By Sally Warburton
The 15th annual Web Summit took place November 11th to 14th, 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal. And what a beautiful and welcoming city Lisbon is! It’s eight years since the November 2016 first edition of Web Summit in Lisbon. The Web Summit took place at the Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL), located in the Parque das Nações district, a modern waterfront area revitalized for the Expo ’98 World Exposition.
The Web Summit is one of the largest and most influential tech conferences in the world. The Web Summit in Lisbon, brought together innovators, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts from around the globe. Before 2016 the Web Summit took place in Dublin, Ireland.
This year’s Web Summit started off with great excitement and anticipation with the Opening Ceremonies on the early evening of Monday, November 11th. These were held at the MEO Arena (formerly Altice Arena; also referred to by its former name, Pavilhão Atlântico) a multi-purpose indoor arena in Lisbon, Portugal. Built in 1998 for Expo ‘98, the arena is among the largest indoor arenas in Europe and the largest in Portugal. Thousands of Web Summit attendees were there in the packed arena to hear about the excitement of the upcoming 3 days. CEO and co-founder Paddy Cosgrave welcomed everyone and shared his enthusiasm. To fittingly start the event Paddy asked attendees to turn to 3 people they didn’t know and introduce themselves. A fitting way to start the conference with making connections – a strong focus of the tech conference. The Web Summit is described as ‘The world’s premier tech conference’ and ‘Where the future goes to be born’. Special guest, Pharrel Williams, winner of many Grammy awards, shared a discussion about his early life, inspirations and hopes for the future. The opening launch event also included speeches from Portuguese politicians, entrepreneurs and a discussion on artificial intelligence, which was the dominant theme of the Web Summit. A large group of selected startups representing the 100s of startups at the Web Summit over the 4 days appeared on the stage.
The Web Summit is not only the conference during the day but it’s a time for connecting with others during the Night Summit. Night Summit was different this year – instead of huge groups of 1000’s of people as at other Web Summits… this year there were Meetups at smaller venues with Whatsapp groups created to connect and keep in touch. During The Web Summit approximately 3,000 startups pitched their products to 1,000 investors, and 71,000 visitors took part in events and discussions.
A big part of The Web Summit is Night Summit which included meetups at different and very interesting, fun venues throughout Lisbon.. Letting attendees get to know bars, restaurants and cafés in Lisbon while meeting like-minded attendees from around the world. One venue had a piano ready to be played which was quickly used by a talented musician attendee from Lisbon for the enjoyment of the packed bar.
Weroad Meetups at Museu de Cerveja (Beer Museum in Centre Square) and the walks Weroad is a company which organizes small group tours all over the world… with the motto – You bring the backpack, we’ll bring the friends. To the ends of the earth… Bucket list destinations just waiting to be discovered! Check out their website https://www.weroad.com Justin and Lucy and others were excellent ambassadors of Weroad at the meetups they’d planned during The Web Summit in Lisbon. An excellent way to connect with other Web Summit attendees! Lisbon Free Walking Tour & Web Summit Social… as Lisbon transformed into a hub of innovation for the Web Summit. Another excellent free walking tour company is Sandemans Walking Tours https://www.neweuropetours.eu/free-tours Another perfect healthy activity to meet like-minded explorers!
So what exactly is the Web Summit? It includes Startups. Stages. ¨Pitches. Talks. Meetings. Mentors. Women in Tech. Lots of walking. Lots of connections. Business. Fintech. AI. Robotics Marketing. People from around the world. Apps. App creators. Students. Music industry. Sports. Gaming. Oh, did I mention AI ! Anything missing? And all the excitement and buzz that goes with those! From Poland, Norway, Brazil, Portugal, South Africa, Ukraine and many more…there was a contagious energy – more than 14 stages throughout the 5 joining buildings Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the most common topic along with robotics, App creation, virtual reality, drones and technology in general. Themes of health, medicine and hospitals, sports, interior design, promoting brands, solid waste, ecology. The joining buildings were filled with booths from Portugal, Qatar, Brazil, Canada, Serbia, Ukraine, to name a few. Lots of chances to speak to the Startups at their stand-up booths – that’s why they were there – to promote their apps and companies! Very interesting speaking to Daniel Tanque of https://hyr.travel/ – seen on the stage with other Startups opening night – whose app HYR Travel brings the world’s museums to your fingertips through immersive VR experiences. Magnificent photos!
So interesting speaking to one of the many Web Summit attendees from Brazil, Bruno Santiago CEO at Imagina Digital https://imaginadigital.com.br/sobre/ Many Brazilians in Portugal due to speaking the same language.
Some highlights – Media Press Conferences with Paddy Cosgrave,Luis Montenegro, Prime Minister of Portugal, Carlos Moedas Mayor at City of Lisbon, Frank Cooper VISA, Qualcomm CEO & President Cristiano Amon, Michael Wade IMD Business School, Alex Bornyakov Ukraine Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, Vasco Pedro Unbabel Co-founder, Musician Daniel Bedingfield and Hangout Founder & CEO Joseph Perla. Co-Founders of Supercar Blondie and SBX Cars, Alex & Nik Nirschi. Grammy-winning artist & technologist, Imogen Heap, launching Auracles. Web Summit Winners Announcement of startup Framedrop winning 15K Euros prize!
The Web Summit app was very helpful and user friendly… including a personal schedule, daily schedule of events, way to connect with other attendees, Night summit Meetups etc. The Women in Tech area was very popular as were the specific themed Meetups at the Web Summit during the day. An excellent idea for connecting like-minded conference attendees. Well-known figures from the worlds of sports and media were part of the conference.
Lisbon has so much to offer… delicious, healthy food, coffee and beer. Beautiful tree-lined streets for walking, historical buildings, shopping, Pastel de Nata, walking tours (Sandeman, Weroad) , peaceful botanical gardens, bars, restaurants, museums, art galleries, live music and shows. Cooking classes. Walking and exploring by the waterfront and enjoying the gorgeous sunsets. Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal is amazing!
The Web Summit was again a wonderful success. Europe’s biggest tech conference in a beautiful place…. Lisbon, Portugal. Mark your calendars for next year 2025 in Lisbon. In the meantime there are Web Summits in 2025 – Doha, Qatar in February. Web Summit Rio, Brazil in April. And new (since Collision Toronto is no more…) is The Web Summit Vancouver in May 2025.
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