Microsoft chairman parties hard at Sundance Film Festival

Paul McDougall, Editor At Large, InformationWeek

January 27, 2010

2 Min Read

He's no threat to Shakira or even Ellen DeGeneres, but Bill Gates showed he's got a few moves of his own.

Microsoft's normally mild-mannered chairman was getting down (and, presumably, back up again) at a Sundance Film Festival after-party sponsored by his company's Bing search engine.

Photos of the event published Wednesday in the New York Post show Gates grooving amongst a bevy of admiring, female party goers and busting "a sort of poor man's Jersey Shore fist pump," according to an observer.

Among his fellow partiers were actress Elisabeth Shue and her husband, "Waiting for Superman" director Davis Guggenheim.

Gates, the world's richest man, also tipped a waitress $500, according to one report.

Gates was in a decidedly more somber mood when he published the annual letter from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation earlier this week.

"If we project what the world will be like 10 years from now without innovation in health, education, energy, or food, the picture is quite bleak," said Gates.

"Health costs for the rich will escalate, forcing tough trade-offs and keeping the poor stuck in the bad situation they are in today," Gates wrote.

Gates added that stalled innovation could ultimately lead to a hotter planet where food and energy are in short supply.

"We will have to increase the price of energy to reduce consumption, and the poor will suffer from both this higher cost and the effects of climate change. In food we will have big shortages because we won't have enough land to feed the world's growing population and supports its richer diet," said Gates.

But Gates said the all this bleakness can be avoided if enough money is spent developing technological and social innovations that add efficiency to agriculture, medicine, education, and other key fields.

"Rich governments need to spend more on research and development," said Gates. Maybe they also need to dance more.

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About the Author(s)

Paul McDougall

Editor At Large, InformationWeek

Paul McDougall is a former editor for InformationWeek.

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