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Web Summit

Coordinates: 38°46′4.9″N 9°5′42.6″W / 38.768028°N 9.095167°W / 38.768028; -9.095167
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Web Summit
StatusActive
VenueMEO Arena and Lisbon Exhibition & Congress Centre
Location(s)Lisbon
Coordinates38°46′4.9″N 9°5′42.6″W / 38.768028°N 9.095167°W / 38.768028; -9.095167
CountryPortugal
Inaugurated2009 (Dublin)
FoundersPaddy Cosgrave, David Kelly and Daire Hickey
Most recent13–16 November 2023
Next event11–14 November 2024
Attendance70,000 (2022)
LeaderPaddy Cosgrave
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata
Praça do Comércio in Lisbon, Portugal

Web Summit is an annual technology conference held in Lisbon, Portugal.[1][2] Founded in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave, David Kelly, and Daire Hickey, Web Summit was held in Dublin, Ireland until 2016, when it moved to Lisbon.[3][4] The conference's topics center on internet technology, emerging technologies, marketing and venture capitalism. Web Summit's partners range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, with attendees representing all levels and sectors of the global high technology industry.

Web Summit runs events throughout the world including F.ounders,[5] RISE conference in Hong Kong,[6] Collision in Toronto,[7] SURGE in Bangalore, MoneyConf in Dublin and Web Summit Rio in Rio de Janeiro.[8]

Speakers

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Speakers have included a mix of CEOs, subject-matter experts, celebrities, and politicians, including Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Al Gore, Bono, and U.N Secretary-General António Guterres.

Partners

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Web Summit's partners include Fortune 500 companies, government entities, and private foundations, such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Cisco Systems and Microsoft.[9]

History

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Timeline of events
Year Dates Venue
2009 October 30–November 1 ?
2010 November 15–17 Chartered Accountants House
2011 October 17–19 Royal Dublin Society
2012 October 17–18 Tramway House, 32 Dartry Road,
Dublin 6, D06 XT86, Ireland
2013 October 30–31
2014 November 3–6
2015 November 3–5
2016 November 7–10 MEO Arena and Lisbon Exhibition & Congress Centre
2017 November 6–9
2018 November 5–8
2019 November 4–7
2020 December 2–4 Digital
2021 November 1–4 MEO Arena and Lisbon Exhibition & Congress Centre
2022 November 1–4
2023 November 13–16
2024 February 26–29 Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC)
2024 November 11–14 MEO Arena and Lisbon Exhibition & Congress Centre

2024

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In 2024, Web Summit plans to hold a new event in Doha, Qatar[10][11]

On January 24, 2024, Katherine Maher announced her departure as CEO of Web Summit to become CEO of National Public Radio (NPR).[12] In April 2024, Web Summit staff were told Cosgrave had decided to return as CEO.[13]

Web Summit is set to debut a new conference in Qatar in February 2024. The exhibition will take place at the DECC and is expected to attract thousands of international entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders in the tech world.[14]"

2023

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In October 2023, a number of sponsors and technology companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon cancelled their participation[15] due to the founder's statement on X (formerly Twitter) regarding the Israel–Hamas war, in which he asserted that he was "shocked at the rhetoric and actions of so many Western leaders and governments, with the exception in particular of Ireland’s government, who for once are doing the right thing"[16] following the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, saying that solidarity with Israel "will fall apart" if the response to Hamas' assault "goes too far."[17]

Hours after Cosgrave's tweets, Israel's ambassador in Lisbon, Dor Shapira, vehemently repudiated Cosgrave and publicly informed the city's mayor that his country would boycott the event.[18] Cosgrave later apologized, defending "Israel's right to exist and to defend itself", thus condemning Hamas.[19] Cosgrave resigned as CEO on October 21, 2023, stating that "my personal comments have become a distraction from the event, and our team, our sponsors, our startups and the people who attend".[20][21] Katherine Maher was later appointed CEO to replace Cosgrave.[22] In January 2024 it was announced that Maher would be cease to be CEO on 1 March to take up the position of chief executive at NPR.[23]

In November 2023, Web Summit announced the launch of a new conference in Doha, Web Summit Qatar. The conference will take place from February 26–29 in 2024.[24]

2022

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Pertaining to the Web Summit 2022 here is item 21 from that year's revitalised Irish Annals, called De Reir Book of Moytura regarding an argybargy in which Mr. Cosgrave supported certain gentlemen of the press against pressured opinion.

2020

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In December 2020, Web Summit announced the launch of a new conference in Japan, Web Summit Tokyo. The company also announced that the Asia-focused RISE Conference will be moving to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Both conferences are scheduled to be held as in-person events in 2022.[25][26]

2019

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Web Summit 2019 took place in Portugal, from November 4 to November 7 at the Altice Arena & Fil in Lisbon, Portugal.[27] Some of the speakers included Edward Snowden; former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair; former professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko; Jaden Smith; Guo Ping (Rotating Chairman of Huawei) and Katherine Maher (former CEO of Wikimedia Foundation).[28]

Nutrix won Web Summit PITCH competition for the most ambitious early-stage startups. 900 startups participated.[29]

2018

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Web Summit 2018 took place in Lisbon from November 4 to November 7. Attendance was at 70,000 participants. Some of the speakers include Medium Founder & CEO Ev Williams, President Microsoft Corporation Brad Smith, and CEO at Booking.com Gillian Tans.[30]

It was announced that Marine Le Pen of the National Rally would be one of the speakers, which caused controversy.[31][32][33][34] Paddy Consgrave initially argued that despite her "wrongheaded" politics, he felt that her views would be adequately challenged by professional journalists.[35][31][32][33][34] As a result of criticism, Paddy Cosgrave announced on Twitter that the invitation to her would be rescinded.[31][32][33][34]

2017

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Arm Holdings CEO Simon Segars; Web Summit 2017

Web Summit 2017 took place in the Altice Arena in Lisbon from November 6–9. The event promised to bring 60,000 attendees from over 160 countries together.[36]

1,000 speakers were initially confirmed for the conference and, ultimately, over 1,200 spoke.[37] 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 included 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.[38]

A dinner that was held in the National Pantheon was criticised by Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa who said it was "unworthy of the respect due" to the National Monument.[39] He said that although it was legal, it was because the previous government had allowed what he called "offensive use of this monument".[39] Paddy Cosgrave tweeted his apologies.[39]

2016

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Paddy Cosgrave, Web Summit founder (left) and António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal (right); 2016

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.[40] Cosgrave cited the local startup scene and a "cosmopolitan city with better infrastructure conditions and a larger number of hotel rooms" for the decision.[41]

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.[42]

Among the more than 600 speakers were tech 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. Footballer Luís Figo and both the Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister António Costa spoke as well.[41][42][43] The percentage of women among speakers at the Web Summit was 47% according to independent estimates.[44]

Some of those who had paid up to €5,000 for tickets into the event were unable to get into the event and had to watch it on a screen outside.[45]

2015

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Web Summit 2015

Web Summit 2015 was held over three days from 3 November until the 5 November at the RDS in Dublin. Over 42,000 people attended the event over the three days. Speakers included Ed Catmull of Pixar, Michael Dell, Bill Ford and Chris Froome.

In September 2015, Web Summit announced that they would be moving the event from Dublin to Lisbon. Following the announcement, organisers released email correspondence between the Irish Government and Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave about hotel costs, traffic, and other issues surrounding the infrastructure in Dublin. This led to a debate in the Irish media about the support the Government had provided to the event since it began and what future promises they could make.[46]

Problems arose with the Wi-Fi,[47] but on a lesser scale than in 2014. The invitation to the Taoiseach was sent after 9pm on the Friday, with the event opening on the following Monday evening.[48]

2014

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Paddy Cosgrave and Taoiseach Enda Kenny; 2014

Web Summit 2014 was held over three days and consisted of nine stages or Summits as they are known; Centre, Machine, Enterprise, Marketing, Builders, Society, Sport, Film, and Music. Eva Longoria, Peter Thiel, and Bono were among the speakers that spoke over the three-day event, with attendance of 22,000 people from 109 countries.[49][50]

On Day 1 there were problems with the WiFi network and Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave took to the stage on two occasions to apologise for the connectivity problems. The RDS defended their technical set-up with CEO Michael Duffy saying, "The WiFi has successfully responded to the exceptional demands placed on it. This is an unprecedented WiFi density compared to similar European tech events." Attendees were mostly disparaging in their remarks, with some deriding it on social media as "the most Irish thing ever".[51]

International broadcasters including CNBC, CNN, Fox Business News, Bloomberg, Sky News, Al Jazeera and the BBC all covered the event.

After the announcement of the decision to move the 2016 Web Summit to Lisbon, several Irish technology correspondents cited the WiFi debacle as one major push factor behind the move.[52][53]

2013

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Web Summit 2013

In 2013, over 10,000 people attended the Web Summit, the vast majority from outside Ireland.[54] Speakers included Elon Musk, Shane Smith, Tony Hawk, Drew Houston, and Niklas Zennström.

The event was expanded in its scope with a number of side-events launching as part of it, including the Night Summit,[55] a series of after-hours events featuring musicians from throughout the world, and the Food Summit, a two-day showcase of gourmet Irish Food.[56]

Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, also opened the NASDAQ Market from the Web Summit, the first time it was opened outside of New York since the Facebook IPO.[57] The event was covered substantially in the international media with Bloomberg Television, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and Wired covering the event.[54]

2012

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Web Summit 2012

In 2012, 4,200 people attended Web Summit. approximately 40% of these came from companies based in Ireland (which provides a European HQ for several major tech companies) and 60% came from companies based elsewhere in Europe. Speakers included Tim Armstrong, Wael Ghonim, and Arkady Volozh.

A number of companies from across the world also launched their new products or made announcements as part of the event.[58]

2009–2011

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Dublin Web Summit 2011

The first Web Summit was a mix of bloggers, journalists, and technologists in a hotel on the outskirts of Dublin.[59] Panelists and speakers included Iain Dale, the political blogger, Ben Hammersley of the Guardian, and Ian Douglas of the Daily Telegraph. In 2010 it was a meet-up for 400 or so of the local technology community in the Chartered Accountants House in Dublin. Speakers were mainly local entrepreneurs, business people, and investors.[60] In 2011, the event tripled in size and moved to the Royal Dublin Society. Speakers included Chad Hurley, Jack Dorsey, and Matt Mullenweg.

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ Portuguese American Journal - Web Summit: Lisbon hosting the largest tech event in the world
  2. ^ Forbes - Seven Enterprise Startup Standouts At Massive WebSummit, Conference UI EU
  3. ^ Temperton, James (9 September 2015). "Web Summit 2016 will ditch Dublin for Lisbon". Wired UK. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  4. ^ Reuters - Web Summit to stay in Lisbon for 10 years
  5. ^ "Dublin Hosts World's Technology Elite". Wall Street Journal. 28 October 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  6. ^ "TOOD at RISE Conference 2016, Hong Kong". TOOD. 8 June 2016. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  7. ^ "Collision 2019". Collision. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  8. ^ "Web Summit Rio". Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  9. ^ "Meet Web Summit's global partners | Lisbon, November 1–4, 2022". Web Summit | Lisbon. Retrieved 2022-10-23.
  10. ^ "Qatar to Host Biggest International Tech Event in 2024: Web Summit". Rasmal. 26 January 2024.
  11. ^ "Web Summit confirms Lisbon and Qatar events still on, ex-CEO Paddy Cosgrave has 80% ownership of business". Tech Crunch.
  12. ^ "Web Summit CEO jumps ship to head up NPR after just 3 months". TechCrunch. 24 January 2024.
  13. ^ Horan, Niamh (April 7, 2024). "Paddy Cosgrave back to top at Web Summit as he resumes CEO role after quitting over online posts on Israel-Hamas war". The Sunday Independent.
  14. ^ Web Summit Qatar to Debut in February 2024. 2024-06-04.
  15. ^ "Google and Meta latest to withdraw from Web Summit". RTÉ News. 2023-10-20.
  16. ^ "CEO of a prominent tech conference resigns amid backlash for public statements over Israel-Hamas war". AP News. 2023-10-21. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  17. ^ "Solidarity for Israel 'will fall apart' if response 'goes too far', Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says". Independent.ie. 2023-10-10. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  18. ^ "Israel vai boicotar Web Summit, anuncia embaixador". Expresso (in Portuguese). 2023-10-16. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  19. ^ "Web Summit CEO apologizes and condemns Hamas". Globes. 2023-10-18. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  20. ^ "Cosgrave announces resignation as CEO of Web Summit". RTÉ News. 2023-10-21.
  21. ^ "Web Summit CEO resigns after comments on Israel-Hamas conflict". Reuters. 2023-10-21. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  22. ^ Goodbody, Will (30 October 2023). "Web Summit announces new CEO to replace Paddy Cosgrave". RTÉ News. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  23. ^ Curran, Ian (24 January 2024). "Web Summit boss Katherine Maher to leave role after three months". The Irish Times. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  24. ^ "Qatar to host Web Summit in Mena for the first time". www.tradearabia.com. Retrieved 2023-12-12.
  25. ^ "Web Summit will hold RISE 2022 in Kuala Lumpur, launch a new event in Tokyo". TechCrunch. 3 December 2020. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
  26. ^ "Web Summit will hold RISE 2022 in Kuala Lumpur and launch new conference in Tokyo". BEAMSTART - Uplifting Lives Through Entrepreneurship. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
  27. ^ "Web Summit | Lisbon 2019 | Where the tech world meets". Web Summit | Lisbon. Retrieved 2019-04-23.
  28. ^ "The Web Summit speakers our attendees can't wait to see". 2019-11-03. Retrieved 2021-02-12.
  29. ^ Callejas, Eder (7 November 2019). "Nutrix Named Winner of Web Summit's 2019 PITCH Competition". TechPope. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  30. ^ "Speakers at Web Summit | Lisbon, November 4–7, 2019". Web Summit | Lisbon. Retrieved 2019-04-23.
  31. ^ a b c McDermott, Stephen (15 August 2018). "Web Summit founder withdraws invite for far-right leader Marine Le Pen to 2018 event". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  32. ^ a b c McSorley, Christina (16 August 2018). "Marine Le Pen's presence deemed 'disrespectful' at Web Summit". BBC News. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  33. ^ a b c O'Donovan, Donal (16 August 2018). "Web Summit chief in U-turn as invitation to far-right leader Le Pen is withdrawn". Irish Independent. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  34. ^ a b c Murphy, Greg (15 August 2018). "Latest: Web Summit withdraw Le Pen invitation saying it is 'disrespectful' to Portugal and attendees". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  35. ^ Cosgrave, Paddy (14 August 2018). "What are militant anarchists, leftist trade union leaders, right-wing populists and libertarians all doing at a tech conference?". Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  36. ^ "WEB SUMMIT | LISBON 2017 | WHERE THE TECH WORLD MEETS". WEB SUMMIT | LISBON 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  37. ^ "Web Summit Blog 2017". 6 November 2017.
  38. ^ "Speakers - The biggest names in tech | Web Summit". WEB SUMMIT | LISBON 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  39. ^ a b c Halpin, Hayley (14 November 2017). "Web Summit organiser apologises over 'offensive' dinner at Portugal's National Pantheon". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  40. ^ "Web Summit ditches Dublin for Lisbon". Wired UK. 23 September 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  41. ^ a b "PLEASE WELCOME THE WEB SUMMIT 2016 IN LISBON". Global Corporations Society. 26 September 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  42. ^ a b "Meet 53,056 attendees with tickets". WebSummit. 20 June 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  43. ^ "O Web Summit já acabou. No próximo ano há mais". 10 November 2016. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  44. ^ "Gender in Research and Innovation". 10 November 2016. Archived from the original on 24 August 2017. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  45. ^ Russell, Cliodhna (7 November 2016). "People who paid thousands for tickets left waiting outside Web Summit". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  46. ^ "Criticism over Government handling of Web Summit grows". The Irish Times. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  47. ^ "Old problems surface one last time at Web Summit". The Irish Times. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  48. ^ "Taoiseach's Web Summit invite sent at 9pm on Friday". The Irish Times. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  49. ^ "Live Blog: Web Summit 2014". Irish Independent. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  50. ^ "Web Summit guests to spend €100m in city". Herald. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  51. ^ "'The most Irish thing ever': WiFi trouble at Dublin's Web Summit". TheJournal.ie. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  52. ^ "Web Summit to move to Lisbon in 2016, cites infrastructure reasons". Silicon Republic. 23 Sep 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  53. ^ "Harsh reality for Irish technology scene". Irish Examiner. 28 September 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  54. ^ a b "Dublin Becomes Center of European Tech World". BloombergTV. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  55. ^ "Dublin The story behind The Night Summit". Web Summit. 22 October 2013. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  56. ^ "Food Summit a unique opportunity to promote Irish food". Web Summit. 30 October 2013. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  57. ^ "Trading on NASDAQ opened in Ireland for the first time". Web Summit. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  58. ^ "Web Summit Picks SmartThings Out Of 100-Strong Startup Competition". TechCrunch. 20 October 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  59. ^ "Revolution in media and politics to dominate Dublin Web Summit". 21 October 2009. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  60. ^ "Payments at the Web Summit". Realex Payments. 20 October 2010. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2013.

Bibliography

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