IT WAS billed as the Jack and Bill show with the First Minister and the richest individual on the planet signing an agreement to help young Scots adopt skills to make them more attractive to the business world.

Then it was the Gordon and Bill show, as Bill Gates said goodbye to Jack McConnell and joined Chancellor Brown to bring to a climax the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in the Scottish Parliament. A first for the UK.

The Microsoft founder had landed in Scotland on the last leg of a schedule that had taken in Switzerland, New York and London, during which he had promoted good causes and the latest addition to the Microsoft family, the Vista software package.

The man reputedly worth ?27bn swept into Edinburgh in an ordinary people carrier, accompanied by just one security guard, to meet Jack McConnell at Bute House.

Gates can lay claim to having changed the way that many of us work and his Foundation has contributed millions to help fight poverty and disease. Even so, he does not receive universal acclaim. He may retain boy-next-door looks but he also attracts critics who see him as the head of an organisation exploiting the very people he is setting out to help. Opponents say his Foundation invests in those who create the problems in the first place.

It is an accusation Microsoft refutes and Gates himself now contributes more than ?760m each year to a range of charities and agencies.

He believes in the power of the PC to change lives and the world’s “richest geek” was in Scotland to engage the public sector and the country’s young people in computer skills, specifically to help those not in education and employment. Gates believes computers empower people and he was keen to play his part in improving the condition of those he sees being left behind.

At a press conference he told journalists that Scotland had punched above its weight in some growth sectors, such as life sciences, and noted its “long history of innovation and top universities”. He left promptly to receive an honorary degree from Edinburgh University and meet with Ian Wilmut, the scientist whose team created Dolly the Sheep.

He departed with a warning that the competition for blue chip investment is high and that further investment, on the educational front for example, is needed for Scotland to stay on top of its game.

But on the big issue of the moment - independence - Gates refused to comment, particularly on whether Microsoft would alter its investment strategy in Scotland if it broke away from the union. “I’m not here to answer political questions,” he said.

And so to the Scottish Parliament, where his arrival must have looked to the bemused passer-by as something akin to a royal visit. This time, though, the police presence was a bit heavier.

Gates shared a platform with Gordon Brown to address an audience of international politicians, business people and the global press in the debating chamber, but the event passed off without living up to its high billing, and the odd assortment of representatives, which included the president of Iceland and the prime minister of Albania, left some wondering what it was trying to achieve.

Gates and Brown were preceded by a series of warm-up acts - Gerri Elliot, a Microsoft public sector contracts boss, Augusto Lopez Claros, a South American economist, and Eberhard Sinner, a state minister from Bavaria. A hush descended as Gates and Brown entered the chamber and sat down at what looked like a daytime TV studio set - two maroon chairs and a table with a bottle of water.

First, the man tipped to become the UK’s next prime minister took to the podium and spoke with his usual exuberance about Adam Smith and Andrew Carnegie and the need to get the UK’s workforce better educated, while Gates sat casually, his arm looped over the back of his chair and an inscrutable smile on his face. Gates followed with a lecture on how the internet and websites such as Wikipedia could help more children to get educated, while Brown brooded and occasionally remembered to smile.

A handful of prepared questions followed, but without any sparking the remotest controversy. The closest anyone came was a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament who secured a pledge from Gates to look at the idea of incorporating a young person’s forum into the next Microsoft Government Leaders Forum.

Upstairs, the gallery was packed with the world’s press and other interested observers, including the tyres tycoon Sir Tom Farmer.

But there was a degree of confusion, even cynicism, about the purpose of the event aside from providing a worldwide audience for Microsoft’s Vista platform. The announcements appeared fairly random - one on Scottish schools, another deal between Microsoft and the Albanian government.

One observer said: “I am here because Microsoft paid for me to come and I wanted to see Edinburgh. But I’m still not sure what this is all about.”

Speaker after speaker praised Microsoft for its efforts in helping spread technology and Gates for his philanthropy. There was nothing resembling a debate.

Microsoft paid nothing for the use of the parliament building, the first time a working parliament has been used for one of the software company’s annual Government Leaders Forums.

But the company did meet the cost of flying 300 delegates and 70 journalists to Edinburgh, feeding them and supplying them with drink and accommodation in the city’s Caledonian Hilton, Balmoral and Radisson hotels for three nights.

Whether or not the event will have any lasting benefits for the good causes it promoted, at least all those who took part now know about Vista.

This article: http://business.scotsman.com/technology.cfm?id=183382007

IT WAS billed as the Jack and Bill show with the First Minister and the richest individual on the planet signing an agreement to help young Scots adopt skills to make them more attractive to the business world.

Then it was the Gordon and Bill show, as Bill Gates said goodbye to Jack McConnell and joined Chancellor Brown to bring to a climax the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in the Scottish Parliament. A first for the UK.

The Microsoft founder had landed in Scotland on the last leg of a schedule that had taken in Switzerland, New York and London, during which he had promoted good causes and the latest addition to the Microsoft family, the Vista software package.

The man reputedly worth ?27bn swept into Edinburgh in an ordinary people carrier, accompanied by just one security guard, to meet Jack McConnell at Bute House.

Gates can lay claim to having changed the way that many of us work and his Foundation has contributed millions to help fight poverty and disease. Even so, he does not receive universal acclaim. He may retain boy-next-door looks but he also attracts critics who see him as the head of an organisation exploiting the very people he is setting out to help. Opponents say his Foundation invests in those who create the problems in the first place.

It is an accusation Microsoft refutes and Gates himself now contributes more than ?760m each year to a range of charities and agencies.

He believes in the power of the PC to change lives and the world’s “richest geek” was in Scotland to engage the public sector and the country’s young people in computer skills, specifically to help those not in education and employment. Gates believes computers empower people and he was keen to play his part in improving the condition of those he sees being left behind.

At a press conference he told journalists that Scotland had punched above its weight in some growth sectors, such as life sciences, and noted its “long history of innovation and top universities”. He left promptly to receive an honorary degree from Edinburgh University and meet with Ian Wilmut, the scientist whose team created Dolly the Sheep.

He departed with a warning that the competition for blue chip investment is high and that further investment, on the educational front for example, is needed for Scotland to stay on top of its game.

But on the big issue of the moment - independence - Gates refused to comment, particularly on whether Microsoft would alter its investment strategy in Scotland if it broke away from the union. “I’m not here to answer political questions,” he said.

And so to the Scottish Parliament, where his arrival must have looked to the bemused passer-by as something akin to a royal visit. This time, though, the police presence was a bit heavier.

Gates shared a platform with Gordon Brown to address an audience of international politicians, business people and the global press in the debating chamber, but the event passed off without living up to its high billing, and the odd assortment of representatives, which included the president of Iceland and the prime minister of Albania, left some wondering what it was trying to achieve.

Gates and Brown were preceded by a series of warm-up acts - Gerri Elliot, a Microsoft public sector contracts boss, Augusto Lopez Claros, a South American economist, and Eberhard Sinner, a state minister from Bavaria. A hush descended as Gates and Brown entered the chamber and sat down at what looked like a daytime TV studio set - two maroon chairs and a table with a bottle of water.

First, the man tipped to become the UK’s next prime minister took to the podium and spoke with his usual exuberance about Adam Smith and Andrew Carnegie and the need to get the UK’s workforce better educated, while Gates sat casually, his arm looped over the back of his chair and an inscrutable smile on his face. Gates followed with a lecture on how the internet and websites such as Wikipedia could help more children to get educated, while Brown brooded and occasionally remembered to smile.

A handful of prepared questions followed, but without any sparking the remotest controversy. The closest anyone came was a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament who secured a pledge from Gates to look at the idea of incorporating a young person’s forum into the next Microsoft Government Leaders Forum.

Upstairs, the gallery was packed with the world’s press and other interested observers, including the tyres tycoon Sir Tom Farmer.

But there was a degree of confusion, even cynicism, about the purpose of the event aside from providing a worldwide audience for Microsoft’s Vista platform. The announcements appeared fairly random - one on Scottish schools, another deal between Microsoft and the Albanian government.

One observer said: “I am here because Microsoft paid for me to come and I wanted to see Edinburgh. But I’m still not sure what this is all about.”

Speaker after speaker praised Microsoft for its efforts in helping spread technology and Gates for his philanthropy. There was nothing resembling a debate.

Microsoft paid nothing for the use of the parliament building, the first time a working parliament has been used for one of the software company’s annual Government Leaders Forums.

But the company did meet the cost of flying 300 delegates and 70 journalists to Edinburgh, feeding them and supplying them with drink and accommodation in the city’s Caledonian Hilton, Balmoral and Radisson hotels for three nights.

Whether or not the event will have any lasting benefits for the good causes it promoted, at least all those who took part now know about Vista.

This article: http://business.scotsman.com/technology.cfm?id=183382007