- September 15, 2017
- Posted by: admin
- Category: Uncategorized
Web Summit is an annual technology conference held in Lisbon, Portugal, considered the largest tech event in the world. Founded in 2009, by Paddy Cosgrave, David Kelly and Daire Hickey, Web Summit was originally held in Dublin, Ireland, until 2016, when it moved permanently to Lisbon, Portugal.Web Summit has been described as the most important tech event in the world.
The conference’s topics center on internet technology, emerging technologies, and venture capitalism. Speakers have included a mix of CEOs, subject-matter experts, celebrities, and politicians, such as Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Al Gore, and U.N Secretary-General António Guterres, among numerous others. Web Summit partners range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, with attendees representing all levels and sectors of the global high technology industry.
In September 2015 Web Summit co-founder and CEO Paddy Cosgrave announced that the event would be held in Lisbon for three consecutive editions, from 2016 to 2018. Cosgrave cited the local startup scene and a “cosmopolitan city with better infrastructure conditions and a larger number of hotel rooms” for the decision.
The three-day event held from November 7—10 at the Altice Arena, site of Expo ’98, drew 53,056 attendees from more than 150 countries and more than 1,500 start-ups spread over 21 venues.
Among the more than 600 speakers were a number of tech top executives from around the world, including John Chambers of Cisco, Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer, and Amazon CTO Werner Vogels. Also speaking at the event were prominent figures from non-tech areas, such as actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Salil Shetty of Amnesty International and Mogens Lykketoft, president of the general assembly at the United Nations, as well as footballer Luís Figo and both the Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister António Costa. The percentage of women among speakers at the Web Summit was 47% according to independent estimates.
1,000 speakers are initially confirmed for the conference. From the political sphere, speakers such as Former Vice President of the United States of America Al Gore, European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager, and former president of France François Hollande were announced early. In addition to these speakers, big names in tech attending were Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Oracle CEO Mark Hurd, Microsoft president Brad Smith, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, Arm Holdings CEO Simon Segars, Slack co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield, Asana co-founder and CEO and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Alexander Nix of Cambridge Analytica and Booking.com president and CEO Gillian Tans.
Speakers include former world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, actress and activist Sophia Bush, former Portuguese professional football player and Ballon D’Or winner Luis Figo, Vogue international editor Suzy Menkes, former chess world champion Garry Kasparov, musician Wyclef Jean, and Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham.