In the world. It takes place in las vegas. Where else . Gadgets and electronics and razzmatazz, it is the highlight of the year in technology. The next ces is just weeks away. Now, the most important events at ces are the keynotes. Major product announcements, diverse gadgets. But in past years, not very diverse speakers. Not diverse at all. You saw it in the headline, the top keynote speakers are all men. Flagship tech conference ces faces backlash for all male keynote speaker lineup noted nbc news. So next year you think the conference will be a bit more woke, but alarm clocks were not a gathet that year either. The headlines for the second year in a row, ces wont feature any female keynote speakers. Ces got its act together, not without a bit of painful reflection and one of the People Holding up the mirror was tiffany moore, she is Vice President of the Consumer Technology association, the Organization Behind ces. She joins us this morning with a preview. Joined by Jennifer Elias of cnbc. Youve been very upfront about this, this was an enormous mistake that needed to be fixed. Youre not going to be evasive about any of this. This was a huge mistake. No question. One of the things that we did realize is that we needed to be a little bit more upfront about what were doing, the importance of the keynote, and the broader kind of ces session. There is a lot of focus on the keynotes and were excited this year, upcoming year will have linda yakarino keynoting and meg whitman, so we will have incredible speakers on our keynote stage but thats just one part of ces. I think in ces 2019 we had more than a thousand speaker and if you look at the makeup of those speakers, a fourth of a third of those speakers were women, and thats been increased from the previous ces of about a fourth. We also always focus on constant improvement, how to make sure there are more women and people of color on all of our stages, the conferences, the sessions, also the keynote. We heard from lots of people within the industry, and we want to be our best self and we as part of the Tech Industry, we deserve it, we need it, especially for innovation to flourish. What was taken so long . This isnt something that has come up in the past year. People complained about the diversity and the keynote. Is there some kind of moment you just had a lightbulb moment or a turning point . I wouldnt say a turning point this is something always been important to the Consumer Technology association. But we need the industry to develop nor women and people of color as ceos. I was looking at a looking a list and most of the tech women ceos have been on our stages. We need to produce more women and people of color in the c suite and thats why our Conference Program provides that platform for the next level executive who wants to participate in ces, who wants to talk about Cutting Edge Technology before they get to the keynote stage. What role if any did ces play in developing those people and given that stage, what im hearing is the pipeline problem, right . And this is being talked about a lot in diversity and inclusion discussions, it is this notion that there arent enough candidates for this position because theyre not coming up from within. The pushback on that has been, well, you got to do something to bring those people up and bring those people in. And so what do you feel the role of ces is, for example, taking some of the people who are in the other speaking roles that serve a third of roles who are women and bringing them up on the big stage and helping them get there. One important thing about the keynote is that organizations are the ones that decide the keynote at ces and those organizations and companies decide who to put on the ces stage. Your point is valid. One thing we can talk about ces as a show and cta, the Consumer Technology association, as the organization, from the ces side, we have been very intentional about our ces conference Advisory Board about who is on that board and making sure were minding the best talent that the Tech Industry offers. If you look at that lineup, that will be representative of the folks you see on our stage. When it comes to Consumer Technology association, we are a trade association that represents more in 2,000 companies and were working on the internal work that Companies Need to do. We represent about 2,000 companies but 80 of them are small businesses. So with large companies, and small companies, we he developed and launched our diversity and inclusive working group. As we talk about pipeline issues, k through 12, making sure youre finding best talent and keeping the best talent within your companies, pardon me, also making sure that were finding more on ramps for people of color and women into tech and doesnt have to be a traditional kind of i went to m. I. T. There are so many different i was and one thing we do at cta, we launched the Apprenticeship Coalition at ces 2019 because there are so many people that want to get into tech and does it doesnt have to be the traditional route with a four year. The keynotes are created by so it might be intel and nvidia and samsung and what not. Im not accusing those companies of anything, but if you got to the point where you noticed that there was no diversity in these companies and their keynotes, even though it is their right to choose their keynote speakers, im assuming you would step in and say were not doing that again. Our goal is to be additive. We talked to our companies and companies that decide to keynote, were in constant kosks with th conversation with them. Were excited were going to have meg whitman and secretary of transportation elaine cho on our keynote stage. We think it is one thing that happened at ces, intel talked about the importance of diversity and inclusion and we thought that was an important conversation to have. Take a step back for me and describe ces to someone who has not been there, the elevator pitch for ces. What does it look like . What does it look like . What does it feel like . It is feels energetic, it feels exciting, it feels hopeful, it feels that technology is truly going to make positive changes in the world. Thats what it feels like. And the energy when you walk into any of any of the halls at ces, eureka park, more than a thousand startups, if you think about, you have bit companies at the show he case and huge kind of platforms and space at ces and then startups with small booths and theyre trying to get Venture Capital and exposure and to see that excitement and thats one reason why were excited to make sure were also investing in a diverse ecosystem, we dont want to make we want to make sure we dont miss out on the next new technology, because that will get funding. I think youre aware at ces 20y shapiro, our president and ceo announced we would invest 10 million in venture firms on funds that invest on we made some announcements about some of the venture firms that were investing in. We think thats important, important part of the broader strategy of building diversity and inclusion. The showroom level, when you go in, and aside from the keynote, it is still largely men and then only until recently were there these you would call booth babes, women there to show off for theyhese companies. What sort of practically are you putting into place for efforts Going Forward around that . I think overall we want to make sure that ces and your experience and when you come to ces is welcoming. And it is something that people want to be there, that you feel comfortable at ces. If you think of some of the things we did in the past year, we have a code of conduct that focuses on how people act at ces and whether it is the exhibitor or attendees. We have a dress code. It is a business event. You should come business casual. For those that dont abide by that dress code, there are sanctions and make sure we have opportunities for people to report on that. I thought about explaining booth babe to the viewers, but i think thats descriptive and i think people will understand. What is the thing youre most excited about, what is the gadget or the development oskin pick a favorite, but the thing. What is the thing . Continuing the thing, i would say the conversations that happen at ces. There are a couple of new things for ces 2020. Were partnering with the world bank to address issues of health and gender equality, and resilien resilience. Also debuting our innovation for all programming that is focused on diversity. Those are new programming that well have, in addition to the new technologies and innovations. Tiffany moore, Vice President of cta, which runs ces. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me. Up next, a guest who drones when we come back. Welcome back to press here. Ive been thinking about it, and there are sort of three areas of drones. The first era was this. And for some people that was their first and last experience with drones. Then manufacturers started adding in software that helped drones avoid obstacles. So lets call that the second era. The third era is the selfpiloting drone, not only does it not hit anything, it takes the task away from people altogether. After all, the point of this video is the bicyclists skill not flying the drone. The drone is manufactured by sky bo, built in the usa. Video from the Manufacturing Center in silicon valley. Adam bree is the ceo, past worked with the u. S. Air force and on googles project wing drone system. Thanks for being with us this morning. Thank you for having me. So have you solved this never 100 , but what percentage have you solved that this thing isnt just going to end up in a tree . Our big goal is to deliver what we call trustworthy autonomy and thats a challenging bar, but the goal is to get to the point where you can trust the drone to perform a useful task on its own without a person needing to Pay Attention to it. We think thats the thing that really opens up the most exciting and valuable use cases, and i think were there. This is a really compelling product that brings together years of r d, starting with our time as grad students at m. I. T. , and i think it is an exciting time for the industry that a lot of things that people managed over the last five or six years are now starting to become possible. It takes the the whole point of a drone, we used to think of them as flying things, really theyre just cameras. Cameras that can get really cool camera angles. That open s it up to more people, who dont want to fly something. I think the baseline capability across the majority of applications is essentially a flying sensor platform. The promise of what drones can do is being able to put a camera or a sensor of choice at anywhere in space and at any point in time without a person needing to be there holding it. That capability is very general, and very powerful across a bunch of Different Industries and applications. Sure. Pictures enimagery is so pivotal to the success of this drone, how do you overcome issues like privacy where people are increasingly, you know, worrisome of sensors and being caught on camera without their permission . I think it is an important issue for the industry. I think were generally headed toward a world where there is more sensors all over the place, all the time, whether theyre flying or not. And at least with where the industry is today, i think that privacy, like, somebody flying a drone, good chance youll know its there. Drones make noise, theyre visible, and i dont think that with the state of Technology Today there is enormous privacy concerns, though there are reasonable things others i think as the Technology Gets smaller and lighter, more of those things will come into play and i think it is something that every manufacturer needs to think about encouraging responsible use of their product, a lot of Product Design decisions that go into that, and also as an industry and from a policy perspective we need to think about and address. Why are you making these in america . So were making them in america because we think thats the best way to get the best product to market with the highest quality as quickly as possible. One interesting things about drones is it is really a cutting edge piece of aerospace of consumer electronics, thermals and propulsions and batteries and a bunch of ai software and all that technical complexity results in a fair amount of manufacturing complexity. And if you look at most aerospace companies, theyre vertically integrated, do the manufacturing themselves because of that coupling. And i think a lot of successful Drone Companies are seeing the same things. Not the kind of thing you go to a contract manufacturer and say put the Circuit Board in this box and it will work. We have our manufacturing facility in red wood city, california, it is really close to our engineering across the street, so if there is any issue, we can get over there and fix it and make things work. And it enables us to develop really good products really quickly and hit a really high Quality Standard and i think that, you know, this is an important issue at the National Level now. People started to realize that these devices that kind of look like consumer toys carry Technology Critical for National Security and i still think were early in realizing how important it is going to be. And i think it is generally important as a nation, i believe, we have this capability in the u. S. Number one, how much of the components or the supply chain are you able to trust now. How many of these chips do you know where theyre coming from and what theyll do and you know where theyll send the data and then number two, how is that going to play into the government contracts that you might want to try to procure with this. I realize this is consumer oriented, but there is a lot of potential Government Applications from everything from, you know, utilities using it to map out where the power lines are broken more quickly or in the case of the bay area, make sure everything is okay, before theyre turned back on. To potential military politics or Law Enforcement politicians. How trusted is the supply chain so far, down to the components and is that going to open up opportunities for you in Government Contracting . So were actually working with the dod now on this product and related products, again, because we think thats an important use of the technology, and, i would say so you can sort of think of this from a value chain standpoint. All this software we write ourselves, at our headquarters in red wood city, one way down from that, all the chips. The processors come from qualcomm and nvidia, ti, st and you start getting into plastics, motors, protellers, things like that, the commodity stuff, and not all that stuff is sourced from the u. S. There is no sort of key proprietary technology that we couldnt get in the u. S. , but there is a cost spectrum. You say working with the dod, what would they do with that . The basic capability and it is not just the dod, also first responders, the basic capability that drones offer is being able to keep a person out of harms way. Want to know what is happening in a potentially dangerous situation, whether a fire, explosion, or enemy combatant and you want to know he what is happening without putting a person in harms way, use a drone to do that. You are actively working with the department of defense yeah, were engaged on a couple of military contracts now. Is the notion going to be a soldier has this in their back pocket and instead of peeking over the next wall, theyll toss this thing up and watch it on a device . Yeah, exactly. One of the programs were involved with is called Army Short Range Reconnaissance program, and it is what it sounds like. The case you just described. Whether it is a hill, a kilometer away or seeing what is on the other side of the building, being able to get Situational Awareness without putting a person into harms way is a pretty general and pretty useful capability. Any technological ways to truncate that into we think of it in one context, soldier in a foreign battlefield, what about, you know, Police Officer in theyre doing it now, yeah. So we also have a number of police and Fire Departments that have bought sky bo 2 and are using it for similar kinds of stuff. Yeah. Let me squeeze in one last question about drone delivery. You were on google wing, project wing for a while, how realistic is it . Look, theyre bringing burritos to everyone. How realistic is that . And how far away do you think it is . It depends on what youre talking about delivering. Burritos, of course. I think the burrito to your backyard is still a ways away. The problem is that ties together all of the hard problems in space, in order to make that work, i think Something Like our technology is a key piece of that. Your need to be able to fly in unstructured environments, avoid obstacles, react to the world around you. Unlike our system, which weighs a couple pounds, if youre carrying food that weighs two pounds, youre talking about a Northern California burrito. A 20 pound vehicle, where something goes wrong, there is really high consequences. And beyond that the noise is higher. It is not impossible, but i think that the sort of cartoon vision of delivery where stuff is showing up in your backyard is still a ways away. Having said that, there is exciting valuable stuff happening. Zip line that is delivering medical goods in other parts of the world and they have done an excellent job of picking at use case where there is really high value, saving a human life every time you fly and a much simpler navigational problem, more control over the air space, dont have to get to the ground. I think that were going to start there and incrementally build out. Adam brie is the ceo of sky bo, we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you. The latest on the leadership changes at google when press here continues. Welcome back to press here. Steven with reuters and jennifer with cnbc. Youve been covering google very closely. There is a change at the leadership that happened very recently. Tell me about what happened and why we care. So the change was that googles founders which were the ceo and president respectively stepped down from their positions and their formal title as president and ceo. Theyre still not only changed in terms of operations and day to day. Still the largest share holders. Still the largest shareholders, still on the board. And they were pulling back from day to day, stopped coming to weekly all hand meetings with the company, and stopped showing up and talking to press. So it is sort of been a not much that has changed, what has changed, though, is that Ceo Sundar Pichai will now be the google of alphabet. The overall umbrella company, automated cars, project wing we were talking about all the experimental units, Life Sciences units, venture arm, that he wasnt on top of and overlooking, so this adds a lot to his plate and he was already, you know, facing a lot of challenges with google itself. Really interesting to see how he handles it Going Forward. You called him a war time ceo. Why . I said that google needs a war time ceo and he needs to become that. And thats because google faced alphabet as a Parent Company faces a ton of challenges coming up. 2020 will be very interesting. They have a number of federal probes into them. They have to face regulators. Now a talking point for president ial candidates who are saying big tech is bad. They have a number of cultural issues with the employees. So theyre going to hes going to have to contend with a whole number of issues, where as he might not have thought that when he first started the role, and they dont need to necessarily be i would be hands off too if i had a big plan with a hammock in it. Youve covered apple for some time. President trump and tim cook toured that facility. Tim cook is seen with President Trump in some ways that other ceos are not lot of people were surprised to seat ceo of apple doing a press tour with the president to show off apples commitment to american manufacturing, something the president was pressing apple on a bit before he was elected. But youll realize this was really just another point or a culmination in a long strategy that tim cook had around how to deal with President Trump. Almost unique among all ceos of any industry, but definitely in tech, cook has been very adamant that he believes the best strategy is to engage. That is dont just say were not going to deal with the president , because we may have disagreements in certain areas, you engage, you try to make progress on the areas where you agree, and you also dont hide the areas where you disagree. So i think one thing that, you know, folks who are very upset to see the ceo of apple with trump also have to keep in mind is that tim cook has not held back one bit. Hes figured out how to prod donald trump without getting the backlash. Right. Hes challenged the president on daca, the dreamers. Very vociferous about that. They filed motions with the Supreme Court about that, where they literally had the stories of some of those dreamers who were at apple, and pressed the president on that, but has not gotten the same blowback. Thats down to cooks essentially management of the president as just another thing the universe of things to manage. He manages. Unique abilities. He also manages china. The other thing youve seen is even though we had this huge trade war between the United States and china, and lost some market share there, they have never become a state target. The Comment Party has never said dont buy an apple phone. Thats remarkable given the tension between the two countries. Steven with reuters and jennifer with cnbc, thank you for being with us this morning. Well be back in just a minute. There are two types of journeys in life. There are those we choose to take and those that life takes us on. From moments well never forget to those we must overcome. Join American Airlines and stand up to cancer in our efforts to help make every person diagnosed with cancer a longterm survivor. Donate 25 or more and youll receive 10 American Airlines advantage miles for every dollar you give. Visit standuptocancer. Org slash American Airlines to learn more. Stand up with us. A reminder, a new podcast about Venture Capital called sam hill road. We talked to chris farmer at signal fire. He has a super secret project hes working on. You can find sam hill road wherever you get your podcasts. If you like this show, youll like the podcast. Thats our show for this week. Thanks to my guests and thank you for making us part of your sunday morning. Announcer nbc sports, home of the olympic games, the nhl, the indianapolis 500, premier league and prime times number one show, sunday night football. Only on nbc. Announcer welcome to the u. S. Bank nbc sports report. Hi, again, Jimmy Roberts here in our nbc sports studios and an afternoon of golf for you today starting with the pga tour special on webb simpson followed by coverage of the president s