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Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer takes the stage at GeekWire’s Microsoft@50 event at Town Hall in Seattle on Thursday. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)
Longtime Microsoft employees, key executives, company faithful and tech community members celebrated the tech giant’s 50th anniversary Thursday night in Seattle during Microsoft@50, a GeekWire event to mark the company milestone.
Hundreds of people turned out at Town Hall to mingle and share stories about where they were, who they knew and what they worked on over the years at the Redmond, Wash.-based company.
Attendees included many pivotal figures from Microsoft’s past and present. And the on-stage program featured three speakers uniquely positioned to offer insights across business, policy, and technology in the context of Microsoft’s position in society and the industry, looking back and to what’s ahead.
Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith speaks with GeekWire’s Todd Bishop onstage at Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, who has been with the company for 32 years, said one of the things that stands out when he looks back at 50 years of Microsoft is the company’s ability to survive — something that’s not typical in tech.
“… And do more than survive,” Smith told GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop during a fireside chat. “And often be at the frontier of technology as we have, not every year, but many years. I think it’s fair to say we’re in a pretty good place today.”
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Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold onstage at Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Nathan Myhrvold served as Microsoft’s CTO from 1986 to 2000, during some of the most pivotal moments in its history, and he reflected on the company’s impact.
“Beyond business history, we live in a technological world. We all interact with technology constantly,” Myhrvold said. “And Microsoft was an absolutely fundamental, foundational part of that.”
Myhrvold also weighed in on the present and the future when it comes to the artificial intelligence revolution.
“There’s a persistent thing with the tech industry that people overestimate the short term and underestimate the long term,” he said. “In the long run, AI has tremendous potential. I put AI today a lot like personal computers in the 1980s. It’s good for a bunch of things, but I think its potential is enormously higher. And that will require a whole lot of work by a whole lot of folks.”
Former Microsoft CEO Stee Ballmer, left, onstage at Microsoft@50 in front of an image showing the Los Angeles Clippers owner during one of the NBA team’s games. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
The final speaker of the night was former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who took the stage to applause reminiscent of the energy he brought to his famed “developers, developers, developers” chant in 1999.
Ballmer, who left the company 11 years ago, remains Microsoft’s biggest shareholder. He was asked what he still loves so much about the company.
“I still love the notion of forward momentum,” he said in part. “I’m sure cultures have changed some, but cultures don’t change totally. And the notion of being hardcore and pushing forward and driving — I know that’s part of Microsoft.”
Steve Ballmer, third from right, poses for a selfie with former Microsoft employees at Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
Ballmer was one of just three CEOs to lead Microsoft, including current CEO Satya Nadella and co-founder Bill Gates, who spoke with GeekWire about the anniversary in a prior interview. Ballmer got emotional when asked about Paul Allen, the company’s other co-founder, who died in 2018 at age 65.
“When I think about the things that really made the company, kind of the germs of the ideas that really constituted the early company, I think of Paul,” Ballmer said. “Paul deserves so much credit for what Microsoft is, and without Paul’s genius, without Paul’s push, without Paul’s insight, there’s no Microsoft.”
Steve Wood is the last person standing at during Microsoft@50 at Town Hall after members of the audience were asked how long ago they worked for the company. Wood was the sixth employee at Microsoft, starting as the first general manager in 1978. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Attendees included David Marquardt, Microsoft’s first investor and former board member; Steve Wood, employee No. 6; former Windows chiefs Terry Myerson and Steven Sinofsky; former Office and Windows leader Julie Larson-Green; former Xbox chief Robbie Bach; Microsoft CMO Takeshi Numoto; former Microsoft executive Dee Dee Walsh; RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser; Mary Snapp, VP, strategic initiatives; Jean Paoli, former president of Microsoft Open Technologies; Lili Cheng, VP, conversational AI and research; Sanjay Parthasarathy, former Microsoft VP; Charles Fitzgerald, former GM of platform strategy; Trish Millines Dziko, executive director, Technology Access Foundation; and many more.
Thursday’s event was sponsored by Accenture. Thanks also to gold sponsor We. Communications, and silver sponsors, Microsoft Alumni Network and First Tech Federal Credit Union for helping to make the event possible.
The event also featured the unveiling of a new Innovate State celestial map, showcasing Washington state as an innovation hub. Partnering on this project are Greater Seattle Partners, Microsoft, the Tech Alliance, WTIA and GeekWire.
A display promoting the new Innovate State celestial map in the Town Hall Seattle lobby.
The event drew a protest from roughly 50 people associated with No Azure for Apartheid, a group made up of Microsoft employees and other tech workers who condemn the use of the company’s technologies to support Israel in its ongoing conflict in Gaza. Organizers Abdo Mohamed and Hossam Nasr said they were fired by Microsoft last fall for their pro-Palestinian actions on the company’s Redmond campus.
“The message that we’re leading with today is no tech weapons for genocide,” Mohamed told GeekWire.
Different speakers addressed the crowd outside Town Hall, and protesters blocked traffic in front of the venue. Three people were escorted out of the event after they stood up and protested at different times during the Smith and Ballmer sessions.
Protesters with the group No Azure for Apartheid rally outside the Microsoft@50 event at Town Hall in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
Keep scrolling for more photos from Microsoft@50:
GeekWire co-founders John Cook, left, and Todd Bishop onstage at Microsoft@50 at Town Hall. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Early Microsoft investor David Marquardt, left, with Steve Ballmer and Brad Smith at Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Former Microsoft executives (L-R) David Vaskevitch, Mike Angiulo, Steven Sinofsky and Julie Larson-Green stand during a portion of the program recognizing Microsoft employees of different eras. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, left, chats with Pioneer Square Labs Managing Director T.A. McCann at Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
GeekWire co-founder John Cook chats with University of Washington professor Magdalena Balazinska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair and Director of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Microsoft’s Steve Clayton and Kisja Burgess of We. Communications at Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
With a display of the new Innovate State celestial map are (L-R) Yelena Kalashnikova, Greater Seattle Partners marketing director; Rebecca Lovell, Greater Seattle Partners COO; Holly Grambihler, GeekWire chief sales and marketing officer; and Victoria DePalma, Greater Seattle Partners research manager.
The crowd at Microsoft@50, including Connie Ballmer in white, stands for Steve Ballmer’s entrance. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Steve Ballmer reacts during his chat at Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Steve Wood, standing in front row, who was employee No. 6 at Microsoft, is pictured back row left in an iconic image of the company’s original employees projected during Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
GeekWire Chairman Jonathan Sposato raises a toast to Microsoft at the Microsoft@50 VIP event. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
John Gingrich, Senior Managing Director Communication, Media & Technology at Accenture at Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Accenture Office Managing Director for the Pacific Northwest Gil Wootton, right; Microsoft Vice President of Partner Development for Accenture & Avanade Jason Hermitage, center; and Avanade CEO Rodrigo Caserta at Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Melissa Waggener Zorkin, co-founder and global CEO of We. Communications, onstage at Microsoft@50. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Microsoft@50 attendees grab buttons from the company’s alumni network to show off what era they worked at the company. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
A Microsoft@50 attendee sports her vintage company jacket while leaving Town Hall in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
