Obama meets with the tech elite, photos inside

[Emil]

US President Barack Obama met with America's tech elite yesterday evening in order to talk about research spending and technology exports, amongst other hot topics. The overall aim of the meeting was for the small group to find new ways the government and private sector can work together to give the US economy a boost.

Earlier this month, in a speech to business leaders, Obama vowed to revamp the corporate tax code, expand the economy, and make the government run more efficiently, with the private sector's help. The CEOs and Obama also discussed ways to encourage kids to study math, science, and engineering.

The executives who attended the dinner were as follows:

• Carol Bartz, President and CEO of Yahoo!
• John Chambers, CEO and Chairman of Cisco Systems
• Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter
• Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle
• Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix
• John Hennessy, President of Stanford University
• Art Levinson, Chairman and former CEO of Genentech
• Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple
• Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google
• Steve Westly, Managing Partner and Founder of The Westly Group
• Mark Zuckerberg, President and CEO of Facebook

The White House posted the following images and captions:

President Barack Obama talks with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg before a dinner with Technology Business Leaders in Woodside, California, Feb. 17, 2011. Also pictured, left to right, are Carol Bartz, Yahoo! President and CEO; Art Levinson, Genentech Chairman and former CEO; Steve Westly, Founder and Managing Partner, The Westly Group; and Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman and CEO of Google.

President Barack Obama joins a toast with Technology Business Leaders at a dinner in Woodside, California, Feb. 17, 2011.

Talk about history in the making! We would have given quite a bit of our contributions to the US economy in order to have overheard the discussions at the little shindig.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/42485-obama-meets-with-the-tech-elite-photos-inside.html

 

[PaulWuzHere]

Does Obama know there is a war going on?

 

[Guest]

The Arab street laughs at this substitute teacher. Starting to make Jimmy Carter look like a champion of foreign policy.

 

[Jibberish18]

What a varying degree of personalities he has in there. "Open! No Closed! No, Ad Profits! No, Personal Information Collection!"

 

[Rick]

paulwuzhere said:
Does Obama know there is a war going on?

Did you know the war isn't the only thing happening?

 

[Cota]

Rick said:

paulwuzhere said:
Does Obama know there is a war going on?

Did you know the war isn't the only thing happening?

Did you know people only know what they see in TV?

 

[Trillionsin]

Cota said:

Rick said:

paulwuzhere said:
Does Obama know there is a war going on?

Did you know the war isn't the only thing happening?

Did you know people only know what they see in TV?

Did you know that some of us dont get our news from the TV?

 

[dividebyzero]

The picture seems to missing something...

...yes, that's it.

 

[tragicallyhip]

Know one cares what the Arab streets think about the American President,and the Universe unfolds as it should.

 

[Jibberish18]

trillionsin said:

Cota said:

Rick said:

paulwuzhere said:
Does Obama know there is a war going on?

Did you know the war isn't the only thing happening?

Did you know people only know what they see in TV?

Did you know that some of us dont get our news from the TV?

Did you know I'm only responding to this to keep the "Did You Know's?" going?

 

[TrekExpert]

Jibberish18 said:

trillionsin said:

Cota said:

Rick said:

paulwuzhere said:
Does Obama know there is a war going on?

Did you know the war isn't the only thing happening?

Did you know people only know what they see in TV?

Did you know that some of us dont get our news from the TV?

Did you know I'm only responding to this to keep the "Did You Know's?" going?

Just because there is a war going doesn't mean that Obama should not be worried about other important issue.

 

[veedubguy]

Where is Microsoft?

 

[Guest]

"Know one cares what the Arab streets think about the American President,and the Universe unfolds as it should".

Wait another six months and see for yourself. When gas is $5.00 per gallon you won't have to worry about tweeting in traffic anymore. I believe that was the point of the original commenter.

 

[Wagan8r]

I'm kinda pissed!! Where is Bill Gates!? If there is ANYBODY, who knows a thing or two about making profitable economic decisions, it's him! I can't believe that Zuck and the Twitter dude where there instead.

 

[captainawesome]

Agree with : veedubguy and wagan8r
Bill Gates and Sal Khan from the khanacademy.org should both be there!

 

[Raswan]

captainawesome said:
Agree with : veedubguy and wagan8r
Bill Gates and Sal Khan from the khanacademy.org should both be there!

Didn't you know--Twitter, Netflix, and Facebook are WAY more important than Microsoft or any kind of learning. Salman who? I mean, why bring people who have contributed substantively to society and knowledge when you can get the guy who let us constantly update our friends about things which they could not possibly care in 140 characters or less?

Quit catering to the lowest common denominator, even if they are the majority of the voters.

 

[cyrusjumpjet]

Awesome photos. What I would have given to be a fly on the wall during their dinner...

 

[Guest]

i dont have FB and i hope it will dissapear!

 

[captainawesome]

haha Raswan. Point well made

 

[princeton]

Raswan said:

captainawesome said:
Agree with : veedubguy and wagan8r
Bill Gates and Sal Khan from the khanacademy.org should both be there!

Didn't you know--Twitter, Netflix, and Facebook are WAY more important than Microsoft or any kind of learning. Salman who? I mean, why bring people who have contributed substantively to society and knowledge when you can get the guy who let us constantly update our friends about things which they could not possibly care in 140 characters or less?

Quit catering to the lowest common denominator, even if they are the majority of the voters.

Brilliant post. They're just bringing in the people who cater to the technically illiterate with simple services.

 

[DokkRokken]

You guys serious? Some of these companies are changing the way people conduct their lives. Twitter and Facebook have allowed incredible connectivity between people, for better or worse, and were instrumental in helping people overthrow a thirty year old regime a few days ago.

Companies like Google, and Apple are giving average people immense communicative power in their hands. Really, most of these entities represent ingenuity. I might not like Twitter or Facebook, but I can certainly admire the role they are having in changing our culture. It's prudent of a president to familiarize themselves with these sorts of developments and companies.

 

[princeton]

You guys serious? Some of these companies are changing the way people conduct their lives. Twitter and Facebook have allowed incredible connectivity between people, for better or worse, and were instrumental in helping people overthrow a thirty year old regime a few days ago.

Companies like Google, and Apple are giving average people immense communicative power in their hands. Really, most of these entities represent ingenuity. I might not like Twitter or Facebook, but I can certainly admire the role they are having in changing our culture. It's prudent of a president to familiarize themselves with these sorts of developments and companies.

None of these people have done something NEW for the industry. They've simply taken old ideas and improved them(or in apples case made them less functional)

Obama should be inviting people creating new technologies like Engineers at Intel, Nvidia, Samsung ect ect.

 

[DokkRokken]

princeton said:

You guys serious? Some of these companies are changing the way people conduct their lives. Twitter and Facebook have allowed incredible connectivity between people, for better or worse, and were instrumental in helping people overthrow a thirty year old regime a few days ago.

Companies like Google, and Apple are giving average people immense communicative power in their hands. Really, most of these entities represent ingenuity. I might not like Twitter or Facebook, but I can certainly admire the role they are having in changing our culture. It's prudent of a president to familiarize themselves with these sorts of developments and companies.

None of these people have done something NEW for the industry. They've simply taken old ideas and improved them(or in apples case made them less functional)

Obama should be inviting people creating new technologies like Engineers at Intel, Nvidia, Samsung ect ect.

Some great innovations were 'merely' reinventions, but that does not make them any less valid, or their impacts any less meaningful. People are citing Bill Gates in the comments section, but one could argue Microsoft has just been rehashing the same software (Windows, Office) for x-number of years.

Plus, the meeting was about economic rejuvenation, a more efficient, streamlined government, and better education delivery. I don't think nVidia or Samsung would be the most suitable candidates to contribute to those goals, but Twitter and Facebook are capable of increasing communication and allowing for efficiencies in regards to education, and business in both the public and private sectors. Like I mentioned before, it behooves a president to gain knowledge of what is popular, and what is changing people's lives.

 

[dividebyzero]

Twitter and Facebook are capable of increasing communication and allowing for efficiencies in regards to education, and business in both the public and private sectors.

Political speeches and corporate fine print limited to 140 characters. Sounds like a win.