General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt's appearance in downtown Boston Thursday coincided with GE's announcement that it's putting its new corporate headquarters on Fort Point Channel in South Boston.

Clearly, that was the major news of the day. But the big takeaway from Immelt's comments at a business luncheon sponsored by Boston College was just how good he'll be at telling Bostonians exactly what they want to hear.

Immelt's speech lasted about 35 minutes, and touched on a number of different topics. He talked about economic populism in the presidential race (as you might expect, he’s not a big fan) and his ideal employee (to drive innovation, Immelt wants workers who are “terrified” and “paranoid.")

But Immelt paid special attention to how GE’s move could benefit Boston. One notable argument he made:  Boston can be an epicenter for the next big thing in tech.

"The next generation, if you look out 10 or 15 or 20 years, probably 20 percent of the S&P 500 is going to be the merger of data and physics," Immelt said. "There’s buzzwords, 'industrial internet' and things like that, but it’s real. It’s going to happen." 

Here, Immelt was referring to a push to gather loads of data from machines like trains and wind turbines—and then use that data to increase productivity. It’s a trend GE has embraced, and heavily invested in.

As Immelt tells it, the "industrial internet" is a revolution in the making—and a chance for Boston to play a starring role.

"You got another whole wave coming at us in terms of technology and change, equal to or greater in its impact to the commercial internet 20 years ago," Immelt said. "And Boston needs to get more than its fair share. And that’s kind of what we’re betting on.

"There’s no reason Boston can’t be that city for the next 20 years, the way Silicon Valley and Seattle were for the last 20 years," he added.

Given Boston’s abiding insecurity about whether it’s “world-class"—and frustration that the first internet boom happened in California, not here—that’s an incredibly alluring pitch. But it was just one part of the lofty vision Immelt sketched out Thursday.

Both Governor Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh have taken some flak for the incentives used to lure GE to Massachusetts. As Immelt tells it, that backlash is off base. He promises a GE-based “ecosystem” of about 4000 jobs—and a massive return on any public investment. 

"For any dollar that you think was invested in GE being here—and there are a lot of places we could have gone other than this—you’ll get back a thousandfold," Immelt said. "Just trust me on that." The crowd applauded.

(For the record, the city of Boston estimates that its tax incentives for GE will yield a tenfold return.)

Later, Immelt tackled the question of community engagement, saying the public can count on GE employees taking an active role in their communities.

"We like to do things where it’s more than money—where our people can bring our hard work, their intellect, their working to give back as well," Immelt said. "You’ll have hundreds of GE people that are mentoring in schools."

There will be more details, Immelt said, on April 4, when GE will roll out its local initiatives in greater detail.

Based on what we heard today, the company’s going to tell Massachusetts exactly what it wants to hear.