Spent a couple of days in Barcelona for ACCIÓ’s fifth Exponential Day. Have been involved in the region for some years, for example through events organised by Fundación Ship2B and Cathy Runciman’s Fixing the Future team. Delightful supper yesterday evening with Ana Simon Villacampa, deputy director of innovation and disruption at Catalonia Exponential, and Louis Juncà, director-general for innovation, digital economy and entrepreneurship at Generalitat de Catalunya.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, was central to the proceedings – to the point where the stage featured three 3D versions of the term. I kicked off by quoting Mexican Spanish, and saying that it made me thing of the saying ay-ay-ay, denoting dismay. The audience laughed, but my intent was serious. Indeed, have just been finishing off an article for the risk journal Sentinel, following my recent speech at the AIRMIC conference in Manchester.
After the event, I took a cab out to the airport, where I spent 5-6 hours (partly because my plane was delayed) in the BA lounge, among other things finishing off a quarterly column for the Frontier Report run by my old friends E-Square in Tokyo, this piece on the greening of the world’s royal families. Inspired both by meeting Spain’s King Felipe VI on a recent trip to Madrid for South Summit, and by the release of the UK Royal Household’s latest report and accounts, given that I have served for some years on the Royal Household’s Environment Committee.
Leave a Reply