Q4/2019 - Web Summit

The "Web Summit", founded in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave, David Kelly and Daire Hickey, has developed into one of the world's largest Internet conferences after moving from Dublin to Lisbon in 2017. The 2019 summit was attended by more than 70,000 participants from 160 countries. 1,200 speakers appeared at over 200 workshops. 2,500 journalists reported on the conference^[1]. 

The Web Summit is primarily an event of the Internet economy and a meeting place for start-ups and venture capitalists. One of the highlights of the conference is the annual "Web Summit PITCH Competition" for which around 300 start-ups qualified in 2019. Among the sponsors of the Web Summit are numerous Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Amazon, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, DHL, IBM, SAP, Accenture, IKEA, Samsung, KPMG, Dell Technologies, Siemens, Volkswagen, L'Oréal, Xerox, Booking.com and others.

The program of the Web Summit increasingly includes political topics such as digital commerce, digital tax or cyber security. The conference is supported by the European Commission. Margrethe Vestager, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for digital policy, is a permanent guest at the Lisbon Web Summit. The keynote speaker at the 2019 Summit was Edward Snowden, who was connected via video. Speakers included EU Commissioner Michel Barnier, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brad Smith, CEO of Microsoft, Guo Ping, Chairman of Huawei, Katherine Maher, CEO of Wikipedia and others, including former boxing world champion Wladimir Klitschko.

The Web Summit does not produce concrete results. Potential influences on political processes in the global Internet governance system are also difficult to measure. After the Portuguese government has announced that it will expand the EXPO site in Lisbon for 11 million Euros, the Web Summit will remain in Portugal for the next ten years.