Barcelona

The visit to IESE in Barcelona for the conference on SD and CSR went very well. I met and had discussions with a lot of interesting individuals and I think I will be working with some of them in the long run. Some of these indivudals are active promoters of renewable energy and social development causes - there was a very interesting presention when the speaker gave an unsolicited advice to stop working on 'Hydrogen Economy' related activities and to focus on wind and solar. He was of the opinion that we are going to run out of oil in the next five years and that we do not have enough uranium to keep our nuclear plants going to meet global nergy needs. He was convincing but I came across an article today which, I quote, said "Within the last decade, technology advances have made it possible to unlock more oil from old fields, and, at the same time, higher oil prices have made it economical for companies to go after reserves that are harder to reach...in a wide-ranging study published in 2000, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that ultimately recoverable resources of conventional oil totaled about 3.3 trillion barrels, of which a third has already been produced. More recently, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an energy consultant, estimated that the total base of recoverable oil was 4.8 trillion barrels. That higher estimate — which Cambridge Energy says is likely to grow — reflects how new technology can tap into more resources." The article can be found at here. I believe the future is about working together using a multitude of clean, traditional, and new energy sources.

The conference was also a great oppotunity to meet and talk to MBA students from other schools and compare our schools, career choices, and workload levels. The conference was also an opportunity to see Barcelona, a city I had not visited before. It was hard work though to sit through a zillion lectures, go out for dinner, and then party from midnight till sunrise, every day! I wonder how IESE students manage. I have created an album with some pictures I took there and is shown below. Nightlife in Barcelona is fantastic and the city seems busier at 3am than at 3pm!

And, today, classes started again after a relatively quiet week or so and we are back to our usual round of financial markets (with exams next week), supply chain, French, statistics, strategy, accountancy, and all the rest.