From 22-24 September, we were hosted by our friends at Gomez Acebo & Pombo in Madrid.
Delegates stayed in the Hyatt Regency Hotel Hesperia which is also where the AGM itself took place.
On Thursday 22nd September we were welcomed to Gomez’s offices for welcome drinks in their splendid iconic office a short taxi ride away from the hotel. Followed by dinner, at Carbon, a delightful restaurant that specialises in great meat dishes.
The AGM was on the following day, we had coffee and pastries to warm us up for a great day with our speaker, Antti Merilehto. Antti is a futurist and an author on AI. His book was the bestselling business book in Finland. He is an ex-Googler and has previously worked at Houston Analytics. His past includes also Country Manager for a US tech company and CEO of an AI startup. He has also been awarded as the Speaker of the Year 2018 and he has been multiple times on the list of top 100 most influential people in ICT. Antti’s talks on the reality of AI today the connection between human and machine are constantly rated top of the event. Some of the companies Antti has worked with are Microsoft, P&G, Tata, Mercedes Benz and Siemens.
He gave an excellent and thought provoking presentation and we thank him for being present. Please do send any ideas for future topics of our events to Helen Cooper.
The spouses who joined visited The Prado Museum guided through some of the gallery’s most spectacular halls discovering works of art that have shaped the history of art like “Las Meninas” by Velázquez, “The Third of May 1808” by Goya or El Greco’s “El Caballero de la Mano en el Pecho”. This was followed by a guided tapas tour visiting the most emblematic areas of Madrid and the best tapas bars in the city to experience the flavours of Spanish cuisine while discovering the secrets of the capital.
That evening, delegates were treated to truly magnificent location for dinner at The Mandarin Ritz Oriental. Situated within the historic ‘Golden Triangle of Art’, an area defined by the most important museums in the city – the property’s location within a prestigious residential area close to Madrid’s financial and commercial district and to El Retiro Park, adds to its appeal in one of Europe’s greatest
capitals. Chef Quique Dacosta, one of the most celebrated chefs in Spain, has been appointed to design, develop and oversee all culinary operations at the hotel’s five restaurants and bars. A sublime dinner where we also welcomed back Philippe Courtois and his wife Isabelle along with John Kerr’s widow Adrienne and the winner of the inaugural John Kerr Memorial Fund Prize, Josef Peer.
The programme on Saturday was a day of sightseeing with a visit to El Escorial and dinner at CASA SUECIA Rooftop, located on the eleventh floor of NH Collection Madrid Suecia, it’s one of the most exclusive rooftops.
This was a wonderful AGM showing us the best of Madrid. We would like to give our utmost thanks to Almudena, Monica and all their team that worked so very hard for such an excellently organised event.