Bill Gates, Jerry Yang, Mark Zuckerberg to Speak at Sixth Annual "D: ALL THINGS DIGITAL" Conference

Bill Gates, Jerry Yang, Mark Zuckerberg to Speak at Sixth Annual “D: ALL THINGS DIGITAL” Conference

NEW YORK.— The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference, an annual gathering of the leaders of the digital revolution, will convene technology and media heavyweights for lively, unscripted interviews on May 27-29 near San Diego, Calif.

Conference creators and executive producers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher will put the industry’s top players to the test, during informal but pointed conversations about the impact digital technology has on consumers’ lives and businesses’ bottom lines.

Tuesday’s opening session includes a special joint appearance by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer, who will share the stage for an in-depth interview just weeks before Mr. Gates steps down from his day-to-day role at the company. In addition Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will appear on Thursday.

Further joint sessions include Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and president Susan Decker. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, will appear with recently named COO Sheryl Sandberg. Other top industry figures that will speak at D6 include:

* Jeff Bewkes, president and CEO, Time Warner
* Jeff Bezos, chairman and CEO, Amazon.com
* Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell
* Barry Diller, chairman and CEO, IAC
* Tom Glocer, CEO, Thomson Reuters
* Robert Kotick, chairman and CEO, Activision, Inc.
* Kevin Martin, chairman, Federal Communications Commission
* Lowell McAdam, president and CEO, Verizon Wireless
* Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO, News Corporation
* Nathan Myhrvold, CEO, Intellectual Ventures
* Tom Rogers, president and CEO, TiVo
* Howard Stringer, chairman and CEO, Sony

The event is sold out, but it’s still possible to submit text and video questions to D6 speakers at http://allthingsd.com/d/ask-a-question/. If selected, the question will be asked “live” and onstage by Walt and Kara.

Ongoing conference coverage, photos, demos and video will be available at www.allthingsd.com with live blogging by John Paczkowski, senior news editor and author of the site’s popular “Digital Daily.” Highlights from last year’s conference, including video of the historic joint appearance by Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, are currently available at http://d5.allthingsd.com/.

D6 is sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, Houlihan Lokey, IDA Ireland, Intel, Kodak, NYSE Euronext, Qualcomm, Steelcase and Thomson Reuters. Production partners include CDW, OneStop Media, Penfolds Wine, Real Networks, Skyy Spirits and SmugMug.