A.T. Kearney Inaugurates Silicon Valley Thought Leaders Series with Discussion on Internet of Things

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 30, global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney will host 130 senior executives from across the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem to discuss future vision and key trends in the rapidly evolving landscape of IoT. This invitation-only event titled "Internet of Things 2020: A Glimpse into the Future" is part of the firm's Silicon Valley Thought Leaders Series that brings together inspirational leaders, thinkers, entrepreneurs, and executives from the Bay Area to engage in interactive dialogue on the challenges and opportunities facing business and industry.

"The potential of IoT is enormous, as is its ability to disrupt. IoT promises to increase productivity, improve utilization of critical resources, and enable new business models across business, consumer, and public sector markets. It will also stress and even displace some of the existing players and will create new industries," notes Mark Holman, partner with A.T. Kearney's Communications, Media & Technology Practice and head of the firm's San Francisco and Palo Alto offices.

Lionel Chocron, Vice President, Product Strategy and Management – Internet of Things Group, Cisco Systems, and Nagraj Kashyap, Senior Vice President, Ventures & Innovation, Qualcomm Technologies, will join A.T. Kearney in a panel discussion and share their perspectives on key questions that industry leaders are grappling with. Which industries and sectors will be the early adopters? What are the critical barriers to realizing IoT potential? What unique high potential applications and services are on the horizon? And what will be the biggest disruptors? The panel discussion will be moderated by Mark Holman.

Alex Blanter, A.T. Kearney partner and an innovation and product development expert, notes, "The level of interest in IoT is growing rapidly—in the last year alone we have seen a threefold to fivefold increase in conversations among businesses and across social media." This is not surprising given that IoT-related revenues are expected to reach $350 billion annually by 2020, while the overall impact to the economy will be at least 10 times as much. Adds, Mr. Blanter, "The interesting questions are where these additional revenues will come from and how quickly IoT will deliver on its promise. Our view is that 70 percent of the revenues will come from new applications and services, many yet to be invented, and it will take another four to six years for the value of IoT to start catching up to its promise."

Registration for tonight's event is now closed but you can follow it live on Twitter using #IoT2020. Visit www.atkearney.com/svtls for more details.

About A.T. Kearney

A.T. Kearney is a global team of forward-thinking partners that delivers immediate impact and growing advantage for its clients. We are passionate problem solvers who excel in collaborating across borders to co-create and realize elegantly simple, practical, and sustainable results. Since 1926, we have been trusted advisors on the most mission-critical issues to the world's leading organizations across all major industries and service sectors. A.T. Kearney has 59 offices located in major business centers across 40 countries.

To learn more about A.T. Kearney, please visit http://www.atkearney.com.  

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