I spoke in Madrid at the FICOD conference in mid November. These are pictures from my reign in Spain. I’m feeling pretty Spanish these days because I’ve been to Barcelona, Malaga, and Madrid for speeches.

Madrid01.jpg

Terminal 4 of the Madrid airport wins the prize for coolest ceiling. Antoni Gaudi would be proud.

Madrid02.jpg

Terminal 4 also wins the prize for coolest baggage-claim area.

Madrid03.jpg

I stayed at the Hotel Silken Puerta América Madrid. When you check in, you pick your room by looking at pictures of each room on an iPad. Very cool. Unfortunately, the Wifi was slow, and there were two levels of Wifi: free and not free. The free level didn’t allow you to send and receive email using a client. I’ve been all over the world and have never encountered this method of differentiation. I wasted two hours trying to figure this out—thinking it was because ports were blocked so I had to change port numbers in Mail or go thru various other gyrations.

Madrid04.jpg

Even the urinals were cool in the hotel.

Madrid11.jpg

View from my hotel room. I guess people like tennis here.

Madrid05.jpg

My room had a Japanese ofuro. Go figure: I had to go to Madrid for a Japanese bathtub.

Madrid06.jpg

This is something I’d never seen: there was a fashion sale in the hotel’s underground parking lot.

Madrid07.jpg

And these cars were in the same parking lot.

Madrid08.jpg
Madrid09.jpg

Hanging out with ministers: (right) Ángeles González-Sinde, Minister of Culture; (left) Miguel Sebastian, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Trade. He referred to me as “Guy Kurosawa.” Kurosawa, Kiyosaki, Chan, Kawasaki…makes no difference to me.

Madrid10.jpg

Probably the most colorful stage I’ve spoken on. You can watch my presentation in English and Spanish. It was based on my upcoming book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. If you do watch the video, you will see why you should always bring your own clicker. (Actually, I had my own clicker, but I didn’t want to offend anyone by insisting on using it.)

Madrid12.jpg

Playing tourist.

Madrid13.jpg

There’s nothing I like more than a local market.

Madrid14.jpg

Getting coached on how to order tapas.

Madrid16.jpg
Madrid17.jpg
Madrid15.jpg

I got the impression that Spaniards spend a lot of time eating tapas, drinking coffee, and then resting after eating tapas and drinking coffee.

Madrid18.jpg

I think this is the old city hall.

Madrid19.jpg
Madrid20.jpg
Madrid21.jpg
Madrid22.jpg

“My palace is your palace.”

Madrid23.jpg

How about some opera? No, not the browser.

Madrid24.jpg

Doing my Cervantes impersonation.

Madrid25.jpg

I was told that this is the most romantic bar in Madrid.

Madrid26.jpg

An apple store is not the same as an Apple store.

Madrid27.jpg

There didn’t seem to be strict limits on the length of what you could put on a car’s roof.

Madrid28.jpg

I’ve never seen a door like this.

Madrid29.jpg
Madrid30.jpg
Madrid31.jpg

Hands-on art.

Madrid32.jpg
Madrid33.jpg

The leaning towers of Madrid.

Madrid34.jpg

My posse in Madrid: Jose Nevado and Antonio Fernandez and Juan Pita of Prusland.