Are the Tech Giants Taking Over As Our City Leaders?

Global tech players such as Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, – the so-called Big 4, as well as AirBnB and Tesla are redefining work, mobility, leisure, and our everyday.

In the presentation, Cristina Mateo, Executive Director of IE School of Architecture and Design, will discuss how our daily urban experience is being affected by this, and how our cities are increasingly being used as laboratories for countless innovations.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Cristina Mateo is Executive Director at IE School of Architecture and Design. She is a specialist in urban ethnography, branding, communication, and E-Transformation & New Business Models.

Prior to joining IE, she was Head of Strategic Planning at Fundación Siglo, The Department of Culture and Tourism for Castile and Leon between 2011-2015. She was in charge of implementing the e- tourism strategy for the region, as well as an events´ and a partner building strategy & Revenue generation plan. She also contributed to the development of an ecosystem of online and offline services for the región.

She worked at Madrid City Council, for the International Strategy and Action Bureau, Madrid Global. Her work involved managing the city brand through a strategy of participation in large events such as the Olympics and World Expos. Prior to her position with the City of Madrid, she worked between 2002 and 2007 as marketing manager for Spain and Portugal at VisitBritain (Britain´s Tourism Board), leading the E-commerce strategy for income generation for VisitBritain.

In Madrid and London she worked for AT Kearmey, marchFirst and Razorfish managing the customer experience for transactional, information and service oriented portals, between the years 2000 and 2002.

Cristina Mateo trained as a journalist and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology, from Goldsmiths College, University of London and an Executive MBA specialised in E-business, from IE Business School. She lived in London for 12 years, where she gave university lectures on the topics of the media in Spain and Spanish contemporary culture. She has written extensively on culture consumption and the role of ethnic identity in a global city.