Inside Barcelona’s Tech and Business Scene: Campus du Lac at ESEI

From 19 to 24 April 2026, ten students from Campus du Lac visited ESEI International Business School in Barcelona for a focused and intensive educational tour built around the theme of artificial intelligence, leadership and the future of business strategy.

Over the course of their stay, students completed two workshops with industry professionals, visited two of Barcelona’s most prominent tech and marketing companies, and received a Certificate of Attendance marking the end of their programme.

An Introduction to ESEI and Barcelona

The week began with a welcome and overview presentation at ESEI, giving students a grounding in the school’s approach to international business education and an introduction to Barcelona as one of Europe’s leading hubs for technology, startups and innovation.

Workshop 1: Search Everywhere, Paradigm and LLM Optimisation with Kate Busby

The first workshop was led by Kate Busby, Fractional CMO and AI Marketing Professor at ESEI. Her session introduced students to one of the most significant shifts currently reshaping how businesses reach their audiences: the move from traditional search engine optimisation to a Search Everywhere paradigm, and the emerging discipline of Large Language Model Optimisation (LLMO).

As AI-powered tools reshape how people discover content, products and services, marketing and business professionals need to understand how to create strategies that work across every surface where audiences are searching, including AI-generated results. Kate’s session gave students a practical and current framework for navigating this shift, grounded in her direct experience working with startups and scale-ups on AI-driven growth.

Company Visit: Pier01 at Tech Barcelona

On the afternoon of the first day, students visited Pier01, Barcelona’s leading tech hub, located at Palau de Mar in the city’s port district. The visit was arranged as part of the educational tour, with the session open to ESEI students and alumni as well.

The visit included a presentation on Barcelona’s tech ecosystem and the local startup landscape, a guided tour of the building facilities, and a session in the Pier01 auditorium led by Carla Zaldúa –  the CEO of Accessible / Motional Hub, focused on how their work connects HR, AI and talent-related challenges.

For students studying the future of business and technology, seeing the infrastructure behind Barcelona’s startup scene first-hand was a compelling complement to the academic content of the workshops.

Workshop 2: Emotional Intelligence in the AI Era with Bela Weksler

The second workshop was led by Bela Weksler, an HR and leadership development specialist with over ten years of international experience across multinationals and startups. Her session focused on Emotional Intelligence in the AI era, specifically on strategies for leaders to manage AI anxiety within their teams and organisations.

As AI adoption accelerates across every sector, the human side of that transition is increasingly recognised as one of the most significant challenges for leaders. Bela’s session gave students practical frameworks for understanding and responding to the emotional dimensions of AI-driven change, drawing on her background in psychology, coaching and talent development.

Company Visit: Semrush

Students also visited the Barcelona offices of Semrush led by Axel Ugarte and Fernando Angulo, one of the world’s leading digital marketing platforms. The visit gave students a behind-the-scenes look at how a global tech company operates from its Barcelona hub and reinforced the practical context for the AI and marketing strategy content covered in the workshops.

Certificate of Attendance

The academic programme concluded with a Certificate of Attendance ceremony, formally recognising each student’s participation in the educational tour and the completion of their workshop programme at ESEI.