Online Events

Prof. Adrian Geuze founded West 8 in 1987, an industry-leading, international landscape architecture firm, working across the fields of infrastructure, landscape and urban design. Headquartered in Rotterdam, and with offices in Belgium and North America, West 8 has established itself as a leading practice with a diverse and multi-disciplinary team of 70 architects, urban designers, landscape architects and industrial engineers. Geuze is internationally acclaimed for his pioneering work in the Netherlands and abroad and his oeuvre includes two transformational metropolitan parks in Madrid – Madrid Río along the Manzanares river and Parque Central in Madrid Nuevo Norte; Governors Island in New York; Jubilee Gardens in London and Yongsan National Park in Seoul, South Korea. In 2022, Adriaan Geuze was appointed as Professor of Landscape Architecture at Technical University Delft and was awarded the Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award by the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) stating him and his firm as changing the relationship between cities, nature, and people.

Geuze will converse about the relation between healthy cities, people, parks and architecture with David Goodman, Dean of IE School of Architecture and Design whose recent research deals with innovations in architecture practice and production during times of socioeconomic turbulence.

The event will be introduced by Roel Nieuwenkamp, Ambassador of the Netherlands in Spain.

How do big corporations and governments use our data to manipulate our behaviour? Up to what point should this be permitted, and how should regulations deal with actions that end up affecting the realities of our societies? Carissa Véliz (United Kingdom) is an Associate Lecturer at Oxford University’s Institute for Practical Ethics, and a regular contributor to publications including El País, The Guardian, The New York Times, New Statesman and The Independent. In her book Privacy is Power (Transworld, 2020) she analyses these matters, as well as others that are of critical importance to our time, arguing in favour of the prohibition of the sale of personal data. In conversation with Mónica Meltis.

Essential workshop on digital journalism with Carolina Robino (Chile), the Director of BBC Mundo, in which she talks about the digital model of one of the world’s most respected media organizations. Robino started working as a journalist as a writer with La Época newspaper, the first opposition media outlet founded during Pinochet’s regime. Later she worked as national and culture editor of the Chilean magazine Hoy. In the year 2000 she moved to BBC Mundo, where she has worked as a reporter, a video editor, General Editor and Director, her current position.

Event for university students

After decades of leading the drive towards a green economy, Europe is now falling behind China - and faces the prospect of also being overtaken by the US. Beijing is already an electric vehicle, solar and wind juggernaut and has a growing stranglehold on critical minerals. Now, Joe Biden's ground-breaking Inflation Reduction Act is changing the global green game, luring business, investment and jobs to America. Europe is responding. But is it really up to the fight? Join Jesse Norman, UK transport, technology and decarbonisation minister, Pilita Clark, Financial Times columnist and associate editor, Bianca Dragomir, director of Clean Tech for Iberia, Gonzalo Delacámara, an international expert on water and energy economics, and María Margarete Goose, German Ambassador in Spain, in conversation with Frederick Studemann, FT Literary editor.

Paris-based Italian writer Andrea Marcolongo is an international phenomenon. A scholar of ancient Greece and Rome, in her latest book there is a thread that connects the epic of the warriors and navigators of ancient mythology with the venerable salon of the École Militaire in Paris. Marcolongo herself is a member of Les Écrivains de marine (Writers of the French Navy), a select club to which other illustrious figures such as Arturo Pérez-Reverte belong, and which has its headquarters in the 18th-century complex of buildings opposite the Eiffel Tower. Andrea Marcolongo (Milan, 1987), writer and journalist, holds a degree in Classical Literature from the University of Milan. She is the author of the literary phenomenon The Language of the Gods (2017), The Measure of Heroes (2019) and La lezione di Enea (2020). Her books have been translated into 28 languages.

She will be in conversation with Juan Cruz, a prominent Spanish writer and journalist, who has spent most of his professional career at the newspaper El País; he is currently attached to the presidency of Prensa Ibérica and writes in the media of this group. He has been awarded prizes such as the Azorín prize for novels and the National Prize for Cultural Journalism.

The event will be presented by the general director of the Banco Sabadell Foundation, Sonia Mulero.

After the event, the authors will sign copies of their books at the book stall at the entrance of IE University.

Event in Spanish.

The eminent historian Margaret MacMillan (Canada) lectures at the University of Oxford and is the author of various books that cover, among other subjects, that devastating and urgent matter, one that is a threat in all civilizations: war. Her book, War: How Conflict Shaped Us (2020) examines the role of war in the history of humanity. Since the end of the Second World War, humanity has experienced what Steven Pinker has called “the long peace”, a period in which much of humanity has enjoyed an absence of major wars. However, MacMillan questions this idea and analyses the continuous military conflicts that have occurred since 1945. Her latest book published in Spanish is 1914. De la paz a la guerra (2021), which is an account of the political, social, cultural and economic forces that brought about the First World War. These essays ask us some disturbing questions: is war an inherent part of human nature? Is it inevitable? MacMillan explores these crucial questions with the eminent writer and historian, Enrique Krauze.

In recent decades, one of the world’s literary events has been publication by Granta magazine of its lists of the best fiction writers in a certain territory aged under 35. Over the years the writers on these lists have gradually established themselves internationally. In 2021, the second list for Spanish-language writers appeared, and three of those selected will talk to Valerie Miles, the Publishing Manager of the Spanish-language edition of Granta. Andrea Chapela studied Chemistry at UNAM and did a Master’s in Creative Writing (in Spanish) at the University of Iowa. She has won the 2019 Gilberto Owen National Literature Prize and the 2019 Juan José Arreola National Prize. She is the author of the series of fantasy literature, Vâudïz. Alejandro Morellón (Spain) won the 2017 Hispano-American Short Story Prize for the collection El estado natural de las cosas, and he is the author of the novel Caballo sea la noche (2019). Aura García-Junco (Mexico) is a Philology graduate of UNAM. She writes fiction, essays and screenplays. She has published the novel Anticitera, artefacto dentado (2019) and several translations. Her second book, A., will be published at the end of 2021.

In the shadows behind official versions of Spanish history, are countless sensational episodes, replete with carnal passions, that altered the course of events or changed them completely without ever being officially documented. In her latest book, Lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos, journalist and writer Marta Robles has travelled through the history of this country in search of all the amorous and sexual adventures that marked power relationships and secret decisions that influenced the course of events.

She talks about the intricacies of love and power with Juan José Güemes, former Minister for Employment and Health of the Madrid Region, who has chaired IE Business School's Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation since 2010.

Event in Spanish

The world of science is advancing at a rapid pace of constant discovery and technological mergers that make what was once considered impossible now possible. Carlos Franganillo, one of the most popular faces of news broadcasting in Spain, is a journalist with extensive international experience. One of his latest projects, 10,000 Days, which he directs and presents on Spanish TV Channel: La 1, is a documentary series that analyzes the changes society will face in the coming years. In this questioning about the evolution of biotechnology, he sits down with author Diego del Alcázar, whose debut novel La Genética del Tiempo (The Genetics of Time) a thriller, provides readers with a glimpse into the challenges that genetic editing presents in terms of improving human nature. This is a new facet for Diego del Alcázar, who, in his day-to-day professional life, leads the strategy of an international university.

At the end of the event, the author will sign his work at the bookstand in front of the IE University.

Event in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English

One of the terrible lessons that the pandemic has taught us is that the worst of the health and financial consequences have fallen on the poorest nations, and poorest populations within nations. This has emphasised the large and growing economic gaps that exist around the world today. Perhaps it would be true to say that each country has experienced its own version of the pandemic, and this event is a moment to reflect on the specific case of Mexico, one of the world’s most vulnerable countries.The journalist Mario Arriagada Cuadriello; the Executive Director of Oxfam Mexico, Alexandra Haas; and the academic, Ana Laura Magaloni will talk to Jacobo García about this extraordinary moment.

MP Jesse Norman’s witty historical novel The Winding Stair is the story of the rivalry between scholar Francis Bacon and Edward Coke, already acclaimed as the greatest lawyer of his generation. As Queen Elizabeth I is dying and James I waiting to accede, Bacon and Coke are locked in a bitter struggle for influence and power in the palaces, parliaments and royal courts. Norman, the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire and currently Minister of State in the Department for Transport, discusses combining history and fiction to create a tale of political machinations.

Jesse Norman talks with British journalist Martin Ivens, Editor of the Times Literary Supplement and former editor of the Sunday Times.

The event will be introduced by Hugh Elliott, UK Ambassador to Spain.

At the end of the event, the author will sign his works at the book stall outside IE University.

Event with simultaneous translation from English to Spanish.

The writer and journalist Verónica E. Llaca has worked with different media outlets, and has edited the magazine Ser y Estar. She is the author de the novels Cuerpos en renta (2011), La simetría de los árboles (2016) and her most recent work, El llanto debajo del llanto (2021). The publisher and writer Ana Negri, who has a doctorate in Hispanic Studies from McGill University, Montreal, presents her literary debut, Los eufemismos, a novel about the relationship between Clara, a women aged 30, and her mother, an exile from the Argentinean dictatorship. They will talk to Imanol Martínez.

Elizabeth II was not predisposed to rule, any more than her father and grandfather were. But she took up the reins of an empire and led her people through decades that transformed society, and in which she had to deal with events as significant as her uncle's abdication and war, as well as romance, danger, tragedy and triumph. Robert Hardman reflects on her extraordinary life and its cultural impact, in conversation with Hugh Elliott, UK Ambassador to Spain.

Hardman is a renowned author, royal analyst and filmmaker, who has covered the British monarchy for three decades. He is the author of the film and book Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work, as well as Her Majesty and Queen of the World and Life of a Queen. Elizabeth II 1926-2022. He writes for the Daily Mail newspaper in London.

The event will be introduced by Caroline Michel, a leading figure in the British cultural world and global President of the Hay Festivals.

At the end of the event, the author will sign his works at the book stall outside IE University.

With simultaneous translation from English to Spanish and vice versa.

The Queretaro writer and publisher Braulio Guerra Mendoza is the winner of the second State Competition for Young Adult Literature, run by the Queretaro State Department for Youth in 2020. That same year he was a fellow of the San Miguel de Allende International Writers’ Festival. He is the author of the books Microcuentos del Mago and 8 cuentos sobre el espíritu animal. He will give a workshop on writing stories.

Event for university students

Carlos Zanón and Ray Loriga are multifaceted writers who have worked with novels, film scripts, criticism, press articles, and children's literature. Both have written exceptional works in genres such as Zanón’s noir work, or Loriga’s minimalist realism. Their latest novels treat, from different angles, love, the loss of youth, illness, suicide, how to face death and the loss of illusion. Either from the Suicide Assistance Center or in the bizarre route of three musicians through campsites on the Mediterranean coast, the protagonists of both authors are escaping towards the end. Both draw on what pop culture has nurtured them to get on with life and stay alive. And both resolve the leap into the void, each one as their literary world leadas them to accept: credible, original, hopeful and deeply personal. They will discuss this in a conversation moderated by El Mundo journalist Luis Alemany.

Zanón has published some twenty works, including Tarde, mal y nunca (2009), Yo fui Johnny Thunders (2014, Hammet Award) Taxi (2017), or Love Song (2022), and the articles compilation Cien formas de romper un glaciar (2023).Loriga, writer, screenwriter and film director, has published works such as Héroes (1993), Rendición (2017, Alfaguara Novel Prize) and Cualquier verano es un final (2023).

At the end of the event, the authors will sign copies of their books at the book stall at the main entrance of IE University.

Event in Spanish

El Tema, an original idea by Gael García Bernal and Pablo Montaño, directed by Santiago Maza and produced by La Corriente del Golfo, is a web series of six short documentaries that cover some of the most urgent matters related to the climate crisis in Mexico. The series is presented by the actor, director and producer, Gael García Bernal, and the writer and linguist Yásnaya Elena Aguilar. At this event we present episode five, Océanos, which looks at the coral reefs of the island of Cozumel. The ocean gave us life and is the planet’s main climate regulator. 1% of the seafloor has coral, an ultra-diverse ecosystem that is home to a quarter of the world’s fish species. Yet 0.5% of this has been destroyed by human activity. It is time to stop turning our back on the sea. With Yásnaya Aguilar and Mina Morsán, in conversation with Claudia Ivonne Hernández.

Language: Spanish

Documentary duration: 12 minutes

Élmer Mendoza is widely considered to be the pioneer and major writer within the sub-genre of narcoliterature. For a long time before it had become an established form, he had been writing memorable novels, an example of which would be El amante de Janis Joplin, with social commentary made possible by growing up hearing these kinds of stories in the real life around him. Mendoza is the Professor of Literature at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, a member of the Mexican Academy of the Language and the author of over 20 novels and short story collections. His most recent work is Ella entró por la ventana del baño (2021), in which Lefty Mendieta, the attractive character that we met in novels like Silver Bullets and Asesinato en el parque Sinaloa, is out to capture The Sicilian, the pitiless leader of a band of former army drug traffickers, while he helps a dying man find an old love. In conversation with the writer Luis Jorge Boone.

Print journalism is going through a phase of ongoing change and reinvention. The capacity of culture to reinvent ideas and contribute to business has led to the creation of ABC Cultural Premium, the first initiative that allows you to become a digital subscriber to just the cultural section of a daily newspaper. The Culture section is one of the mainstays of ABC's core offer, which is why it has created this option that offers access to the supplement and much more content. The novelist and journalist Karina Sainz Borgo, currently a columnist for ABC and author of two successful novels (the most recent being El tercer país), and the columnist and writer José Peláez and historian, journalist, and co-founder of Zendalibros.com and the Zenda-Edhasa publishing house, María José Solano. The event will be moderated by the director of ABC Cultural, Jesús García Calero.

At the end of the event, the authors will sign copies of their books at the book stall at the entrance of the IE University.

Event in Spanish

Join us for a dynamic conversation about technology and creativity between two global voices John Maeda and Ikhlaq Sidhu. In this engaging dialogue, Maeda, renowned artist and designer, author of several books including How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us and Sidhu, prominent computer engineer, chief scientist, and author of Engineering Innovation: A Practical Guide to Creating Something New, will bring together their expertise to explore the limitless possibilities that occur when art, technology and innovation meet.

After the event, there will be a book signing at the book stall at the main entrance of the IE University

Event in English with simultaneous translation to Spanish

The award-winning French writer and film and television director Philippe Claudel is the author of 16 novels, translated into at least 11 languages. His most recent book, which has already sold 200 thousand copies around the world, is La petite fille de Monsieur Lihn (2020), the story of a man who, fleeing war, arrives on the French coast with his granddaughter in his arms: he does not know where he is and has no knowledge of the language. Claudel talks to Gabriel Hörner about his writing and his cinematographic vision.