Events
Book signings and conversations across the Caribbean
Past events
Called to Wealth Summit: resilient toward what end?
Thursday, 23 July 2026 · 10:30 - 11:00 a.m. · completed
Called to Wealth International Summit, The St. Regis Aruba Resort
A keynote slot at the Called to Wealth International Summit, an economics-and-faith gathering that drew speakers and investors from across the region to the St. Regis. The talk took Aruba's tourism as its case: an economy that has become extraordinarily good at one thing, and a resilience that may be pointed toward the wrong end. This is the conch paradox carried onto the stage. The queen conch grows the perfect shell for protection, and that same perfection, too heavy to move and too sealed to adapt, is what traps it. Against the conch Rendell set the cockroach, which survives by staying unarmoured and adaptable rather than by fortifying. He closed by turning the argument back on the room: what is your conch, how are you sealing it, and what are you leaving the people who come after. Photos courtesy of Jessica Besselink.
Book signing at De Wit & Van Dorp
Wednesday, 20 May 2026 · 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. · completed
De Wit & Van Dorp, Dakota branch, Aruba
The second Aruba signing, at De Wit & Van Dorp Dakota. Featured here with Lincoln D. Gomez, whose feature review of The Conch Paradox ran four days later in his LinkedIn newsletter and in Trempan. See the press page.
Book signing at Plaza Bookshop
Saturday, 16 May 2026 · 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. · completed
Plaza Bookshop, Ave Milio Croes 8A, Oranjestad, Aruba
The Aruba launch signing, hosted by Nico Luydens and the Plaza Bookshop team. Twenty consignment copies placed on the shelf with first-mover exclusivity through the signing date.
Klimaattafel Bonaire: presenting the conch paradox
Wednesday, 21 January 2026 · before publication · completed
Klimaattafel (climate roundtable), Bonaire
The organizers had queen conches on the table, each with a hole punched through it. That is how fishermen, and before them the Caiquetío people across the ABC islands, extracted the animal: the shell is too heavy to crack and too curved to reach into, so you punch through and the conch's perfect protection becomes irrelevant. Rendell used the shells in his presentation on the conch paradox, on how the very adaptations that protect us can become the reason we cannot respond when conditions change. The conversation that followed drew examples from Curaçao, Aruba and the Netherlands, treating resilience as a Kingdom-wide question rather than Bonaire's alone. This was months before the book was out.
Save the date
What makes small island economies different?
Tuesday, 22 September 2026 · 4:00 p.m. walk-in, 4:15 p.m. start
Rotary hall, Landhuis Zeelandia, Willemstad, Curaçao
A mini-seminar of the Economenclub, the Association of Dutch Caribbean Economists. Rendell opens with a talk drawn from The Conch Paradox, followed by Guido Rojer on the characteristics and dynamics of small island economies, and an announcement of the international island conference coming to Curaçao in June 2027. Copies of the book are available after the talk. Registration and the full programme are with the club at economenclub.com. The closing networking reception is for club members and invited guests.
The Conch Paradox at the University of St. Martin
Wednesday, 30 September 2026 · 7:00 p.m.
University of St. Martin, Philipsburg
A short talk and then an open conversation, with students from three courses at the university and members of a local book club. Free entry, limited seating. Details, and how to let Rendell know you are coming.
Get the book
Available in Aruba bookstores, at Donner Rotterdam, and as a Kindle ebook worldwide.
Where to buyHosting an event or interested in a signing in your city? Get in touch.