Monday, July 13, 2015

Fortune kicks off the Brainstorm Tech conference

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July 13, 2015

Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference starts today in Aspen, and I'll be keeping you informed of key insights that emerge throughout the week. My day starts with a 25-mile morning bike ride, at a pace set by the Type-A executives who attend this annual event. If I survive that, I'll be moderating a discussion between two CEOs who are trying to build/rebuild their companies on the back of the Internet of Things - Flextronics CEO Mike McNamara and Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly.

I mentioned last week the new McKinsey study that predicts the Internet of Things will create as much as $11 trillion of economic value in 2025 - which means it will account for roughly one tenth of global economic output. (One of the authors of that study - Michael Chui - will be on hand in Aspen.) McKinsey says the bigger source of value will be in the business world, where technology will remake the foundations of most large companies. That's the space McNamara wants to play in. But another third will be in connecting consumers - connecting devices in the home, automating home chores, creating self-driving cars, etc. Joly says one-third of an $11 trillion market is plenty big enough for him to play in.

Other participants this week: You Tube CEO Susan Wojcicki, KKR co-CEO Henry Kravis, Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann, the Emanuel brothers Ari & Rahm, Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris, Medium CEO Ev Williams, KPCB General Partner John Doerr, CVS EVP Helena Foulkes, Softbank President Nikesh Arora.

Stay tuned.

Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com

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Today's Fortune CEO Daily was produced by:
John Kell
@johnnerkell 
john.kell@fortune.com
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