Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaks at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg as Mark Warner looks on.

People line the sidewalk Thursday to see Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt speak at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg. He was joined in the discussion by former Gov. Mark Warner.

Eric Schmidt and Mark Warner (right) joke backstage before they spoke about technology at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg.

BLACKSBURG -- The chief executive officer of Google brought a message of hope to Blacksburg on Thursday, saying entrepreneurs in rural communities can do business across the globe through the miracle of technology -- but only if they and their communities stay committed to it.

Eric Schmidt shared a stage with former Gov. Mark Warner to discuss hot-button issues and his search-engine company, whose shares fell below $400 during the recent Wall Street turmoil but which remains hugely profitable.

Warner, who is campaigning for U.S. Senate, introduced Schmidt as "a good friend of mine."

Before he was the head of Novell Inc. and then Google, Schmidt spent part of his childhood in Blacksburg.

While in town he chatted with his former next-door neighbor, retired Virginia Tech president Paul Torgersen, and other familiar faces who have not seen Schmidt at a major campus appearance since he gave a commencement speech during the 1990s.

Schmidt recalled riding his bike to the Lyric Theatre to see movies. "I owe a great debt to growing up in a small town with great values," he said.

Schmidt returned to the Lyric with Warner, and the two 53-year-old men seemed chummy as they sat on stools to discuss technology in a town hall-style meeting.

Dozens of people lined College Avenue more than an hour before the doors opened. Even more were turned away when the 11:30 a.m. event started.

Schmidt said he admired Warner in part because Warner was the first governor to visit Google. Warner, a Democrat, is running against another former governor, Republican Jim Gilmore, for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated after 30 years by Republican Sen. John Warner, no relation.

Schmidt is stepping out as a campaigner on the national stage for the first time, endorsing Barack Obama this week.

In an interview, he said he is not interested in working in Washington if the Illinois senator is elected president, though the two have discussed Schmidt advising an Obama administration on technology matters.

Obama has said he might create a post called secretary of technology. "I have said no," Schmidt said.

Schmidt touched on a range of subjects ranging from policy issues to what sounded like a boiled-down mission statement for Google, the search-engine provider that earned $4.2 billion on revenue of $16.6 billion last year.

"Our role is basically to get information to everybody in the world," he said. "Life is very different when you can get an accurate answer to every question."

The question that crossed many minds was asked by moderator Cory Donovan, who directs the NewVa Corridor Technology Council: What are the prospects for Google someday locating a facility in Southwest Virginia?

Schmidt said Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., relies heavily on data facilities in Virginia, the details of which he said he would not divulge. "We're actually already here in a big way," Schmidt said.

He said advancing communications technology makes it possible for individuals to enjoy the high quality of life of a small community while owning or working for a business or organization with a global reach.

But not every rural community has become as prosperous as Blacksburg, which had an advantage of being wired to the Web early on, he said.

Some rural areas are experiencing job loss and facing conditions that suggest a return to historic farming roots, Schmidt said.

How, then, does such a rural area grab some of the tech action?

"The fundamental challenge in rural areas is you have to have enough people and enough communications and enough education to make that happen," he said.

Warner said he has long thought that, in the information age, no one would have to leave their home community for a good job.

That has not proved true in all rural areas, but the decision of Northrop Grumman to place a data center and CGI to place a software engineering center in Russell County illustrates "what can happen when we get this information age right."

Those operations employ 870 people, according to Russell County Administrator Jim Gillespie, at what Warner called attractive wages.

While optimism about technology dominated most of the joint appearance, both speakers turned bleak on one subject: how to fund advanced rail passenger service.

"There's not a full answer," Warner said.

"We may not be alive at the time all that stuff gets worked out," Schmidt said, calling for society to tackle the problems like energy dependence that it can tackle.

Schmidt said vast opportunities for energy progress lie in putting solar projects in the southwestern United States, wind farms in Nebraska and Texas, and tapping Virginia's "enhanced geothermal resources not being used today."

He urged every company leader in the audience to immediately find ways to reduce company energy usage.

Schmidt said his company's directors of facilities acted more slowly than he would have liked to chase efficiency but are on top of it now.