Web Summit Magazine

November 2023

Jimmy Wales Wikipedia

Melanie Nakagawa Microsoft

Sage Lenier Environmental activist

Chelsea Manning Nym Technologies

Meredith Whittaker Signal

Where the FUTURE goes to be BORN

Contents Here’s what you missed at Web Summit 2023 Overview

1

Web Summit in numbers: Take a look at some of the stats from this year’s event.

Portugal

2

3

8

“If we’re not looking after founders’ wellbeing … then we’re not going to see them bring their best selves to work”

4

“The tools that we use in data science and AI – I often wonder if we should be building them”

– Fertifa director Eileen Burbidge

The event floor Discover what our attendees got up to away from the stages.

– MIT principal research scientist Andrew McAfee

– Mercury 13 founder and CEO Victoire H Cogevina Reynal

– actor and Whyzzer investor Kelly Rutherford

Startups and investors

– New European columnist James Ball

“Men’s football has been incredibly successful, but there have been things that made it an unsustainable business”

7

“We’re over quick-fix content”

“No one should think that they’re too clever not to fall for a conspiracy theory”

Sports

– Microsoft chief sustainability officer Melanie Nakagawa

Marketing and content creation

– Unicorn Factory Lisboa executive director Gil Azevedo

AI and machines

6

“AI has the power to unlock enormous possibilities in sustainability”

“We believe that Lisbon can be one of the main centres of tech in Europe”

Society, politics and media

Environment

5

9

TOTAL ATTENDEES

70,236

The numbers are in, and it’s been another successful year for Web Summit.

With more startups than ever before, and a larger percentage of women attendees than in previous years, Web Summit’s flagship event has once again captured the imagination of thousands of people from every aspect of tech.

Startups, investors, industry experts and tech enthusiasts gathered to network, share ideas and learn during a week of exciting talks.

Take a look at some of the stats from this year’s event.

OVERVIEW / 01

Behind the numbers of Web Summit 2023

MEDIA

PARTNERS

COUNTRIES

321

153

2,129

STARTUPS

2,608

INVESTORS

WOMEN ATTENDEES

906

43%

Inspira wins PITCH 2023 Inspira has been named winner of PITCH 2023, surpassing more than 100 rival businesses to secure the coveted startup prize.

The Brazil-based legal software startup – which saw off challenges in the PITCH final from USbased health startup Cognimate and Romanian childcare solutions business Kinderpedia – aims to disrupt the legal market through the use of technology, democratising legal information to make it more accessible for everyone.

Coming all the way from São Paulo for the competition, Inspira co-founder Henrique Ferreira hailed the “spectacular event”, claiming the victory is enormous for his company’s plans.

Having experienced Web Summit before as an attendee, Henrique returned this year as an ALPHA startup with his three co-founders. “It is beyond words,” said Henrique. “If you see people shouting and screaming, it’s my co-founders.”

“We’ve been seeing huge growth of the legal ecosystem in terms of investment,” said Henrique.

“And, for us, just being here is a dream come true.

Lisbon is important. If you think about the business side, it’s a way of entry to another market. If we expand, Lisbon is the shortest flight.”

The European tech ecosystem is changing. Portugal in particular – according to Shilling managing partner Miguel Santo Amaro – boasts a “radically new landscape” compared to that of a decade ago.

“Entrepreneurship in Portugal is not only developed in Lisbon and Porto.”

Teresa Fiuza Portugal Ventures

“The last 10 years have been basically the inception of what the Portuguese ecosystem didn’t have. And I think now we’re in a very different stage, because there were little to no venture capitalists in Portugal 10 years ago,” said Miguel.

A decade on, the country now has seven unicorns, as well as “a lot of good, interesting, small early-stage venture capital money from Portugal, and a bunch of international tier-one investors,” according to Miguel.

Portugal Ventures executive VP Teresa Fiuza also discussed the success of Portugal’s tech community, saying “developed academia and entrepreneurship” have played a large role in the development of the country’s technical landscape.

“The network of incubators and accelerators, the help of the Portuguese government, and the mingling of all of these people together have been very important,” Teresa said.

For future success, Teresa believes Portugal must expand the range of locations offering entrepreneurs business opportunities: “Entrepreneurship in Portugal is not only developed in Lisbon and Porto; we have a lot to show in other regions of the country. And that’s what we have to do – expand this in other areas.”

Streaming platforms, engagement and the end of creativity The Portuguese film industry is undergoing a massive transformation, with streaming companies amassing increasing market share and besting traditional TV providers, and with the threat of AI on the horizon.

Paulo Branco is a producer and actor, and the founder of LEFFEST (the Lisbon and Estoril Film Festival). Paulo believes streaming platforms are not only reshaping the entertainment industry, but also stifling creativity for audiences and creators.

“Younger people are now in another world of how they consume images … everything that is being produced now is what the platforms want. And,

at this moment, these platforms have the power,” said Paulo.

Why do founders choose Portugal to kickstart their startups?

In the last 10 years, Portugal has experienced a “startups revolution” – that’s according to António Dias Martins, CEO at Startup Portugal.

The country, as well as being home to Web Summit, is home to more than 4,000 startups, with 100plus startup incubators. Seven of the 15 largest companies in the country are tech companies.

“We believe that Lisbon can be one of the main centres of tech in Europe” said Gil Azevedo, executive director at Unicorn Factory Lisboa. This potential can be attributed to broad governmental and municipal support for tech, a world-class university system producing talented engineers, and a high quality of life.

António also believes that Portugal being a relatively small country works to its advantage. With a smaller ecosystem, it’s easier for people to connect, and everything is done on a “human scale” rather than on the scale of a massive, faceless, global company.

But what’s next? António and Gil both believe that Portugal’s historical ties with Africa and Brazil make it the natural gateway to these growing and thriving markets.

According to Paulo, production companies and streaming platforms are now creating films and shows not to make art, but simply to keep people engaged.

For the LEFFEST founder, cinema is a space for creation and creativity. But streaming platforms, especially with the introduction of AI, are now only interested in maintaining viewership rather than creating art.

“Real creation,” argued Paulo, “is finished.”

“Real creation is finished.”

Paulo Branco LEFFEST

PORTUGAL / 02

The past, present and future of Portuguese tech

“Where are the men?” asked Clara Chappaz, director at La French Tech – a public body responsible for supporting France’s tech ecosystem – in a challenge to the women in tech audience.

Clara was referring to discussions on equality issues, which are usually dominated by women in spite of the fact that the responsibility to foster greater gender equality is a shared one.

Less than 30 percent of tech workers and less than 10 percent of founders are women, and less than 20 percent of management positions are held by women.

Half of women tech workers quit the industry after they reach 35 years of age.

“The number of women VCs is worse, and you have

close to no women general partners,” said Clara. And without deliberate action, the situation is unlikely to improve.

There are 14 million tech workers in the world: 11 million men and three million women. By underrepresenting half of the global population, who knows what ideas are being missed?

“It’s a question of opportunities and performance,” said Clara.

There is still cause for optimism, though: “What we’re seeing in France is a first generation of funds that are going after womenfounded companies only.”

As these funds break new markets with women-founded startups, it is inevitable that other investors will follow suit. This cascade effect may finally bring tech the gender balance it needs.

This is your brain on drugs Psychedelics are having a massive moment in medicine and, although there is remaining scepticism about its benefits, support for drug therapy is steadily increasing.

So said Ekaterina Malievskaia, co-founder of Compass Pathways, a biotech company focused on patient access to innovative technology in the mental health sector.

“The perception of psychedelics has changed with the introduction of fMRIs and technology.

We can actually see the neurophysiological processes and what happens in the brain, so it’s not some kind of ineffable voodoo experience,” said the co-founder.

But it’s not just taking these drugs that has improved the lives of patients – it’s the combination of drug consumption and talk therapy.

“Clinical trials with MDMA have shown that the MDMA does not have anywhere

close to the same effect on PTSD when taken just as a pharmaceutical without the therapy,” said Sherry Rais, co-founder and CEO of Enthea, a healthcare company offering psychedelic therapies as workplace benefits.

“The therapy that happens after [drug ingestion] is pivotal to that healing and to cementing the learnings,” said Sherry.

The results of these drug therapy sessions have been so overwhelmingly positive for patients that Enthea has “seen an 86 percent reduction in PTSD symptoms after a course of ketamine therapy”, according to Sherry.

QAnon: The other pandemic Journalist and author James Ball shone a light on the darker recesses of the internet, offering insights into the QAnon phenomenon.

A decentralised system of conspiracy theories (many revolving around a messianic dedication to Donald Trump), QAnon constitutes a second pandemic – that’s according to New European columnist James.

While stating that QAnon is “stupid” and “really dumb”, James said that “no one should think that they’re too clever not to fall for a conspiracy theory … and QAnon trains you to radicalise yourself”.

The strength of it lies in the fact that it is leaderless – suffering from “tall poppy syndrome”, in which any emergent leader or dominant figure is cut back down to size – while also being adaptable as “the conspiracy theory that ate all other conspiracy theories”.

It should not be underestimated as a fringe conspiracy theory, according to James, given that “it is very firmly embedded in the US Republican base”. Perhaps more notably, it has also deeply infiltrated the echelons of the UK’s governing Conservative party.

“You’ll see even a relatively mainstream government say things that are quite adjacent to QAnon,” said James. “Doing a fairly shameless bit of flirting with conspiracy that makes no sense at all ... are the Conservative party. At their annual party conference, they made a big thing of banning so-called ‘15-minute cities’ that would stop you leaving the area where you live, which no one has proposed. And also, they are the government – they would be the sinister power behind it.”

According to James, QAnon isn’t going away anytime soon, and those who know nothing about the group may soon find out more than they would like.

“No one should think that they’re too clever not to fall for a conspiracy theory.”

James Ball New European

SOCIETY, POLITICS AND MEDIA / 03

When it comes to equality, ‘where are the men?’

AI AND MACHINES / 04

Is AI the new frontier in the battle for digital privacy AI is just the latest threat to privacy, according to whistleblower and Nym Technologies security consultant Chelsea Manning.

“The tools that we use in data science and AI – I often wonder if we should be building them. Are we trying to solve the right problems? Or are we simply trying to feed the engagement machine?” asked Chelsea.

From a privacy standpoint, the issue with AI is that it feeds on a “large corpus of data”, meaning that it hoovers up massive amounts of information from several sources, including Wikipedia.

This makes it almost impossible for individuals to extract their data from a large language model (LLM) if they feel it is being misused.

This is a very different proposition to our current understanding of privacy, which involves protections such as GDPR and the ‘right to be forgotten’ ensuring that we are the ultimate arbiters of how our data is used – at least in theory. With LLMs, “once [your data] is in there, the artefacts of it being in there are going to stay,” said Chelsea.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on large language models Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who has previously said that ChatGPT isn’t a threat to the free online encyclopaedia, has taken this argument a step further.

Is AI being used as a cover to erode workers’ rights?

AI isn’t so much replacing workers as providing employers with “a pretext to degrade the working conditions of the workers who are managing these AI systems,” said Signal president and ethical AI researcher Meredith Whittaker.

Citing examples including Uber and the wider gig economy, the Signal president said that, while politicians and the general public were “distracted by the shiny promises of tech”, what was really happening was “the degradation of employment status across the globe”.

When it comes to fear of humans being replaced by technology, Meredith said, “we can’t talk about AI as having agency. AI isn’t doing this”.

“We need to be on the lookout for claims that AI is a magical technology that replaces workers, because that has not been borne out.”

However, Union Square Ventures managing partner

Albert Wenger laid out a more positive vision for AI, arguing that it could liberate humanity from unnecessary labour rather than lead to job losses as we now understand them.

While media organisations and authors are battening down the hatches, Jimmy has declared a willingness to have Wikipedia scraped by large learning models for the sake of accuracy.

“We come from the free software world; open-source ethos.

Everything on Wikipedia is freely licensed. You can copy it, distribute it, modify it … commercially or non-commercially,” said Jimmy.

“We’re really happy and proud that there are large language models reading Wikipedia and not just Elon Musk’s Twitter.

That’s not really a great source of truth,” added the CEO. Jimmy went on to give some examples of how AI could improve Wikipedia, notably as a model that could run across the site, searching for negative statements that aren’t sourced and removing them.

Jimmy, an advocate of open-source technology, also believes that scraping Wikipedia would make ChatGPT better – although, as the founder conceded, ChatGPT often lies, so its efficacy as a Wikipedia contributor is yet to be proven.

Albert’s comments, which called for a univeral basic income, may resonate with Star Trek fans: “We don’t want to have a world where you absolutely must work just to survive. If we are this technologically advanced, we should be creating a world where, if you want to take care of animals or restore nature, you can do it and still live.”

The renowned investor added that “this is the purpose of technological advancement”.

Albert was keen to stress that debates around AI shouldn’t be treated as “a soccer match” or “low-rung tribalism”, with particular comments for Marc Andreessen: “Marc has been on a bender to say ‘Build! Build! Build!’ ...

The idea that we can go full ‘permissionless innovation’ on even more powerful technology is, I think, faulty.”

Meredith Whittaker Signal

“You can now game between devices, like the case of an esports player playing against someone in a BMW off a 31-inch screen.”

Don McGuire Qualcomm

The combination of high-speed 5G networks and global access to smartphones has solidified mobile gaming as esport’s largest sector.

According to Craig Levine – co-CEO of one of the world’s leading esports gaming groups, ESL Faceit group – 2.6 billion out of the 3.2 billion global gamers play on mobile devices. That’s a whopping 80 percent of users. But why?

Craig claimed this is down to three factors: richer, more exciting games; a wider range of options available at your fingertips; and a more diverse audience.

“When you look at the entire market, on top of seeing richer, more immersive games, there are so many

different types, and that’s really creating a more diverse audience,” said Craig.

And while mobile gaming has been around since the popularisation of Nokia’s Snake in 1997, there has been a huge jump in the number of users in recent years.

According to Qualcomm CMO Don McGuire, “mobile platforms have been delivering console-level gaming experiences … for the past five years”.

But the major difference is the cross-platform accessibility of those games. “You can now game between devices, like the case of an esports player playing against someone in a BMW off a 31-inch screen,” said Don.

Is women’s football where the money is?

Cesc Fábregas Como 1907

Cesc appeal Cesc Fábregas utilised the Web Summit stage to announce an entry into management, with the football legend taking over Italian team Como 1907.

The former Arsenal, Chelsea, Monaco and Barcelona midfielder – who is an investor in the club alongside Thierry Henry – was a player at the Serie B side last season. Cesc admitted the move to management “has been quick, even for me”.

“It’s about the project,” said the World Cup and double-European Championship winner. “There are very competent people here. The staff are great. The players know exactly what the shirt means. I fell in love with the project straight away.”

Arguing that the job is a long-term decision – “I’m not here for two days or two months” – Cesc said the ultimate aim is for the club to reach the Champions League: “It’s one of the objectives of the club.

We dream big; we’re ambitious.”

When reminiscing about his playing career, which ended with three league titles across a 20-year career, the Spaniard hinted that his move from Arsenal to Barcelona was the one decision he regretted: “I think if I could go back now in time, I would wait a little bit more and go a little bit later.”

2023 truly feels like the year for women’s football.

From a hugely successful Women’s World Cup down under to the soaring NWSL franchise fees in the US, worldwide attention on women’s football is at a fever pitch. This, and more, is why Mercury 13 is focusing on new opportunities in the game.

Mercury 13 founder and CEO Victoire H Cogevina Reynal runs a business that is “looking to acquire majority stakes in professional women’s football clubs across Europe and, hopefully, the rest of the world”.

And not just straight investment either – the company is reported to have a US$100 million fund, and Victoire is hoping to commercialise more and more clubs in anticipation of the “new wave of fans coming into the game”.

“Men’s football has been incredibly successful, but there have been things that made it an unsustainable business,” said Victoire. “We’re looking to better that; to bring a new sustainable future to these clubs by depending on revenue streams that are not out of our control, but within our control.”

Any entrepreneur can see the value in a sport that’s growth trajectory is “[shaped] like a hockey stick”, said Victoire.

However, for those thinking that Lewes FC in England would be one of the first to join the Mercury 13 stable, no such luck. In the weeks following Web Summit, both parties “mutually decided to bring conversations about a potential investment partnership to an end”.

SPORTS / 05

The democratisation of esports

Earth is facing an incredible set of challenges.

Leading innovators, startups, companies and activists came together at Web Summit to discuss solutions to humanity’s environmental crisis.

While advancing technologies are often detrimental to the environment, new tech might be the only way to clean our oceans and, in turn, save this dying planet.

“We need to invest in solutions that help us stop depleting the ocean’s resources. Every single technology that helps us catch [fewer oceanic creatures] will pollute less,” claimed climate VC Stephan Morais.

One potential solution is water cleanliness. Filmmaker Craig Leeson believes purifying the ocean is central to attacking environmental pollution and safeguarding our own health.

“We’re at the top of the food chain.

So, ultimately, if we pollute the ocean, it’s not only affecting other species, but it’s affecting us. And we know that’s coming back to bite us in cancers, diabetes, hormone disruption, and endocrine disruption problems,” Craig said.

‘Degrowth’ is an essential component of decarbonisation The tech sector is often viewed as a catalyst for high growth, and high growth is a hallmark of economic success in any economy.

But at what cost?

Environmental activist Sage Lenier pointed out that the problem with high growth is what feeds it: “The way the economy works right now is just completely nonsensical. We’re taking resources from nature, turning them into things and landfilling them, only to extract more. And we’re running up against resource shortages.”

The Sustainable & Just Future founder made the case for what is known as ‘degrowth’ – the idea that people need to shrink the economy deliberately.

It sounds radical, particularly to a room full of investors. But, as Sage points out, climate action, when taken seriously, can’t always be businessfriendly: “It has to go beyond solar panels and wind turbines, because we can look at the science and know that that’s actually not enough.”

Sacrifice is required, but is big business big enough to make the tough choices?

Will the machines save the planet?

AI could help us solve the climate crisis – that’s according to Microsoft chief sustainability officer Melanie Nakagawa. One might reasonably ask how, given that the computational power required for expanded AI is already putting extreme pressure on emission-producing electrical grids.

Melanie was the first to acknowledge that this is a problem, stating that “next-gen AI comes with increased resource demands, and carbon-free electricity and efficiency will meaningfully impact demands on those emissions”.

But, according to Melanie, “AI has the power to unlock enormous possibilities in sustainability”.

The chief sustainability officer outlined several examples from a recent demo in London, including AI-powered audio tech that can massively reduce municipal water loss and wastage, and an AI solution for reducing loss in power across electrical grids, meaning that more can be produced with less.

Sage Lenier Sustainable & Just Future

ENVIRONMENT / 06

Leaving the Earth cleaner than you found it

Sonic the Hedgehog is a film, television and video game star, and as well-known to people as any actor or celebrity. Soon, the blue blur might be stepping off the screen and into your life.

“We’re planning to expand transmedia initiatives to our major IPs,” said Shuji Utsumi, COO at Sega and keeper of the Sonic brand. “We firmly believe it plays an important role, allowing us to strategically expand the values of numerous IPs in innovative ways.”

Shuji Utsumi Sega

Japan is a content pioneer, with gaming at the forefront.

Nowhere is this witnessed more than in the world of ‘VTubers’ – Japan’s virtual gaming YouTube streamers who are breaking a new frontier by bringing gaming characters to life.

These VTubers use virtual, computer-generated avatars with real-time motion-to-capture technology for streaming.

Of the top VTubers, just 10 percent are real human beings.

And it’s big business. “They’re some of the most-subbed and superchatted livestream influencers of both the real world and virtual,” said AKA Virtual CEO Jia Shen.

“In Japan, they’re now everywhere, appearing on TikTok, streaming platforms and live television. They’re so mainstream that you can find them in your local convenience stores adorning your favourite snacks,” Jia continued.

Tech advancements mean that brands can now bring these VTube characters into the real world, and feature them in marketing and brand-based content creation.

Jia’s company has partnered with Sega to bring its stable of characters – including Sonic and the Street Fighters – offconsole and into the real world.

Money, trust and the key to good storytelling According to Piabo Communications founder and CEO Tilo Bonow, storytelling is vital to any brand’s success. It’s what separates successful companies from competitors, driving consumers to spend exponentially more on products and services.

“A great communication strategy and good storytelling can help you as a founder in many, many dimensions. Of course, it helps with your valuation. But it also relates to big parts of your story; to your narrative,” Tilo said.

Communication and trust go hand in hand, according to the founder. And, regarding trust, Tilo doesn’t just mean getting customers on board with your company’s messaging.

Social media with a purpose

“When we’re talking about trust, it also relates to investments.

When money is the currency of transactions, trust is the currency of interactions,” said the founder.

Toxicity and polarisation have been a feature of many social media platforms for years, in spite of multiple exposés, scandals and promises of change. But a new startup aims to change the way society thinks about social media by building meaningful content from the ground up.

“As much as I love social media, I really felt something was missing: the nourishing aspect,” said actor Kelly Rutherford, an investor in social media startup Whyzzer (pronounced ‘wiser’).

The company promotes education in its social media community of people keen to learn from and teach one another – but “not in a boring way”, according to founder and CEO Benjamin Buthmann.

Both Kelly and Benjamin believe that Whyzzer can challenge the new trend in social media: people’s boredom with division.

“We’re over quick-fix content,” said Kelly, while Benjamin added that “the founders and companies that are growing have purposeful content. Not pure entertainment, but something with insight”.

No doubt everyone would benefit from a social media on which users learn to love something rather than hate something.

Kelly Rutherford Whyzzer

MARKETING AND CONTENT CREATION / 07

Sonic, VTubers and a Western invasion

With less favourable economic conditions, the focus for investment is on unit economics and sales – not long runways and heavy cash-burning.

“The bubble is over, and that probably is a good thing, because hopefully investors will be more discerning.”

While there may be fewer unicorns in the future, the focus now is on ‘centaurs’. These are startups that generate more than US$100 million in revenue annually, and have a clearly demonstrated path to profitability.

Jaidev Janardana Zopa

Unicorns are rare, but are they becoming extinct? It’s a perennial question for the tech world.

According to Jaidev Janardana, CEO at Zopa, “the bubble is over, and that probably is a good thing, because hopefully investors will be more discerning”.

Fiat Ventures general partner Drew Glover does not believe there’s any difference between these mythical beasts: “I believe if you’re a centaur, you’re a unicorn. If you do US$100 million in revenue, I, as an investor, am very happy to call you a unicorn.”

Drew believes these are just “momentum words” that can be applied to any hotshot startup – and, while buzz words will come and go, successful startups will continue to attract investment. For founders, though, their term sheets may be a little different.

Crypto is a ‘study in manias’ Actor Ben McKenzie has gone from being one of TV’s most prominent stars to one of crypto’s biggest sceptics. Ben’s stinging criticism of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried has recently been vindicated by the US judicial system.

“Crypto is the newest iteration of multi-level marketing in many ways,” said Ben, “and studies show that 99 percent of people lose in multi-level marketing.”

Crypto went from the latest financial innovation to the latest financial crisis in just a few years, “speedrunning the last half a millennium of financial mistakes”. However, while highly critical of crypto in its current form, the OC star “[is not] sceptical of the problems crypto purports to address”.

And, while crypto has firmly positioned itself in the ‘bust’ category, the boom in AI leaves Ben far more optimistic. The technology, Ben argues, is much more “substantive”, and “the ‘doomerism’ around AI can become overwrought”.

“Crypto is the newest iteration of multi-level marketing.”

Ben McKenzie Slate

Founders’ mental health should be a priority for VCs The current downturn in funding has placed a strain on startup founders. Amid this turbulent period, the VC community is realising the need to support founder mental health.

“VC is so much about ‘go fast and get shit done’, as opposed to mindfulness and meditation. But I do think that investors are much more mindful about what’s happening with founders today,” said Vera Baker, venture partner with Unconventional Ventures.

Explaining that some funds offer in-house therapy and mental health subsidies, Vera emphasised that it’s up to investors to ensure that founders can access services.

Eileen Burbidge, director of Fertifa – a startup offering reproductive health benefits for employers – agreed, arguing that investors have a “duty of care” for founders’ wellbeing.

The director reflected on Monzo founder Tom Blomfield’s resignation due to mental health issues – something the founder has been outspoken about – calling it a “failing on our part, and the board, to not recognise that with him sooner”.

“As investor shareholders, if we’re not looking after founders’ wellbeing … then we’re not going to see them bring their best selves to work,” added Eileen.

Eileen Burbidge Fertia

STARTUPS AND INVESTORS / 08

Are centaurs the new unicorns?

THE EVENT FLOOR / 09

Activities on the event floor As is the case at all of our events, attendee experience is key at Web Summit. Part of that experience involves our partners’ activations on the event floor.

From Formula 1 cars to robots to art installations, everything was on show at Web Summit.

This year, our partners hosted several survey walls where attendees could share their opinions on everything from sportstech to global security.

NATO posed three questions, seeking feedback on how people view future technologies and security developments. The vast majority of respondents felt that industry will lead the way in shaping future tech, with governments lagging far behind.

Elsewhere, Mobilize (pictured) asked attendees about cars, focusing on sentiments around the environment, privacy and desirability. In spite of relatively recent concerns about pollution and personal data vulnerabilities, some 77 percent of attendees still find cars to be synonymous with freedom and convenience.

According to another survey wall, soccer and cycling are the sports set to benefit most from emerging technologies; VR, AR and gaming are the two areas of tech that can best enhance the fan experience; and unauthorised streaming is more popular than paid subscriptions when it comes to consuming sports.

Stepping away from survey walls, one of the more interesting partner appearances in Lisbon came from ApexBrasil, whose entire stand was made from recyclable plastic crates. After the event, the stand was dismantled and distributed to local organisations in the city.

Mercedes-Benz brought along a VR driving simulator for attendees to try out. VR was one of the big topics at this year’s event.

AI was definitely the talk of this year’s event. Our human attendees were even joined by some real AI robots, including Pepper (seen here at the German Park stand).

This was definitely the most colourful Web Summit yet, helped along by some incredible constructions from some of our partners. Here is the amazing ApexBrasil stand, made entirely of packing crates.

Advantage Austria held a ‘Pitstop Challenge’ each day. Lucky attendees got to play around in a real Red Bull Formula 1 car.

ABOUT US / 10

About us Web Summit runs the world’s largest technology events, connecting people and ideas that change the world.

Web Summit events have gathered half a million people across Web Summit in Lisbon, Web Summit Rio in South America, Web Summit Qatar in the Middle East, Collision in North America and RISE in Asia since the company’s beginnings as a 150-person conference in Dublin in 2009.

Politico has said we run “the world’s premier tech conference”, the Atlantic that Web Summit is “where the future goes to be born”, and the New York Times

that we assemble “a grand conclave of the tech industry’s high priests”.

At a time of great uncertainty for many industries – and, indeed, the world itself – we gather policymakers, heads of state, fast-growing startups, and the founders and CEOs of technology companies, to ask a simple question: where to next?

Our mission is to create meaningful connections between the CEOs, founders, investors, journalists, politicians and cultural figureheads who are reshaping the world.

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