Web Summit

The “largest tech conference in the world” is back to Lisbon! Between November 6th-9th, 2017, the largest and most global gathering of CEOs and journalists from all over the planet is taking place in the FIL and Altice Arena in the Portuguese Capital.

The incredibly fast-growing event started in 2010 in Dublin, Ireland with the intention of connecting the technology community with all industries. Its first edition counted with 400 attendees and has currently expended to over 60.000 from more than 170 countries and is considered Europe’s largest and most important technology, entrepreneurship and innovation marketplace. This year, 1.400 investors and 2.250 exhibitors are participating in the meeting and the over 20 conferences that are happening simultaneously, focusing on different topics, like music, the car industry, financial technology, health in the digital age, marketing, robotics, sports, etc. The main speakers (out of more than 1.000) of the current edition are Al Gore, ex vice president of the US; Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner who was responsible for the fining of Google; António Guterres, the only Portuguese in the position of secretary general in the UNO; François Holland, ex-president of France and Brad Parscale, responsible for president Trump’s digital campaign. But also models like Sara Sampaio, magazine editors like Suzy Menkes (Vogue), or Caitlyn Jenner, the transsexual speaking up for the LGBT community, will be present.

Apart from the talks and discussions, this event is a big opportunity for startups. The most promising (according to the organization of Web Summit) will be able to present their products and get in touch with investors. Additionally, there is a pitch for all business ideas, offering 100.000€ to the winner. This type of visibility and financial aid has been a tremendous support for the startups and especially the winners of the last editions: Import.io quadrupled its number of employees in only four years, Codacy (a Portuguese company) received an investment of over 4 million euros and is represented in over 6.700 cities, Bizimply managed to get Bono from U2 to invest in their company and Kubo-Robot, last year’s champion from Denmark, has now a worth of an estimated three million euros.

However, an event of this size is not only important for entrepreneurs and investors, but also for the hosting city! There is a very high mediatic exposure during (and also before and after the happening), putting Lisbon (and Portugal) in the spotlight, not only among the international technology community but all potential tourists, increasing the country’s visibility and popularity enormously: Last year’s edition was covered in the national media of over 100 countries, being the USA the ones who paid more attention to it and published to most articles about it. The top ten countries that referred the most to Lisbon in their publication after Web Summit 2016 were: USA, Germany, Spain, France, UK, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Ireland and Australia.

Paddy Cosgrave, main organizer of Web Summit, stated that there were three cities that had all the necessary conditions to choose from – Paris, Amsterdam and Lisbon.

So why Lisbon? According to Cosgrave, the decisive factor was the Portuguese technology community’s enthusiasm and involvement in social media platforms, constantly inviting and finally convincing him to come to their capital. On the official Web Summit 2017 website, the following statement can be read:

Come for Web Summit. Stay for Lisbon.

Here at Web Summit, we’ve fallen in love with Lisbon. The colourful, bohemian Portuguese capital has been our home for two years, and in that time we’ve picked up a few tips to share with you on making the most of your stay in one of Europe’s most vibrant and exciting cities.

 Here, at Wine With a View, we couldn’t agree more with this description of our wonderful hometown, and the motto for one of Web Summit’s activities, the “Sunset Summit” shows us that their eye for beauty and taste is on the right track:

The perfect way to end a day at Web Summit

 Watch the sun set over the beautiful city of Lisbon and unwind before Night Summit at the beautiful Portugal Pavilion. Check out some of Portugal’s best street artists, listen to some local musicians and taste some beautiful Portuguese wines, all while taking in some of Lisbon’s most beautiful views.

 And their sight-seeing guide, which classifies Lisbon as being “bursting with a unique, colorful charm”, encourages their stay to “relax in the calm, bohemian atmosphere”: their selection includes (apart from the Rossio Square, Chiado, Praça do Comércio, Rua Augusta, Bairro Alto, the Calouste Gulbenkian museum and Ericeira) the breath-taking Belém Tower. To this point, we can add a suggestion: When there, stop for a little while, relax, and have a Wine With a View experience: sip one of the best Portuguese wines while enjoying the magnificent view of the Tower, the river Tagus and the “Portuguese Golden Gate Bridge”, the Ponte 25 de Abril.