There’s a lot to love about Coins2Day Brainstorm Tech, our annual gathering of industry innovators in Aspen. There’s the camaraderie, for one. (The elevation during the morning bike ride to the Maroon Bells will do that to you.) The fantastic program of fireside chats, panels, demonstrations, and roundtable discussions is another. And, of course, there’s the incredible array of Coloradan craft brews on tap all over town. (TGIF, readers.)
But the best part about the conference—which runs from July 16 to 18 this year—are the conversations that happen all over the verdant campus of the Aspen Institute. I love seeing people from different walks of life come together to discuss an idea, often sparked by something they had heard during a session earlier that day. It’s a lot like a great dinner party. It’s also the kind of creativity cocktail that has produced some of the world’s most enduring products, deals, companies, and cultures. And yes, it’s the “brainstorm” in Coins2Day Brainstorm Tech.
In March, we shared the names of 13 luminaries who are joining us this year in Aspen, from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to Amazon’s Toni Reid. Today, we’d like to share a few more.
It’s difficult to imagine today’s always-on world without cloud computing, and central to that conversation is VMware. Its chief executive, Pat Gelsinger, is coming to Aspen. We’ll also have Amazon Web Services vice president Sandy Carter, Box chief product officer Jeetu Patel, and Uptake CEO Brad Keywell, all of whom know a thing or two about the term “digital infrastructure.”
Speaking of which: You can’t power today’s technology without a serious amount of processors. We’re delighted to welcome AMD CEO Lisa Su this year.
We love moonshots in the tech industry, and who better to have a conversation about them than two CEOs who actually deal with outer space? Virgin Orbit’s Dan Hart and Maxar Technologies’ Howard Lance will join us in Aspen. We’ll also host the high-flying Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, Commander of the U.S. Air Force Materiel Command, for a spirited conversation about our military.
There’s always a healthy dose of entrepreneurialism at Brainstorm Tech, and several startup savants will share their know-how at Brainstorm Tech. Investor Katie Rae of Engine.XYZ will join us, as will Trae Vassallo of Defy Partners. We’re also pleased to welcome Susan Siegel, GE’s chief innovation officer, as well as Penny Pritzker, founder and chairman of PSP Partners.
Retail is consistently a hot topic at Brainstorm Tech. Macy’s president Hal Lawton and Stitch Fix CTO Cathy Polinsky will appear in Aspen.
And of all the issues brought forth this year about the tech industry, few are more important than the trust that companies seek from their customers. We’re pleased to welcome Del Harvey, Twitter’s vice president for Trust and Safety, as well as welcome back OpenTable CEO Christa Quarles, whose ideas lit up last year’s inaugural Town Hall on inequality in Silicon Valley.
There are still more to come. In the meantime, a reminder: Brainstorm Tech is an invitation-only event, and you can request an invitation from me or any of my colleagues involved in it: Adam Lashinsky, Michal Lev-Ram, and Leigh Gallagher. We’ll also stream a great deal of the program on Coins2Day.com.