| Web Summit | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Status | Active |
| Venue | MEO Arena andLisbon Exhibition & Congress Centre |
| Location | Lisbon |
| Coordinates | 38°46′4.9″N9°5′42.6″W / 38.768028°N 9.095167°W /38.768028; -9.095167 |
| Country | Portugal |
| Inaugurated | 2009 (Dublin) |
| Founder | Paddy Cosgrave |
| Most recent | 11–14 November 2024 |
| Next event | 10–13 November 2025 |
| Attendance | 70,000 (2022) |
| Leader | Paddy Cosgrave |
| Website | Official website |
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Web Summit is an annual technologyconference held inLisbon, Portugal.[1][2]Founded in 2009 byPaddy Cosgrave, Web Summit was held inDublin, Ireland until 2016, when it moved to Lisbon.[3][4] The conference's topics center oninternet technology,emerging technologies,marketing andventure capitalism. Web Summit's partners range fromFortune 500 companies tostart-ups, with attendees representing all levels and sectors of the global high technology industry.
Web Summit runs events throughout the world includingF.ounders,[5]RISE conference inHong Kong,[6]Collision inToronto,[7]SURGE inBangalore,MoneyConf inDublin andWeb Summit Rio inRio de Janeiro.[8]
Speakers included a mix ofCEOs,subject-matter experts,celebrities, andpoliticians, includingStephen Hawking,Elon Musk,Al Gore,Bono, and U.N Secretary-GeneralAntónio Guterres.
Web Summit's partners includeFortune 500 companies, government entities, andprivate foundations, such asGoogle,Meta,Amazon,Cisco Systems andMicrosoft.[9]
| Year | Dates | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | October 30–November 1 | |
| 2010 | October 28–29 | Chartered Accountants House |
| 2011 | October 27–28 | Royal Dublin Society |
| 2012 | October 17–18 | |
| 2013 | October 30–31 | |
| 2014 | November 4–6 | |
| 2015 | November 3–5 | |
| 2016 | November 7–10 | MEO Arena andLisbon Exhibition & Congress Centre |
| 2017 | November 6–9 | |
| 2018 | November 5–8 | |
| 2019 | November 4–7 | |
| 2020 | December 2–4 | Online |
| 2021 | November 1–4 | MEO Arena andLisbon 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 andLisbon Exhibition & Congress Centre |
A court-case in theIrishBusiness courts between Cosgrave, Hickey and Kelly began in March 2025.[10][11][12]
In February, Web Summit debuted a new event inDoha, Qatar.[13][14] The exhibition took place at theDECC.[15]
On January 24, 2024, Katherine Maher announced her departure as CEO of Web Summit to become CEO ofNational Public Radio (NPR).[16] In April 2024, Web Summit staff were told Cosgrave had decided to return as CEO.[17]
In October 2023, a number of sponsors and technology companies likeMeta,Google, andAmazon cancelled their participation[18] due to the founder's statement onX (formerly Twitter) regarding theGaza 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"[19] following the IrishTaoiseach,Leo Varadkar, saying that solidarity with Israel "will fall apart" if the response to Hamas'assault "goes too far."[20]
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.[21] Cosgrave later apologized, defending "Israel's right to exist and to defend itself", thus condemningHamas.[22] 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".[23][24]Katherine Maher was later appointed CEO to replace Cosgrave.[25] In January 2024 it was announced that Maher would cease to be CEO on March 1st to take up the position of chief executive atNPR.[26]
In November 2023, Web Summit announced the launch of a new conference inDoha,Web Summit Qatar. The conference took place February 26–29, 2024.[27]
In December 2020, Web Summit announced the launch of a new conference in Japan,Web Summit Tokyo. The company also announced that the Asia-focusedRISE Conference will be moving toKuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Both conferences were scheduled to be held as in-person events in 2022.[28][29]
Web Summit 2019 took place in Portugal, from November 4th to 7th at the Altice Arena & Fil inLisbon, Portugal.[30] Some of the speakers includedEdward Snowden; former UK Prime MinisterTony Blair; former professional boxerWladimir Klitschko;Jaden Smith; Guo Ping (Rotating Chairman of Huawei) andKatherine Maher (former CEO of Wikimedia Foundation).[31]
Nutrix won Web Summit PITCH competition for the most ambitious early-stage startups. 900 startups participated.[32]
Web Summit 2018 took place inLisbon from November 5 to November 8. Attendance was at 70,000 participants. Some of the speakers includeMedium Founder & CEOEv Williams, PresidentMicrosoft CorporationBrad Smith, andCEO atBooking.comGillian Tans.[33]
It was announced thatMarine Le Pen of theNational Rally would be one of the speakers, which caused controversy.[34][35][36][37] Paddy Consgrave initially argued that despite her "wrongheaded" politics, he felt that her views would be adequately challenged by professional journalists.[38][34][35][36][37] As a result of criticism, Paddy Cosgrave announced on Twitter that the invitation to her would be rescinded.[34][35][36][37]
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Web Summit 2017 took place in theAltice Arena inLisbon from November 6–9. The event promised to bring 60,000 attendees from over 160 countries together.[39]
1,000 speakers were initially confirmed for the conference and, ultimately, over 1,200 spoke.[40] From the political sphere, speakers such as Former Vice President of the United States of AmericaAl Gore, European Commissioner for CompetitionMargrethe Vestager, and former president of FranceFrançois Hollande were announced early. In addition to these speakers, big names in tech attending wereIntel CEOBrian Krzanich,Oracle CEOMark Hurd,Microsoft president Brad Smith,Reddit CEOSteve Huffman,Arm Holdings CEOSimon Segars,Slack co-founder and CEOStewart Butterfield,Asana co-founder and CEO andFacebook co-founderDustin Moskovitz,Alexander Nix ofCambridge Analytica andBooking.com president and CEOGillian Tans.
Speakers included former world heavyweight championWladimir Klitschko, actress and activistSophia Bush, former Portuguese professional football player andBallon D'Or winnerLuis Figo,Vogue international editorSuzy Menkes, former chess world championGarry Kasparov, musicianWyclef Jean, andGame of Thrones actorLiam Cunningham.[41]
A dinner that was held in theNational Pantheon was criticised by Portuguese Prime MinisterAntónio Costa who said it was "unworthy of the respect due" to the National Monument.[42] He said that although it was legal, it was because the previous government had allowed what he called "offensive use of this monument".[42] Paddy Cosgrave tweeted his apologies.[42]
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In September 2015 Web Summit co-founder and CEO Paddy Cosgrave announced that the event would be held inLisbon for three consecutive editions, from 2016 to 2018.[43] Cosgrave cited the local startup scene and a "cosmopolitan city with better infrastructure conditions and a larger number of hotel rooms" for the decision.[44]
The three-day event held from November 7–10 at theAltice Arena, site ofExpo '98, drew 53,056 attendees from more than 150 countries and more than 1,500 start-ups spread over 21 venues.[45]
Among the more than 600 speakers were tech executives from around the world, includingJohn Chambers ofCisco, Facebook CTOMike Schroepfer, andAmazon CTOWerner Vogels. Also speaking at the event were prominent figures from non-tech areas, such as actorJoseph Gordon-Levitt,Salil Shetty ofAmnesty International, andMogens Lykketoft, president of the general assembly at theUnited Nations. FootballerLuís Figo and both the Portuguese PresidentMarcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime MinisterAntónio Costa spoke as well.[44][45][46] The percentage of women among speakers at the Web Summit was 47% according to independent estimates.[47]
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.[48]
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 includedEd Catmull ofPixar,Michael Dell,Bill Ford andChris 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 CEOPaddy 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.[49]
Problems arose with the Wi-Fi,[50] but on a lesser scale than in 2014. The invitation to theTaoiseach was sent after 9pm on the Friday, with the event opening on the following Monday evening.[51]
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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, andBono were among the speakers that spoke over the three-day event, with attendance of 22,000 people from 109 countries.[52][53]
On Day 1 there were problems with theWi-Fi network and Web Summit founderPaddy 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 Wi-Fi has successfully responded to the exceptional demands placed on it. This is an unprecedented Wi-Fi 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".[54]
International broadcasters includingCNBC,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 Wi-Fi debacle as one major push factor behind the move.[55][56]
In 2013, over 10,000 people attended the Web Summit, the vast majority from outside Ireland.[57] Speakers includedElon Musk,Shane Smith,Tony Hawk,Drew Houston, andNiklas Zennström.
The event was expanded in its scope with a number of side-events launching as part of it, including the Night Summit,[58] a series of after-hours events featuring musicians from throughout the world, and the Food Summit, a two-day showcase of gourmet Irish Food.[59]
Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, also opened theNASDAQ Market from the Web Summit, the first time it was opened outside of New York since theFacebook IPO.[60] The event was covered substantially in the international media withBloomberg Television,CNN,the Wall Street Journal, andWired covering the event.[57]
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 includedTim Armstrong,Wael Ghonim, andArkady Volozh.
A number of companies from across the world also launched their new products or made announcements as part of the event.[61]
The first Web Summit was a mix of bloggers, journalists, and technologists in a hotel on the outskirts of Dublin.[62] Panelists and speakers includedIain Dale, the political blogger,Ben Hammersley ofthe Guardian, and Ian Douglas of theDaily 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.[63] In 2011, the event tripled in size and moved to theRoyal Dublin Society. Speakers includedChad Hurley,Jack Dorsey, andMatt Mullenweg.
