EIA's 2004 Government-Industry Dinner attendees were given a triple crown of entertainment and noteworthy speeches the evening of Tuesday, May 25, thanks to a stellar triumvirate of addresses by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; Ambassador Robert Zoellick, the Bush Administration's United States Trade Representative; and HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, EIA's Medal of Honor Recipient for 2004.

The Dinner -- the centerpiece of the EIA Annual Spring Conference -- attracted a capacity crowd of more than 500, including several government V.I.P.s, 200 officials from a dozen federal agencies, staff members from more than 50 U.S. House of Representatives and Senate Committees and Members' offices, and high-tech leaders from some 75 EIA member companies.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger provided a humorous welcoming greeting via a special taped address. Unable to address his audience in person due to California budget meetings, the Governor nonetheless wished G.I. Dinner attendees a great evening. He also congratulated Carly Fiorina on being named the EIA Medal of Honor Recipient for 2004 and emphasized the importance of high-tech to the Golden State's economy.

In his remarks as the Government Keynote Speaker, Ambassador Zoellick made a strong case for more, not less, international trade, arguing that "a huge expansion in the global economy poses a challenge, but it is also an opportunity. America sends far more services to the world than China or India send to us, and we have a huge trade surplus in services that supports millions of good-paying U.S. jobs. And of course the insource into the United States supports about 6.5 million U.S. jobs."

"The implications of change - in technology, in production networks, in the size of the global market - are profound," Zoellick pointed out. "And in the face of these changes, we cannot trim our sails. To integrate successfully five billion new people - and mostly poor - in the global economy, we're going to have to be bold and ambitious in our agenda to open markets and expand trade, including in agriculture, industrial goods, and services. To keep generating good jobs for Americans here at home, we have to stand firmly against economic isolationists and keep opening markets for America's products and services. To keep pace with rapid technological change, we must safeguard innovation while enabling more people to benefit."

In his presentation of the EIA 2004 Medal of Honor to HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, EIA Board of Governors Chair Ron Turner, the Chairman and CEO of Ceridian said, "Under Carly Fiorina's guidance, HP is showing other businesses and consumers not just what technology enables us to do today, but what technology can enable us to do tomorrow. Her work with HP, as well as with Lucent Technologies and AT&T, has taught high-tech business leaders to not merely expect change, but to embrace it and capitalize on its liberating power as a force for better business, better products, and better progress." The first woman to receive the award in the Alliance's history, Fiorina's name will be added to a distinguished list of recipients spanning more than fifty years. That list includes HP Co-founder David Packard, an EIA Medal of Honor Recipient thirty years ago.

In her acceptance speech, Fiorina made a simple but powerful request of policy makers and government officials in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the U.S. high-tech industry: "Use us more."

"Use us, first, because what we do is increasingly at the center of what every other industry does because we are driving the change that is changing every industry and every economy in the world today," Fiorina said in elaborating on her theme. "Use us because we are at the start of a new century-a new century in which for the first time in human history, every process in the world will be transformed from physical and static and analog to digital, mobile, virtual, and ultimately personal. Use us because this is an industry that is truly engaged globally in every market and every region on earth. And third use us because for years it was easy to assume that just because some people didn't have the same opportunities as everyone else they didn't have the same talent. What this industry I believe is helping to prove is that those ugly assumptions and stigmas are wrong..."

In times as these marked by turmoil and global instability, the critical nature of the U.S. high-tech sector becomes all the more pivotal, according to Fiorina. "What we all do as an industry is essential not just for our country's economic security but for our country's national security as well. If America is the `Indispensable Nation' then this is --all of you represent -- the indispensable industry. What we do together in the next ten years will be crucial I believe to America's ability to succeed in its economic security and vitality as well as its national security."

Fiorina also shared personal experiences that have underscored her belief in the beneficial power of technology to bring people closer. She recalled speaking to a group of young students at the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, and then responding to questions. "I was not prepared for what I got. The first student got up and asked how I balanced work and family. The second student got up and asked if I had ever thought of starting my own business and if so how she by extension should think about starting her own business. The first thought I had when we finished this was that this is precisely the same conversation that I would have had with students in the United States. This is where two decades of engagement, two decades of free trade and exposure to free market capitalism has brought us. These students don't hate America. They do not want to be our enemies. They want to be our partners. For the first time in history a generation of Chinese students can believe for certain that their lives will be better than the lives their parents lived because they are part of the global economy we all share."

Fiorina also noted a trip to India where she met two young women in a rural community who are using HP technology to start their own digital photography businesses. "Now let me ask you a question,"she said. "Do you think these young women believe that America is a great Satan? I don't think so. I don't think these young women want to destroy us. They don't want to be our enemy. Any impulse they had to hate has been overcome by an impulse to hope because they are no longer just on the outside looking in. They are now part of the global economy that we all share-perhaps in a small way to us but in an incredibly significant way to them."

At a recent conference of European Union ministers held in Ireland, Fiorina said it was made clear to her that technology and prosperity are replacing violence and bloodshed in places such as Northern Ireland as well. "I think this is what the critics and the fearmongers miss in the debate over competitiveness and innovation that this organization [EIA] has done so much to define. The more we engage the rest of the world, the more we can use the wealth and power of this country and the enabling and empowering capabilities of this industry to empower and enable people all over the world, the more we build a world in which we have fewer enemies and more friends. In the process we not only of course create a more prosperous world that can buy our products, we create a more secure world for us all."

Alluding to U.S. economic anxieties brought on by global trade, Fiorina said the U.S. must act now and embrace competition. "If we make the choices necessary to sustain our own competitiveness as a nation, if we make the choices necessary to sustain our own leadership as a nation, then we should not fear or have to protect ourselves against the employment of Indians or Chinese or Iraqis some day. We should welcome it. We should welcome it because when these nations have a stake in our success as we have a stake in their success, we all win."

Click here to obtain a copy of Carly Fiorina's "Use Us More" speech from HP's website.