Clara-Laeila Laudette, Supantha Mokherjee

MADRID/STOCKHOLM – Next week Web Summit in Lisbon will be hosting its first ever in-person conference since the pandemic. A host of prominent tech conferences organisers such as Amazon (NASDAQ;) and Microsoft (NASDAQ.) are expected to attend.

It will follow the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (MWC), which took place in June. This conference is the next big tech conference that tests a return of normal. After 19 months of virtual meetings, entrepreneurs, executives, and investors are reunited.

Around 40,000 people are expected to attend the summit. The 1,000-speaker lineup includes Brad Smith (Microsoft Vice Chairman) and Craig Federighi (Apple Software boss), as well as 1000 speakers who will address groups that include founders of newly established companies.

Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder of Web Summit said that almost all attendees are in person – they don’t sell tickets online. “Most of these founders are not visible in person. Most of them went from nowhere and to where they are now in the two years since lockdown.

The tech sector gained unparalleled financial power and political reach after the coronavirus pandemic, which accelerated global digitalisation. Now, players are ready to address issues ranging from privacy regulation and racism to fintech.

While CPO Chris Cox of Facebook (NASDAQ: ) will talk about the “metaverse”, Frances Haugen, the newest whistleblower to the social media company will speak on the control that the group has over 3 billion people – nearly half of the world.

PHYSICAL EVENT

The summit will feature executives from over 70 startups (unicorns), and hundreds of entrepreneurs seeking venture capitalists’ attention to scale their businesses.

According to Harry Nelis of Accel Venture Capital Fund, a partner, “As people travel to Web Summit – for what will likely be the first physically event for many – they will be looking forward the serendipitous encounters, chats between stages sessions and bumping into old acquaintances in person again.”

A large gathering brings to focus safety precautions for the spread coronavirus. This event has the potential of becoming a “superpreader” event. However Portugal, which hosts the event is one of most-vaccinated nations in the world.

Cosgrove stated that there will be teams monitoring the capacity of each venue to ensure one-way traffic flow. Cosgrove said there were many outdoor areas for smaller groups. He also mentioned that each building has isolation rooms and on-site medical personnel.

A successful conference is essential for conference organizers to keep their heads above the water. MWC had to fire 40% of their staff last year due to the cancellation. The MWC organiser, and the telecoms industry association GSMA took a heavy blow.

Cosgrove claimed that Web Summit was not laying off people due to the pandemic. Instead, they rely on revenues from other products such as hybrid conferencing software. It was originally designed to supplement networking at in person events. Next year, it will be used to power CES in Las Vegas.

Web Summit began in Dublin, Ireland in 2010, with 400 attendees. It has been held in Lisbon each year since 2016 and attracted around 100,000 people in 2019.