What if I told you that the epicentre of conversations about the future of AI and global business strategy has shifted from California to Galicia, Spain? Provocative? Perhaps. Yet that’s exactly what I experienced at the Ecosystems 2030 conference in A Coruña.

Today’s leaders and managers are deluged with information on artificial intelligence, innovation, and transformation. New tools, frameworks, and forecasts appear daily. In this noise, it’s painfully hard to separate breakthrough signals from short-lived buzz. So the goal of this seria of articles isn’t to serve up yet another list of the “same old inspirations”, but to offer a strategic synthesis — the essence of what these global discussions mean for your company, your strategy, and your career.

At Booster of Innovation — and on this blog — I’ve always filtered global trends and translated them into concrete growth strategies. Ecosystems 2030 was the perfect venue for that. This article is the starting point. I’ll show you why the event stood out — and in the coming pieces I’ll dive into the most valuable insights on AI strategy for boards, future-ready capabilities, and the practical reinvention of business models to be ready for the era of AI.

Why Ecosystems 2030? Three reasons this event was different

Every conference boasts star speakers. Ecosystems 2030 had something rarer — strategic depth.

The mastermind — a NASA visionary

The organiser and driving force behind the summit is Dr Omar Hatamleh, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He’s not your typical event manager; he’s a strategist deploying AI inside one of the world’s most advanced organisations. His presence set the tone: we didn’t talk about “yet another app”, but about fundamental, system-level shifts with the highest stakes. A clear signal that AI has moved squarely into the realm of strategic thinking about civilisation’s future.

An unexpected location — A Coruña as a hub for innovative thinking

Not cosmopolitan Madrid, not innovative Barcelona. Choosing A Coruña as the meeting point for global leaders was a statement. Backed by local authorities, the city is fast becoming a dynamic European tech centre. The platinum sponsor was INDITEX — a global giant born here. It’s a symbolic marriage of frontier technology with established, large-scale business. Hosting the summit off the beaten track carries a vital lesson for every company: innovation is decentralised. The best ideas and brightest talent are global — often found where no one else is looking.

A voice from the future — the perspective of the United Arab Emirates

While Europe and the US vigorously debate AI regulation, countries such as the United Arab Emirates are building nation-scale systems on technology. The keynote by H.E. Dr Saeed Aldhaheri, Director of the Centre for Futures Studies at the University of Dubai, felt like time travel. His talk, “Wired States: The Future of Digital Nations — The UAE Model,” showcased bold, systemic innovation at national scale — a vantage point often missing from Euro-centric conversations and Boards talks.

Who’s shaping the future? Fortune 500 decision-makers on one stage

These were not theorists. On stage in A Coruña were practitioners who run innovation, global teams, and billion-dollar budgets. Their presence kept every conversation grounded in business reality. Speakers included, among others:

• JoAnn Stonier, Executive Vice President, Chief Data Officer, Mastercard
  
• Guayente Sanmartín, PS Commercial SVP and Division President, HP
  
• Pilar Manchón, Senior Director of AI Research Strategy, Google
  
• V.C. Gopalratnam, Executive Vice President & Global CIO, Philips
  
• Rubén Fernández de Sevilla, Vice President, Engineering, IKEA
  
• Alberto Prado, Global Head of R&D, Unilever
  
• Cheemin Bo-Linn, former Vice President, IBM Corp.; Board Director, Kore Wireless
  
• Susan Hooper, Board Director, Uber
  
• Janet S. Wong, Board Director, Lucid Motors
  
• Emerald de Leeuw, Global Head of AI Governance, Logitech
• Maria Fernandez, COO, Sony Music Entertainment

What’s next? The roadmap of big themes

I came back from Spain with a notebook brimming with insights, quotes, and reflections. Over the next articles, I’ll take you deeper into the most important Ecosystems 2030 discussions. This wasn’t a string of disconnected talks — it was a carefully designed journey through the domains that will define our immediate future. Here’s the map of our journey:

Foundations of the Future

We’ll explore the big ideas shaping digital society and technology. At the start, we will begin with the strong vision and the bold AI strategy model adopted by the United Arab Emirates. Expect perspectives on how AI is reshaping the “intelligent economy” (a theme led by Mastercard’s Chief Data Officer), and how to govern AI in the context of an “existential crisis.” This is where we asked the hard questions about the foundations we’ll build tomorrow on.

The Future of Artificial Intelligence

The conference’s core. We’ll delve into how AI is becoming a pillar of modern infrastructure and a source of invaluable business insight. I’ll recap a riveting panel with leaders from Google, BBVA, and Logitech on how AI is redefining reality. You will also find out how robotics and AI can solve the global housing shortage and address the challenges of an industry where physical human labor seemed irreplaceable by AI. And yet…

The Future of Medicine & Healthcare

We’ll step into a world where neurotechnology and digitisation revolutionise care. I’ll unpack how technology propels medicine forward, including a session with the Global CIO of Philips. You’ll learn what Agentic AI in Healthcare means — and how autonomous systems are reshaping the sector, as well as how they are revolutionizing access to medicine in third-world countries.

The Future of Leadership & Transformation

In an age of constant change, technology alone isn’t enough — leadership is decisive. We’ll examine how leaders must redefine their roles around agility, inclusion, and innovation. Expect takeaways from a panel featuring executives from IKEA, Unilever, and a former IBM vice president on building ecosystems that power innovation.

The Future of Sustainability

Sustainability is now a strategic imperative. I’ll show how leaders from Uber, Lucid Motors, and Stanford University approach scaling positive impact and embedding sustainability into the business model. This isn’t a “nice to have”; it’s a hard-edged component of strategy.

The Future of Entertainment & Creativity

How does technology influence human expression, emotion, and our consumption of culture? We’ll look at how the entertainment business is being reimagined, with insights from a panel led by the COO of Sony Music Entertainment, featuring, among others, an Emmy-winning Hollywood director and producer.

The Future of Investment

Finally, we’ll examine how the future of innovation is financed — where leading venture funds are placing their bets today, and how they assess the potential of breakthrough technologies. Without this piece, innovation remains a paper exercise.

This was an extraordinary journey to a place where the future is genuinely being shaped. In the coming weeks on the Booster of Innovation blog, I’ll share the key takeaways and frameworks from the conference — translating inspiring ideas into concrete models you can apply in your organisation.

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And over to you: which of the themes above are you most keen to explore? Drop a comment — I’ll happily weave your interests into the upcoming pieces.