Prime Minister Tony Blair toured the world headquarters of Cisco Systems, lunching with some of the most vaunted bigwigs of Silicon Valley , an Associated Press report said.
"I'm here today in listening mode "&brkbar; as long as you treat me as ignorant," Blair, quoted in the Associated Press report, said to CEOs, scientists and other technocrats who engaged him in a question-and-answer session that lasted about an hour.
Blair's company during the visit, the Bay Area's first by a sitting British prime minister, included Cisco president and CEO John Chambers, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and Internet pioneer and Google VP Vinton Cerf, the report said.
The report also said Blair, calling Silicon Valley "one of the most dynamic areas in the world," peppered executives with questions about how the region's educational and corporate cultures fostered entrepreneurism.
Chambers, who met Blair seven years ago and helped organize the two-hour trade mission to Cisco, said they also discussed climate control, the state of public education and how industrialized nations such as the US and England could effectively compete against low-cost countries such as India and China, the report said.