Why I’m Going to AI Summit Barcelona: From International Business to Building with AI

On 22 and 23 September I’ll be at AI Summit Barcelona.

I’m not going there to present myself as an AI engineer or a product manager. My background is international commercial leadership, business development and physical trading. Over more than three decades I have worked across markets and industries, led multi-country commercial operations, managed large P&Ls, developed new markets and negotiated complex international agreements.

What has changed for me is the toolset.

AI has dramatically reduced the distance between identifying a commercial opportunity and doing something tangible about it. An idea that once required a development team, significant capital and months of preparation can now be explored, prototyped and tested much faster.

That changes the possibilities for people whose experience comes from markets, customers and commercial execution rather than software engineering.

From international trade to building with AI

The clearest example for me is Ponte Trade.

International trade, cross-border business development and physical trading have been part of my professional life for many years. Ponte Trade started from a problem I already understood: international opportunities exist everywhere, but finding the right signal, understanding it and turning it into an actual commercial conversation remains fragmented and inefficient.

Ponte explores how AI and structured market intelligence can help companies discover opportunities globally, investigate them and move from information towards a real business discussion.

For me, that makes Ponte particularly relevant. It is not an attempt to enter an unfamiliar market because AI makes it possible. It is an attempt to apply new technology to a commercial environment I already know.

Visit Ponte Trade ↗

A very different experiment: Padel Sitges / Padel Tribes

The second example comes from an entirely different market.

Padel is growing rapidly, but the player experience remains fragmented. Booking platforms are good at helping players reserve courts, while clubs often operate inside their own systems.

The gap I saw was around the game itself: finding players, organising matches, forming groups and creating communities across clubs.

That became Padel Sitges, with the broader Padel Tribes concept behind it. It is now live, with registered players, club relationships and a developing partnership with Sports AI.

Visit Padel Sitges ↗

Identify a gap. Understand the commercial opportunity. Build. Test. Learn.

Ponte Trade and Padel Sitges could hardly be more different as markets, yet the process behind them is remarkably similar. AI changes the speed at which that cycle can happen.

What I’m looking for in Barcelona

I’m not arriving with a long list of pre-arranged corporate meetings.

I have one confirmed conversation with Artem Kulbasov, and beyond that I want to use the two days to meet founders, technology companies, investors and business leaders working on the practical application and commercialisation of AI.

The conversations I am most interested in sit around international growth, commercialisation, partnerships, market entry and new ventures.

I am particularly interested in the space between technology and the market.

There is extraordinary technology being built. But somebody still has to understand the customer, identify the opportunity, develop the commercial model, open the market, build the partnerships and turn capability into business.

That is where my experience sits.

Why now

For most of my career, technology was something a business bought or commissioned. AI increasingly feels different.

For experienced operators, it can become a working tool: a way of researching faster, analysing opportunities, building prototypes, testing propositions and turning ideas into something tangible.

I don’t know yet where that leads. That is precisely why I’m going to AI Summit Barcelona.

To learn what is becoming possible. To meet the people building it. And to explore where thirty years of international commercial experience can be useful in what comes next.