Bill Gates Will Deliver Keynote Address at ...

REDMOND, Wash. -- Feb. 2, 2004 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced that Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates will deliver the opening keynote address at the combined Microsoft Mobile Developer Conference (DevCon) 2004, VSLive! San Francisco 2004 and AVIOS~SpeechTEK Spring 2004 events on March 24 in San Francisco.

The convergence of the three events, which together represent the first major developer-focused event since Microsoft´s sold-out Professional Developers Conference last October, underscores developer excitement for the next wave of software innovation. Microsoft plans to unveil new solutions to address development for the Web, Microsoft® Windows Mobile (TM) -based Pocket PCs and Smartphones, and speech technologies. The co-located event also will serve as the launch venue for Microsoft Speech Server, the latest addition to the Windows Server System (TM) family of products.

In addition, Microsoft will demonstrate the remarkable success that its customers and industry partners have had since the launch of Visual Studio® .NET, the Microsoft .NET Framework and the .NET Compact Framework. The event also will give Microsoft representatives the opportunity to meet with the developers and IT personnel who play a critical role in the past, present and future success of the software ecosystem.

What: Bill Gates keynote address

When: March 24, 2004, at 9 a.m. PST

Where: Moscone West Conference Center, San Francisco

More information on the combined event can be found on the following Web sites: