Programs

TO FIND OUT WHERE THE WORLD AND REAL ESTATE ARE HEADED, WHILE NETWORKING AND HAVING NEW BUSINESS EXPERIENCES

THE LEARNING & THE NETWORKING EXPERIENCES / DAY 1 & 2

THE MEDITERRANEAN EXPERIENCE / EXTENDED PROGRAM / DAY 3

THE ISLAND EXPERIENCE / FOR SPOUSES ONLY

A fresh and unusual proposal especially created for the leading players of the property industry in Europe, with the participation of infrequent world-class speakers.

An event designed to meet, learn, share experiences and network in a different, distended, and friendly way in a unique place like Ibiza.

SQUARE is more think tank than conference, designed for the fast-changing world of real estate and built to address across the board issues.  Attendees are not an audience, they are contributors. All sessions at SQUARE devote at least 15 minutes to an open and lively debate/discussion between the floor and the stage.

And this year SQUARE will be more interactive than ever before, as you will discover when reading down below what we have prepared for the afternoon of Day 2.

* All sessions will be in English (no simultaneous translation).

Download the 2024 SQUARE program.

THE LEARNING & THE NETWORKING EXPERIENCES

DAY 1 / Wednesday, May 29th

/ FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
• HOW TO REACT TO A MOST CHANGING WORLD
• HOW TO COPE WITH WARS AND ESG

SQUARE will devote its first day (May 29th, from 2.30 pm on) to give “food for thought”, especially regarding two issues of paramount importance that have been making life harder for RE companies in recent years: “wars and, thus, geopolitical and economic uncertainties” and “ESG”.

Is anybody capable to figure out these days which will be the political and economic consequences of the escalating conflicts in the Middle East? It’s not just the Israel vs Hamas war, it’s also the underlying Iran issue, and the Hutis making trouble in the Red Sea… Without any doubt, and without forgetting about the war in Ukraine nor the China-Taiwan threat, the Middle East is right now the hottest and most worrying spot in the planet. And that’s why SQUARE 2024 will be kicked-off with a world-class session on this very issue and what the consequences may be for the RE industry while taking into account the elections coming up in the EU (June 24), the US (November 24)… and in Germany (autumn 25), the weakened economic engine of Europe.

SQUARE also wants to focus on its first day on another issue that few dare to challenge: how good (or bad?) ESG is for the property industry, especially the “E”. Or how to cope with the regulations and the social and (mainstream) media pressure for climate-change-related actions… which, let’s be honest, are making business more difficult for RE companies in comparison with just 10 years ago. It’s a fact that some of the world’s largest fund managers are starting to give a bit of thought to the issue because, shily, some of their LPs are wondering about the “dividend impact” of the “E”. And this thrilling matter on “ESG” will be addressed through a most proper, and yet bold, “Oxford-style Debate”.

And we couldn’t think of a better way to end this first day (after such “worrying” sessions) than getting the opinions of two bright world-class players, an institutional investor and an investment manager. The sort of players who truly make the RE world go round.

1.00 pm - 2.30 pm

Doors Open & Registration.
Welcome Lunch in the Gran Hotel’s gardens.

2.30 pm - 2.45 pm
Opening Remarks
by the Masters of Ceremonies
Struan Robertson
Chairman EMEA Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging
Bank of America Securities
Paris
Chantal Clavier
Partner and Head of RE
Heidrick & Struggles
London
Struan Robertson
Chantal Clavier
2.45 pm - 3.00 pm
Program Overview
by
Cristina García-Peri
Director of Business Development & Strategy
Azora
Madrid
Cristina García-Peri
3.00 pm - 3.30 pm

Geopolitics: How Does the Crisis in the Middle East Impact our World?

The Middle East region has become the center of one of a critical geopolitical crisis impacting. Israel and Hamas have an open war that will drag through much of 2024 and the conflict has now brought in a direct Israel-Iran confrontation. The market impact is increasingly visible across several assets classes and investors are grappling with another shock to the global economy. The risk of a larger war is increasing by the day and the Biden administration finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place only a few months before Presidential elections.
The Gulf countries are managing to stay out of the fray for now and their structural reform programs are promising for their people and investors. In the next decade, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will emerge as not only important regional powers but hubs connecting Asia with the US and Europe. Energy transition risks present challenges different sectors but the Gulf countries are getting more serious about economic diversification and building a future for the day after oil.
Keynote Address by
Ayham Kamel
Practice Head MENA
The Eurasia Group
London
Ayham Kamel
3.30 pm - 4.30 pm
Debate with:
Vendeline von Bredow
Senior Correspondent Germany
The Economist
Berlin
David Inskip
EMEA Head of Research
CBRE Investment Management
London
Conductor
Struan Robertson
Chairman EMEA Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging
Bank of America Securities
Paris
Vendeline von Bredow
David Inskip
4.30 pm - 5.00 pm
Coffee & Refreshments Break
5.00 pm - 6.00 pm
“Is ESG Here to Stay?” An Oxford-style Debate on Sustainability

Interest rates, construction costs, energy prices, recessionary economic outlook, housing shortage, multiple geopolitical crises – has the time come to cut back our ESG agendas? How much ESG can we still afford in a stressed real estate market? Two high-profile investment professionals will discuss in an Oxford-style debate the pros and cons of ESG in a drastically changed environment for developers, property owners and asset managers. And you get to participate and vote!

with
John van Oost
Managing Partner
Fluxus Ventures
Zurich
Sigrid Duhamel
Chairwoman of the Board
Deepki
Paris
Conductor
Alexander Gebauer
Senior Partner
Palm Capital
Munich
John van Oost
Sigrid Duhamel
Alexander Gebauer
6.00 pm - 6.20 pm
Coffee & Refreshments Break
6.20 pm - 7.20 pm
The Institutional Investor View: “Hopes and Worries for the Future”
A fireside chat between two top-notch players (such as Roger Orf and Barbara Knoflach in 2021, Aref Lahham and Sophie Van Oosterom in 2022 and Richard Powers and Neil Slater in 2023).
with
Robert-Jan Foortse
Head of European Investments
APG
Amsterdam
Alex Jeffrey
CEO
Savills Investment Management
Singapore
Conductor
Struan Robertson
Chairman EMEA Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging
Bank of America Securities
Paris
Robert-Jan Foortse
Alex Jeffrey
7.20 pm - 7.45 pm
Day’s Wrap-up & Discussion with participants
by
Struan Robertson
Chairman EMEA Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging
Bank of America Securities
Paris
7.45 pm
End of Day 1
8.45 pm
Network Dinner at Es Torrent
Dinner by-the-sea location.
Minibuses will depart at 8.15 pm from Gran Hotel.

DAY 2 / Thursday, May 30th

• THE FUTURE AT LARGE: A WORLD OF FAKERY AND FANTASY BECAUSE OF AI?
• DESIGNING (FROM SCRATCH) THE “IDEAL” PROPERTY COMPANY
• IS RESILIENCE & ADAPTATION TO CHANGE THE WAY FORWARD?
• WHY AI IS TO MAKE OF DATA CENTERS THE CHAMP
• “BE THE CHAIRMAN FOR AN AFTERNOON” (IN INTERACTIVE BREAK-OUT GROUPS)
• WHERE MONEY IS TO GO

SQUARE is proud to focus on the long-term rather than on the short one, and also is proud to be bold and non-mainstream. That’s why we believe that a great way of kicking-off Day 2 is through a most provoking address on AI.  Who will AI disrupt?  Who will it destroy and does business have any idea of was is about to hit?

And in our approach to the future, in our caring for long-term thinking, no better exercise than trying to imagine what it would be like the “ideal” RE company of the future if we could build it from scratch. Which would be the technologies used and what for? What products and what markets would be targeted?  What sort of professionals should it engage?  From the board-room down.  Quite an exercise!  Utopian maybe.  But well-worth if willing to set up new corporate goals to navigate the future.

And no better complement to the design of “an ideal brand-new” RE organization than a world-class chat between three top players (a creator/designer, a developer, and an investor) who are continuously confronting the challenge of adapting to change their well-established companies.  What are their ideas?  How did they already cope with the very disrupting factors affecting RE in the last 10–15 years?  How did they transform their companies and how will keep doing it?  A session not to be missed.

Also, in this look to the future that SQUARE will deliver on Day 2, AI couldn’t at all be left aside.  But SQUARE is not to address AI on the common way (trying to explain what AI is and what it will change in our society, and bla-bla-bla…) but focusing very much on why AI is to make of Data Centers (and “energy infrastructures”) a most attractive asset class in the years to come, if not “the” most attractive.

After lunch, it will take place an interactive exercise (in break-out groups) to leverage the brilliant brains at SQUARE and come out with some suggestions (for each archetypal property company) on “what strategies to consider for the years to come” taking into account all said in the previous 24 hours.

Nevertheless, even if strategic planning is key for long term success, the truth is that at the end of the day, at the end of the year, real estate companies must make money. And that’s why there is no better way to close SQUARE than listening to savvy investors and learn where and in what products/segments they are to bet on.

9.30 am - 10.20 am
“Fakery, Fantasy, and The Future”
Now that AI has launched itself across the planet the big questions are: who will it disrupt, who will it destroy and does business have any idea of what is about to hit?.
by
Howard Saunders
Futurist
22nd & 5th
London
Howard Saunders
10.20 am - 10.30 am
Break
10.30 am - 11.30 am
“Imagining the Real Estate Company of the Future”
In 2024, real estate faces challenges as never before. The inflation shock of 2022-3 driving up interest rates was the final nail in the coffin for the old real estate business model already challenged enough by COVID’s impact on occupiers, shorter leases, sustainability regulations, digital revolution and increasing operational complexity. While incumbent real estate businesses are fighting fires, are we to anticipate an appearance and rapid growth of a challenger business, a ‘Revolute’ of real estate? How would it look?
with
Alister Moreno
CEO
Clikalia
Madrid
Abigail Shapiro
Managing Director
Oxford Properties
London
Chantal Clavier
Partner and Head of RE
Heidrick & Struggles
London
Conductor
Valentina Shegoyan
Founding Partner
OPREIM
London
Alister Moreno
Abigail Shapiro
Chantal Clavier
Valentina Shegoyan
11.30 am - 12.00 pm
Coffee & Refreshments Break
12.00 am - 1.00 pm
A Master Class: “Resilience and Adapting to Change”
The industry is becoming more relevant to society and leveraging data in new ways to demonstrate value.
However, as the metrics of value continue to evolve and change, how have successful investors and developers evolved their culture, skills and priorities to remain competitive and to differentiate the places they create to focus on purpose and long-term value creation?
with
Bill Hughes
Global Head of Real Assets
Legal & General
London
David Partridge
Chairman
Related Argent
London
Conductor
Despina Katsikakis
Global Head of Total Workplace
President of the British Council for Offices
Cushman & Wakefield
London
Bill Hughes
David Partridge
Despina Katsikakis
1.00 pm - 1.15 pm
Break
1.15 pm - 1.45 pm
What AI Is to Mean for RE
with
Nacho de Pinedo
Co-Founder and CEO
ISDI
Madrid
Javier Baselga
Real Estate Industry Manager
Google Cloud
Madrid

Antonio Gámiz

Innovation Officer
Merlin Properties
Barcelona
Nacho de Pinedo
Javier Baselga
Antonio Gámiz
1.45 pm - 2.15 pm
The Boom in Data Centres and Energy Infra
with
Brittany Marley
Senior Director
Edged
San Francisco
David Brush
Senior Advisor
Merlin Properties
Los Angeles
Brittany Marley
David Brush
2.15 pm - 4.00 pm
Networking Lunch Buffet in the garden
4.00 pm - 5.30 pm
Chairman for an Afternoon: “Redesigning Property Companies”
An interactive and collaborative session in which groups of 5–8 participants will “chair” one of seven archetypal property companies in Europe and design their strategy for the future along the lines of asset class, geography, value chain, management skills, tech, ESG, capital structure and shareholding. Each table will present their
“new” strategy to the group, with the audience voting on which strategies to support.
with
Struan Robertson
Chairman EMEA Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging
Bank of America Securities
Paris
5.30 pm - 6.00 pm
Coffee & Refreshments Break
6.00 pm - 7.00 pm
Closing Session: A Chat with Borja. “What Should Investors Do Now?”
Speakers
Beverley Kilbride
Chief Operating Officer, Europe
LaSalle Investment Management
Paris
Cristina García-Peri
Senior Partner – Head of Strategy
Azora
Madrid
Diego de la Mora
Managing Partner
M10 Capital Partners
Madrid
Conductor
Borja Sierra
Executive Vice President
Savills
Madrid
Beverley Kilbride
Cristina García-Peri
Diego de la Mora
Borja Sierra
7.00 pm - 7.15 pm
What Did We Learn?
Key Takeaways from Two Days of “Change”
by
Chantal Clavier
Partner and Head of RE
Heidrick & Struggles
London
Struan Robertson
Chairman EMEA Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging
Bank of America Securities
Paris
Chantal Clavier
Struan Robertson
7.15 pm
End of Learning Program
& Happy Networking Hour
9.00 pm
Cocktail & Farewell Dinner at ROTO Restaurant
A charming restaurant in Marina Ibiza, a unique space by the sea and under the stars. An uncommon and unforgettable collegial experience of enjoying Ibiza while developing business friendships.

THE NETWORKING EXPERIENCE

DAY 3 / Friday, May 31st

Extended Program

For those willing to extend their networking (and fun time!!) with peers, on our last day we always organize a fab luncheon at one of the hottest “chiringuito” (Spanish word for a restaurant “very much on” the beach) on the neighboring island of Formentera (30 minutes away on a motorboat ride).

11.00 am: Assembling at the Gran Hotel’s lobby.
12.00 pm: Yachts departing from the marina towards Formentera

1.30 pm: Lunch at one of the famous “chringuitos” (Spanish word for “restaurant on the beach”) on “Illetes Beach”.

5.00 pm: Yachts depart from Formentera.
5.45 pm: Yachts arrive to Ibiza’s marina

THE ISLAND EXPERIENCE

ALL DAYS

For spouses only

For those willing to travel to such an appealing place as Ibiza together with his or her “better half”, SQUARE will deliver a special program to experience different aspects of the island, from lunching at an exclusive beach club to go shopping at the Dalias hippy market in San Carlos, or from visiting the lovely little village of Santa Gertrudis, to shopping around the Ibiza “old town”.