Santiago, Chile

Santiago pulled double duty as both a stage for a keynote on AI in education and a city that rewarded every extra day spent wandering it.

The Stage: Universidad del Desarrollo

The Association of British Schools in Chile (ABSCH) held its annual Educational Conference at Universidad del Desarrollo, and the campus was the right setting for the conversation ahead. UDD has built a reputation in Chile as an entrepreneurial, forward-leaning university, with strong programs in engineering, design and innovation feeding a broader national push around AI and technology in education. Glass-walled lecture halls, open collaboration spaces, students moving between classes with the easy confidence of a campus that sees itself as building the future rather than just teaching about it.

Against that backdrop, I delivered a keynote and workshop on AI in education: “Disrupt, Adapt, Preserve—or Fall Behind,” followed by a more hands-on session, “AI & Education: What the Best Schools Are Getting Right.” The room was full of heads and teachers from British schools across Chile and the wider region, wrestling with the same question every school is wrestling with right now — how to let artificial intelligence change the way they teach without losing what makes a school worth attending in the first place. Standing at the front of a university built on innovation, talking to educators about how to adapt without losing their footing, felt like the right argument in the right room.

Las Condes and Vitacura

Once the conference wrapped, Lisa and I traded the hotel for an Airbnb and settled into the neighborhoods of Las Condes and Vitacura — Santiago’s leafy, moneyed east, tucked right up against the foothills of the Andes. Both areas move at an easy, well-kept pace: tree-lined streets, joggers along the Mapocho, glass office towers giving way to quiet residential blocks within a few minutes’ walk.

The dining more than lived up to its reputation. Vitacura in particular has become one of the best food neighborhoods in South America, with a dense run of restaurants doing everything from elevated Chilean classics to sushi to modern European — the kind of scene where you could eat well every night for a month and not repeat yourself. Las Condes held its own too, with a slightly more low-key, neighborhood feel to its cafés and dinner spots.

Parque Arauco anchored a fair bit of the everyday rhythm — one of Santiago’s premier malls, equal parts shopping center and social hub, busy from midday through the evening with families, students and business lunches all sharing the same space.

Sights and Sounds Along the Way

A few stops carried the week beyond conference rooms and dinner tables:

• Valle Nevado. A gondola ride up to 3,025 meters, the Andes stretching out in every direction — thin air, bright sun, and a welcome sign that made the elevation feel earned.
• Templo Bahá’í de Santiago de Chile. Nine curved petals of translucent stone and glass on the edge of the city, quiet inside in a way that has nothing to do with any one faith.
• Catedral Metropolitana and Plaza de Armas. The historic heart of Santiago — colonial architecture, street performers, and the everyday churn of a capital city all converging in one square.
• Barrio Pueblito Los Dominicos. A cluster of small artisan shops and stalls built around a colonial-era church, unhurried and handmade in a way that stood in nice contrast to the glass towers back in Vitacura. This was my absolute favorite place and I walked away with a custom leather backpack that doubles as my travel bag.
• Santuario de la Inmaculada Concepción, Cerro San Cristóbal. The city’s high point, literally — a hilltop sanctuary with a sweeping view over all of Santiago and the mountains beyond.

Taken together, the week was a good reminder of why I keep saying yes to these trips: a morning spent arguing that schools have to adapt without losing themselves, and an afternoon spent standing on a mountain, or in a plaza, watching a place that has done exactly that for centuries.