Packing for Lisbon, and a new chapter for Web Summit

Packing for Lisbon, and a new chapter for Web Summit

Over the weekend thousands of Europe’s, and indeed the world’s, tech glitterati will be descending on Lisbon for Web Summit. You heard me right, Lisbon. What a coup for the Portuguese capital, luring the hugely successful Web Summit conference that was so intrinsically linked with its Dublin birth place.

Lisbon has not been traditionally listed in Europe’s Tech Premier league. Previously organisations like beta-i had been flying the flag, and recently London founded startup hub Second Home announced its expansion to Lisbon. Add Web Summit into the mix, and this could be a game changer. Web Summit was estimated to be worth 35 million euro to Dublin economy. I’m sure even now, many are still scratching their heads on how Dublin let that slip through their fingers to the scrappy newcomer on the tech scene.

The question on everyone’s lips is will Web Summit successfully retain the elements and atmosphere that have seen it explode in a such a short space of time? Launching in 2010, Web Summit attracted 400, mostly local attendees, but by 2015 had grown to an international event with 30,000 attendees. Pretty incredible by any standard.

The 2016 show looks impressive in its scale and ambition. The hallmark of Web Summit is always its super star line up of speakers and content. This year looks to be no different. The line up is very impressive, featuring the leaders of the world’s hottest tech companies, traditional companies like Renault and Coca-Cola, plus a sprinkling of celebrity with musicians, footballers, and Vloggers to name but a few.

New for 2016 is a series of 21 ‘Conferences within a Conference’ – signaling Summit’s attempt to broaden its appeal and reach from its startup ecosystem roots. I’ll be at Marketing X.

This years attendance is estimated at 50,000. It will be chaotic, so make sure you have a solid plan to be effective. If you have time we would love to see you at the show. You can visit Twilio in Pavilion 1 close to the Enterprise stage, Booth #869.

I’d also recommend you catch our CEO, Jeff Lawson, who is making two stage appearances on Tuesday 8th. First is at 2:30pm on the Centre Stage in a panel called IPO Secrets. Then at 3:50pm Jeff is on the SaaS Monster stage with his talk titled ‘Ask Your Developer’ where Jeff will discuss how the most successful companies of the future will be the ones who tap into the creativity of developers to drive innovation.

Hang onto your hats, it’s going to be a fun ride. To connect at the show, tweet me on @jamesparton.