IBM lands in Boston the week of its Think 2026 conference and new security portfolio

IBM flew from Washington Dulles to Boston Logan on the afternoon of May 20, its Gulfstream G650ER (N780RW) covering the 1-hour-17-minute hop from the nation's capital. The same week, IBM is hosting Think 2026, its flagship annual conference for senior business and technology leaders from over 80 countries, which kicked off May 5 in Boston, per a company news release. On May 19, IBM also unveiled its most advanced AI-powered security portfolio, including IBM Concert Secure Coder and a partnership with Anthropic through Project Glasswing, as announced in a May 19 news release.

Boston is a recurring destination for IBM, home to its new MIT-IBM Computing Research Lab, launched April 29 to focus on foundational AI and quantum computing research. The lab expands the long-running MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab and underscores the company's deepening commitment to the Boston-area innovation ecosystem. The flight from Washington Dulles, where IBM maintains a government-facing presence, suggests a trip that bookended a policy or client meeting before heading north for the conference's second day of sessions on agentic AI and hybrid cloud.

The May 20 arrival follows a pattern of concentrated activity: the same aircraft flew San Francisco to Boston on May 19, and Washington Dulles to San Francisco on May 19. Arvind Krishna, IBM's chairman and CEO, is subject to the company's policy requiring all air travel (including personal trips) be on company aircraft, per securities filings; the disclosed personal-travel costs for his predecessor Ginni Rometty ran $237,311 in 2019.