Table for 14

Thursday night on the Peninsula the president of the United States sat around a dinner table in the home of John and Ann Doerr. Their dining room hosted 14 very rich and very powerful people.

The president sat in between a turtle neck-wearing (and very much alive) Steve Jobs and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. A man worth more than the rest of the table combined, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, sat directly across from them.

The evening's hosts, the Doers, sat at the ends of the table and were among the uber-rich in attendance who count their money in the billions and not the millions.

And the rest of the folks, well they filled out what has to be considered a dinner party for the ages.

The fact that the dinner happened in the heart of Silicon Valley speaks volumes about the importance of our region in the economic recovery of the country.

As for the dinner conversation, it was kept mostly under wraps. Even the pool reporter was kept in the Doerr's garage where he quipped, "We don't know if Zuckerberg was in hoodie and flip-flops but pooler likes to think that was the case." That, in fact, turned out to be wrong. From the White House Flickr photo, we can tell you that Zuckerberg left the hoodie at home. He was clearly in a white collared shirt, with a jacket covering his dining room chair.

The only official word of what was said came from the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney:

"The President joined twelve leaders from technology companies to discuss ways to work together to invest in American innovation and promote private sector job growth. In the President’s State of the Union Address, he called on us to win the future by out-innovating and out-educating the rest of the world and increasing American competitiveness. The President believes that American companies like these have been leading by investing in the creativity and ingenuity of the American people, creating cutting-edge new technologies and promoting new ways to communicate. The President specifically discussed his proposals to invest in research and development and expand incentives for companies to grow and hire, along with his goal of doubling exports over five years to support millions of American jobs. The group also discussed the importance of new investments in education and the new White House initiative Startup America, a partnership with the private sector aimed at supporting new startups and small businesses. The President expressed his desire to continue a dialogue with the group to share new ideas so we can work as partners to promote growth and create good jobs in the United States."

The president arrived a little after 6 p.m. His motorcade hit the road by 9 p.m. sharp ending what has to be one of the most elite dinner party's in Bay Area history.