21st Century IR

Starting today and through Saturday, we are attending The World Money Show in Orlando, Florida - one of several annual conferences that provide a venue for individual investors to learn more about best practices of investing and financial planning. This year, The World Money Show will feature more than 300 workshops and 150 speakers with an opportunity to hear leading experts talk about the global economy, investments and personal finance.  It is a great way for you to learn via panels and workshops in addition to interacting with company representatives and investor relations professionals.

So why are we attending this event? Individual investors own roughly 20% of Dell and this is one of many opportunities for us to meet directly with you - our current and potential shareholders. We are fully committed to our retail shareholder program and believe it is especially important during times of economic uncertainty and market volatility to reinforce the face-to-face relationship we have with our individual investors.  

Prior to this event, we also attended three individual investor conferences last year - The World Money Show Orlando in February, The Better Investing National Convention in Schaumburg in June and the Money Show in Washington DC in November.   We will also be attending The Better Investing National Convention in Atlanta in June of 2009. 

At this event, we will be at booth #303 in the Exhibit Hall of the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida, today through Saturday. We hope you will stop by and check out our booth!

Starting today and through this weekend, we are attending The Money Show in Washington D.C. - one of several annual conferences that is set up as a means for individual investors to learn best practices for investing and more about financial planning. It is a good way to educate yourself via panels and workshop in addition to interacting with company representatives and investor relations professionals.

When we started the DellShares blog a year ago, one of our objectives was to foster more interaction with current and potential investors. We believe it is especially important during times of economic uncertainty and market volatility to  reinforce the face-to-face relationship we have with our investors. This is why we are attending The Money Show Washington D.C. and have attended two other individual investor conferences this year - The World Money Show Orlando in February and The Better Investing National Convention in Chicago in June. 

Individual investors own roughly 20% of Dell and this is one of many opportunities for us to be involved in direct relationships with you. If you are a current shareholder, we also encourage you to come visit us and be part of the conversation at our Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

We will be at booth #505 in the Exhibit Hall of the Wardman Park Marriott in Washington D.C. today through Sunday. We hope you will stop by and say hello!

Starting today and through this weekend, we are attending the Better Investing National Convention in Schaumburg, Illinois - one of several conferences from the National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC) that cater to individual investors.  The conference is set up as a means for individual investors to learn best practices for investing and more about financial planning.  The conference hosts classes, seminars and conversations with investor relations professionals from exhibitors and corporate sponsors.

So why are we there you ask?  Individual investors own roughly 20% of Dell and this is one of many opportunities for us to be involved in direct relationships with you, our current and potential shareholders.  This conference is yet another way to interact with company representatives, educate yourself and become informed and knowledgeable about us and other companies.  We will also be attending other conferences such as the Money Show in Washington DC, November 6-8, 2008 and The World Money Show in Orlando, FL, February 4-7, 2009.  Moreover, we look forward to seeing our stockholders at the 2008 Annual Meeting of Stockholders that will take place on July 18^th here in Austin, Texas. 

We'll be at the Renaissance Hotel in Schaumburg, Illinois. Come see us at booth #214 - we hope to see you there.

In preparation of our upcoming Annual Meeting of Stockholders on July 18^th in Austin, we filed our proxy documents this week and began mailing ‘notice’ to shareholders.  In the past, we mailed shareholders paper documents, including an annual report, proxy statement and voting instructions.  As a result of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission e-proxy rule, public companies are now allowed to provide their proxy materials over the Internet, which is commonly referred to as ‘notice and access.’

Why are we blogging about it now?  It’s a big change and we wanted to make the transition as easy as possible.  We filed our proxy statement on Monday, June 2^nd and will begin mailing ‘notices’ to you this Friday, June 6^th.  Once you receive your notice in the mail, you can access the voting page online, where you will find:  the proxy statement, our annual report on form10-K, a link to our 2008 interactive year-in-review website and information on the time and location of our annual meeting of stockholders.

Proxy voting is an important means by which you as an investor can have a say in the business operations and activities of Dell.  Whether you plan to attend our annual meeting on July 18^th or not, we value your opinion and your vote.  Shareholder feedback enables us to serve you better.  We’re listening.

HBS Professor, Nitin Nohria once said "communication is the real work of leadership."  This has never been more true at Dell than right now.  We launched DellShares with a commitment to reach out to our institutional and retail investors to discuss items relevant to our strategy, our financial results, and progress on our initiatives.  An important part of this progress is communicating Dell's commitment to sustainability. 

As we write our 2008 annual sustainability report and reflect on our progress, we want to reach out to all stakeholders, and in particular socially responsible investors.  SRI funds now represent over 10% of the $25 trillion U.S. equity market, and this trend is only growing.  Through DellShares, we hope you will join us for a quarterly dialogue on Dell's progress on corporate governance, environment responsibility or community engagement - these are topics of interest to all of us.

Sustainability is a multi-year journey for us so it is difficult to capture everything we do in one report.  Many of our programs go back five years or more and are only now coming to fruition.  However, we believe communication is the key - through DellShares we'll address a different topic every quarter.  This quarter we'll focus on Dell's environmental responsibility efforts.

Dell started with a focus on the Environment.  In fact, our first "Sustainability Report" in 1998 was really an "Environment Report."  Because the environment is most closely tied to our core business, it is where we have made the most public commitments.  Michael pledged last year that we would be carbon neutral by the end of 2008 and that Dell would be the "Greenest Technology Company on the Planet." 

Those are big commitments, but they were not new.  We had been working towards those for years.  Our products met lead-free requirements ahead of legislation and we are currently working on removing remaining traces of non-regulated BFRs and PVCs.  We are a leader in global product recovery and recycling.  Our products deliver maximum performance per watt.  Our catalogs had over 50% post consumer recycled content and we reduced customer waste by redesigning our product packaging. 

We also publically report our Greenhouse Gas emissions, lead our industry in operational efficiency, are committed to carbon neutrality and have recently announced that our corporate offices in Round Rock, Texas will be supported by 100% renewable energy.  Dell also reports on our waste that is being recycled, reused and landfilled.  In fact, we currently recycle over 94% of our own waste from manufacturing with public a goal to avoid 99% by 2012. 

In fiscal 2008, we launched ReGeneration.org, a global community of people who are concerned about the environment.  This site provides a place to network and learn about ways to reduce your impact on the environment.  We invite you to join the ReGeneration!

The leadership for initiatives like these start from the top at Dell.  We have a Sustainability Council that includes Michael as well as representation from Finance, Legal, Procurement, Marketing, Sales, Investor Relations, HR, Engineering and other groups.  The Sustainability Councils reports progress and results to the Governance and Nominating Committee of the Board of Directors, who in turn, share their council.  This direct engagement enables progress across all areas of sustainable business practices. 

These are a small portion of achievements we have covered in our Sustainability report.  I encourage you to read our 2007 Sustainability report for more details and look for our 2008 Sustainability report coming in Q2.  We look forward to your comments, and we hope this becomes fruitful dialogue.