He is the world's wealthiest man, the visionary who built the world's largest software company and helped usher in the modern digital age. His business tactics have been criticized as anti-competition and ruthless, his management style aggressive and confrontational. On the other hand, his charitable works have made him the greatest philanthropist in history.

Who would have thought such a giant of Corporate America would deliver a speech that was so boring?

I was among the 2,300 people who headed to the National Arts Centre last week to hear Microsoft Corp. founder and chairman Bill Gates speak. It was only the first of several appearances he would make that day in the nation's capital, but first impressions, so it's said, matter most.

I can't say I sat down with any expectations other than that his talk would focus on the burning issues that pertain to Canada's competitive edge in the knowledge-based economy, such as looming talent shortages and offshore competition. Those topics, it turned out, were being reserved for another talk later in the day as part of Microsoft Canada's annual CAN-WIN 2007 conference.

What the audience at the NAC got that morning was a recap of where we've gone in the past decade and how far we're likely to go in the next as Web 2.0 pervades our lives at work and play. It was a talk, frankly, that any mid-level marketing type from Microsoft could have provided, likely with more flair and showmanship. The icebreaker came when Mr. Gates suffered a hardware failure with his lapel mike and OCRI chief Jeffrey Dale had to run him a new one.

Perhaps the issue here isn't Mr. Gates himself, but the subject matter. This was an audience of biz-savvy high tech professionals, yet his presentation was more suited to the general consumer with a strong knowledge of technology. In other words, geeks. And maybe that was the common ground he was looking for, the inner geek in all of us that gets a thrill from some new gadget or killer app that does what could never be done before. It's the "wow factor" concept that Microsoft has worked into its advertising campaign for the new Vista operating system.

As a consumer, I can't say I feel that thrill very often. Granted, I'm not a geek. As a teen in the '80s, the mere thought of the electronic gadgets we have today would have given me shivers of delight. But somewhere along the line, my sense of "wow" faded. These days, when I discover some new technology, I'll say, "Humph! That's cool," and move on to something else. At some point after science fiction becomes fact, fact is taken for granted. The other day I bought a $10 USB memory stick for my PC. At 64 megabytes it's the low end of mobile storage. Yet its memory capacity is the equivalent of about 46 floppy disks. Not so long ago we would have considered such a thing to be manna from Heaven. Now it's a basic tool regarded in much the same way as a ballpoint pen or a paper clip.

For those of us in orbit of the technology industry, Mr. Gates' speech was little more than a recap of the same things we've heard over and over again. We've been told for years how fantastic the opportunities are with the World Wide Web, been teased and tempted since the mid '90s with the idea of virtually everything at our fingertips in a virtual world. After that little hiccup with the telecom industry a few years back, the future is finally here. But having lived with the promise and the idea for so long, the reality is somewhat anticlimactic.

Without a doubt, marvellous things have been accomplished in the past few years. I just can't get myself to be that excited about it, even when I'm hearing it all put into context by someone of Mr. Gates' stature. Perhaps it's because the "wow" factor I'm waiting for involves the kind of technological advances that will help solve the socio-political and environmental crises that face our world today — advances that are actually embraced and applied by global leaders to produce results. That's much more interesting than iPods, Xboxes and virtual maps that reproduce my neighbourhood down to the potholes. (Yes, I know Mr. Gates also made a funding announcement that day involving AIDS research.) For the technology crowd at the NAC that morning, maybe the focus of his speech should have been on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its efforts to help ease the suffering of the developing world through the wise use of technology. Put things in perspective and emphasize what's really important, especially for the hundreds of students that were in his audience. That's the kind of thing that's wow worthy.