Speaking & Events
I have been lead emcee at South Summit and Valencia Digital Summit. I also host the events nobody live-streams: innovation days, client presentations, leadership offsites. Rooms of three thousand and rooms of twelve. Spanish or English.
Upcoming
Recent
Why me
I evaluate deep tech companies for a living. I work with European deep tech funds on deal flow and due diligence, and at the Deep Tech Institute I work with corporates on the same technologies. When a founder on stage says TRL 6, or a panellist starts on solid-state electrolytes, I do not need a briefing note. I can ask the second question.
Pitch stages are the hardest thing to host. Blocks of ten or twenty startups, five minutes each, a jury running late, and one founder whose laptop will not connect. At South Summit the competition puts about a hundred startups on stage; I personally run roughly fifty of them. I have done this for years, including the KOTRA deep tech competition at Mobile World Congress.
I host in Spanish and English at the same level, including simultaneous switching mid-panel when a speaker changes language.
I read the decks. I learn the names. I write the transitions. Most of what makes an event feel effortless happens in the two weeks before it.
Conferences
Public conference work, most of it recurring.
Lead emcee, main stage and startup competition
Madrid · All fifteen editions
South Summit ran its fifteenth edition in June 2026, with more than 18,000 attendees and over 7,000 startups. I have been one of the lead emcees across all fifteen editions, running a main stage and the startup competition. In 2026 I introduced His Majesty King Felipe VI at the opening.
Emcee and host
Valencia · Since 2021
VDS has run at the City of Arts and Sciences since 2018 and now draws 12,000 attendees from over 120 countries. I have hosted since 2021.
Corporate event host
Lisbon
EDP runs its own private event for staff and guests in Lisbon during Web Summit week, and I hosted it. To be exact about it: an EDP corporate event held alongside the conference, not an official Web Summit stage.
Interviewer and host
Amsterdam · 2019
On-stage interview with Stuart Russell (UC Berkeley; Human Compatible) at World Summit AI Amsterdam.
Keynotes
Hosting is most of the work, but I also keynote on deep tech, AI and what is actually coming, at conferences, corporate offsites and university stages.
Topics and formats →CinnovatE Lab at South Summit
Online · November 2025. Talks on the climate tech investment landscape, materials and their strategic significance for deep tech, commercialisation and scaling, regulation, and pitching for deep tech.
Athens · June 2012. Infecting the Dots: How Information Spreads.
TEDxESADE
April 2012. Achieving WOWness.
Google Campus Madrid
2025. Talks on deep tech and sustainability, and how the two go hand in hand.
Tetuan Valley
Recurring talks on pitch strategy and storytelling across fifteen years of the accelerator, including 2025 and 2026.
SETE: Redefining Realities
Athens · 2019. Keynote on future trends in urban travel for the Greek Association of Travel (SETE).
Private and corporate
This is the growing half of the business. Internal events have a harder brief than conferences. There is no ticket price justifying the day, so the room decides in the first ten minutes whether this was worth leaving their desk for.
Innovation Day, host and moderator
Madrid · Two editions, 2023 and 2026
Internal innovation day for Iberia, run twice. A working room of about 50 people.
Innovation Day, host and moderator
Madrid · 2025, returning 2026
Hosted FCC’s innovation day in 2025 for around 150 people, including a roundtable with the directors of each business line. The 2026 edition is upcoming.
Senior management offsite, host and facilitator
Spain · 2026
Leadership team session with the general manager, about 100 people in the room.
Deep tech pitch competition, presenter
Mobile World Congress, Barcelona · 2026
Presented the Korean deep tech pitch competition at Mobile World Congress, run by KOTRA — the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, the trade body of the Ministry of Trade that operates under the Korean Embassy in Spain.
Client Day, host
Barcelona · 2026, now annual
Client day for WIVI Vision, the Barcelona company doing AI-based visual therapy, in front of about 180 guests. Booked again as an annual engagement.
On stage
Booking a host from a photograph is a bad idea. A showreel is coming. Until then, these are recent stage stills.
Formats
Main stage across one or more days. Opening, transitions, speaker intros, timekeeping, closing. I write the running order with your team beforehand.
Single sessions inside somebody else’s event. I read the material, brief the panellists, and keep it out of the standard four-people-agreeing format.
Startup stages, demo days, internal innovation competitions. Includes jury coordination and founder briefing before the stage, which is usually where these events go wrong.
References
“I pay closer attention to Alex's introductions than to some of the pitches. He frames the company so the pitch actually lands, and now and then he explains the business better than the founder does.”
“First time one of these has run smoothly, and people genuinely enjoyed it. The roundtable pulled real substance out of the directors of every business line, which is not what usually happens in that room.”
“He is good fun to work with, and he took the trouble to understand what our teams were actually building rather than just running the agenda. That combination is rarer than you would think.”
“That was impressive. We do not often meet a host who genuinely understands deep tech the way he does.”
“Press42 has been key to the success of this new edition of The South Summit. Their deep knowledge and insights on how to add real value to the stakeholders and their experience in the field has been tremendously valuable for this project.”
Tell me the date, the city, the audience, and the language. I will tell you whether I am free and what it costs.
Corporate innovation days often come in on shorter notice than conferences. That is normally fine.
Or email me at hello@press42.com
Download the press kit (bio, photos, past events).
