Collado Villalba will host the first edition of the Cybersecurity in Local Administration Conferences, VillalbIA 2026, on Wednesday, September 2nd at the Peñalba Cultural Center. The national event runs from 1:30 PM to 6:00 PM, is free to attend and open to all residents of Collado Villalba and the Sierra de Guadarrama interested in the impact of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity on municipal public services.
Promoted by the Councilor for Digitalization and New Technologies, Miguel Aisa, the conference is intended to become an annual meeting point for discussing digital transformation in Spanish municipalities. Aisa underlined the growing threat landscape and the role of AI, saying: “VillalbIA is our response: bringing the best to Collado Villalba to learn and commit together.” The mayor, Mariola Vargas, will preside over the opening and closing ceremonies and warned that “artificial intelligence is already in our city councils, whether we like it or not. The question is not if it will arrive, but if we will know how to use it well and protect ourselves from those who use it against us.”
VillalbIA 2026 programme
VillalbIA 2026 is structured around four debate panels and the screening of a self-produced documentary on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. The schedule includes a panel titled “AI in city councils” featuring representatives from municipalities implementing digital transformation projects, followed by a networking break with demonstrations. A technical panel will address the real challenges of implementing AI with limited resources, and another panel will examine the ecosystem of cybersecurity solutions for the public sector. The event concludes with a final panel on “the future of AI in local administration.”
The conference will also screen “Mythos — The AI that raised cybersecurity alarms,” a ten-minute documentary that addresses a relevant 2026 case at the intersection of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity and serves as a transition to the closing panel with municipal representatives.
Participants and purpose
Participants include political representatives and executives from Spanish city councils, local IT technicians, companies specializing in public sector cybersecurity, and coordination bodies for Spanish municipalism. Organizers say the event responds to mounting concern among public managers about a significant increase in cyberattacks on local administrations, noting that many city councils lack the technical and budgetary resources to confront sophisticated threats amplified by generative artificial intelligence.
Attendance is free and open to the public; the Peñalba Cultural Center will host the sessions from 1:30 PM to 6:00 PM on September 2nd.
