Luis Maria Huete is a leading authority on value and client satisfaction, and how the relationships between the two create competitive advantage in the network economy. He is a best-selling author, Fulbright Scholar, and a Senior Partner at the global management consulting firm Globalpraxis. Luis opens the Summit with a message about creating value in today s fast-paced, complex global business environment.

Professor Huete begins by laying a foundation of assertions about the global business environment - a torrent of change, choice and disruption - and presents a tangible methodology for capitalizing on the opportunities inherent in this chaos. Luis' 25 years of study and experience, gleaned from the world's most successful enterprises, reveals a reliable formula for engineering value into new and existing processes and services. By designing and managing the moments of truth in the overall client experience - both internal and external - savvy business executives create satisfaction, positive value perception and, ultimately, loyalty. How can this innovative yet proven approach enable real estate and property professionals to reinvent the way that their organizations serve the business?

Luis Maria Huete currently serves as a Professor and MBA Director at the IESE Business School at the University of Navarra. He is the seminar co-Chairman for the acclaimed program Achieving Breakthrough Service, organized jointly by the IESE and Harvard Business Schools. An accomplished teacher, Luis is widely regarded as an energetic and motivating speaker who brings life to business.

Our Summit theme encourages continued exploration of accelerating change in the global business environment and the implications for business across Europe. While we can ponder the intentions and actions of the European Union and question whether European enterprises are adapting and innovating fast enough to sustain or enhance our competitive advantage, we can only act within the context of our own enterprises and the corporate real estate profession.

So, then, how are we doing? Are property professionals matching the pace and cadence of their enterprises? Are we leading? Lagging? Just keeping up?

Two teams comprised of corporate real estate, service provider and business unit executives "debate" the question (affirmative and negative). Lively discussion and concrete examples will illustrate both positions and ultimately, based on the evidence, you will decide - are corporate property executives innovating at the speed of business?

In 2003, MIT s Technology Review magazine named Professor Ted Sargent amongst "the world's top young innovators," one of 100 creative individuals under age 35 whose research will shape how we live and work in the future. At the CoreNet Global 2005 European Summit in Madrid, Ted explores the seemingly inexplicable world of nanotechnology.

Ted tells the story of how nanotechnology developed, what scientists have achieved so far, and where it could all lead. He describes what it could mean for businesspeople, citizens, patients, and parents. In particular, he examines the capacity of nanotechnology to harness the power of the sun, enable the hydrogen economy, and build a light-based Internet 100 times faster than the present system.

How might these innovations change workplaces and the aging building stock of the developed world? To what degree do these new technologies enable or threaten our competitive advantage? What are the barriers to speedy acceptance and adoption of these technologies?

Ted Sargent is presently the Visiting Professor of Nanotechnology at the Microphotonics Centre at MIT and holds a Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto. His research breakthroughs have been widely reported in the popular press including Wired, BusinessWeek, and National Geographic. Ted is highly regarded as a speaker who makes a mysterious and complex topic comprehensible and fascinating.