Last week, the VT Labs team made a way to sunny Lisbon to participate in Web Summit, the giant tech conference that draws 42,000+ attendees from around the world. After that fantastic event, we've decided to quickly review why events like this are important for growth companies like us.
Web Summit conference survival guide: 15+ tips and hacks
DownloadLet's talk about Web Summit, one of the best-known tech conferences in the world. After two years, Web Summit again brought a massive dose of energy to the capital of Portugal. Over 42,000 attendees and speakers have flocked to sunny Lisbon for a chance to meet people from businesses varieties. The Lisbon streets, subways, restaurants, and bars were filled with tech geeks, startup founders, investors, and visionaries for four days.
Web Summit creates unique opportunities to learn, network, close the deals, hear inspiring speakers' talks and discuss hot topics on the future of tech in the world. Web Summit is where the world meets the drivers behind the tech.
For us at VT Labs, it’s a thrill that this giant tech conference is in Portugal, as our marketer lives there. And when we saw this year's Web Summit ads, we jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately, due to the Covid restrictions and busy schedules, our founders couldn’t come. But it was decided to send to the event a Senior Project Manager who is also responsible for business development in our company. And it was the right choice.
Excitement was the overwhelming feelings coming over, not only to see the country that will host Web Summit 2021 but also to finally meet his colleague in person for the first time after remote working for more than a year!
Those two from VT Lab's business development team arrived in Lisbon on Saturday before the conference took place, and no time was wasted. The luggage was unpacked, the coffee machine was kicked into gear, and brainstorming aspersed with laughter fired up across their cute flat. The weekend was to be all about planning how their week would look and exploring Lisbon decorated for Halloween.
Our time at Web Summit 2021 was an astounding chance to talk to many ambitious people, find business partners, learn about new technologies, trends and exchange ideas on the future of e-commerce.
Web Summit is an entire world of opportunities, a place where you find investors and business partners, gather whole teams and kick-off projects from scratch, get ideas and inspiration.
It looks like everyone was there - over 748 speakers, 1,519 startups, 872 investors alongside technology ambassadors, executives, sports stars, actors, and musicians who impact their fields and have unique insights to share. On top of that, Web Summit gathered a mix of large companies redefining the tech industry like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Siemens, Huawei, Facebook (Meta), Google, KPMG, Cisco, Snap Inc, Miro, SAP, among many others.
This year delivered over 1,333 talks on everything from AI to climate change and leadership to social media. Some key discussions from the week included the Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi speech on user privacy and product security. Also, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen talked about why Facebook should focus on becoming a safer space for users and less on rebranding as Meta. She called for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to step down to focus on safety and focus on safety.
If you are interested, you can catch up with others talks on Web Summit YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/websummit
Let us not forget the Web Summit Nights, when the magic begins. In the evening, after the conference, Night Summit is taking over the streets and bars of Lisbon. Crowded pubs, lots of fun, streets full of amazing people. Many neighbourhoods around the city, like Pink Street, Bairro Alto Area, Graça, Parque das Nações, were filled with venues where you could expect to find other attendees looking for night networking. And it's truly incredible!
It was a pleasure being around so many intelligent and ambitious people. We want to thank the organizers and everybody we met along the way for the thought-provoking conversations, great ideas, a dose of inspiration, and all the driving energy. We're feeling excited and cannot wait to kick off future collaborations. There is so much ahead.
We can't speak for you, but we're looking forward to attending the Web Summit in 2022. Still, the fact of attending a Web Summit isn't a magic wand to the successful kick-off of your business or idea. To succeed, be mindful, proactive, make personal connections, and put effort into preparation for the event.
Web summit, we'll see you next year!
VT Labs does agile development for Shopify stores, to move faster than competitors. You get store improvements every week and can change priorities anytime.
