The global economy has experienced profound transformations in the last decade. One of the worst economic and financial crisis has left lasting effects on the way how markets work. The old receipts struggle to foster a much desired recovery. However, at the heart of the market we still find the final customers as key actors. An important part of the economic activity depends on their needs, their preferences and the way that companies design to satisfy them. If clients buy, companies grow and, as a consequence, the economy should grow. It is fair to say that customer experience and its management in the 21st century are profoundly different. So we need to develop new ways to understand the customer and serve it. What is the best way to deliver high value added services to the final clients? How can we prevent customer misbehavior in the sharing economy? How can we organize data on customers in order to understand them better? Why are we growing so little after the big recession? These are some of the questions that our invited experts will try to answer in these series of conferences. 

US Real GDP grew at 3 % per year for almost 40 years from 1970 to 2007. The number 3% does not have the same scientific standing as 9.8 meters per second squared, but 3 % has been almost as reliable. This behavior seems to have been completely and permanently abandoned after the 2008/2009 global downturn, with US GDP growth pretty consistently at 2% not 3 %, and with a very troubled labor market. It's not just the US which seems to have entered a new era. The whole global economy is stumbling. What is happening here? How can we take care of the growing number of elderly in the advanced developed countries with such weak growth?