Web Summit was an exhilarating experience. From meeting up with friends new and old, being inspired by high-energy founders but also disappointed by remote and canceled talks it still ended with fond memories. Web Summit is an annual technology conference that covers a wide range of target audiences. From connecting startups with investors to partners to having headliner talks that search for rivalry. It is one of the largest technology conferences with over 42.000 attendees in beautiful Lisbon, Portugal.

This Medium story focuses on my personal experience as a first-time Web Summit attendee. Personally, the conference was quite the rollercoaster. From initial disappointment concerning organization to amazement and joy, everything was covered. The below graph roughly covered my emotional journey with high- and lowlights.

Monday — Opening Night

The first day was quite the hassle for most first-time attendees as communication was very unclear on when attendees should show up leading me and many others to involuntarily wait for 4+ hours. Once the entrances opened, minor chaos broke loose as different checkpoints. As I was at the very, very front of the crowd, I saw how security staff was surprised people were coming and did not know where to lead us sending people one way and then back again. This led to people jumping over fences and shouting to security as they did not want to lose their first-in-line spot. This chaos seemed avoidable for an event of this size and massive security appearance.

Opening Night Talks

According to the Web Summit marketing machine, opening night is THE session you cannot miss. Famous headliner, important people, and a great atmosphere. Personally, I was disappointed by the structure and talks. Starting with arbitrary startup pitches, followed by Black Lives Matter co-founder Ayọ (fka Opal) Tometi (talk), and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (talk), who both could not realize their potential and, unfortunately, barely moved the crowd.

The enormous stage and highly sophisticated production equipment were impressive. Not much was lacking to the stage at Stark Expo in the movie Iron Man. However, it simply felt like, here too, the potential was merely not reached. The entire opening night experience did not feel worth it. Better to save yourself the hassle and watch it somewhere else.

Mobile App

The mobile app is a key part of Web Summit. It is your ticket, your networking tool, your schedule manager, and your indoor navigation system. The ideas are great, but it felt like a beta product. People were frustrated as they scheduled meetings on the first day but could not enter the conference venues; for others it crashed almost constantly. For my use-cases, it worked fine but trying to have attendees network via the app was laughed upon by many as LinkedIn is the place everyone wants to manage their connections, not some proprietary conference app. An app just used four days per year, unsurprisingly, will not be excellent, but here again, the potential was not exhausted.

Tuesday — Talks, Talks, Talks

Tuesday is the actual start of the conference as only now the conference halls are open and the full size of the conference becomes apparent. Initially, I was searching for my place in this whole construct. It seemed like everyone had something to sell and was expecting you to sell something, too. As I was there primarily to be inspired, I did not and spent my time in different talks.

Talks

Talks definitely should not be your primary motivation to go to WebSummit as all main stages are streamed online for free, but nonetheless, they were a significant part of my experience. All in all, the speakers were good, the organization was nearly flawless, and the topics were very wide-ranging. From interviews to panel discussions to presentations, everything was there what one could hope for. All slots were pretty short, but that was OK. Remarkably few talks stood out to me, and very few talks moved the crowd, but if I'd be asked for recommendations, these would be my top three.

• Apple keynote: Privacy and security (Craig Federighi, Apple)
• Welcome to the Metaverse (Chris Cox, Meta)
• Black Lives Matter (Opal Tometi, co-founder BLM)

It simply is awesome to see people unreachable in real-life… mostly. I was disappointed when some headliners came on stage on a TV with a Zoom connection. I could not find any hints of speakers not being there in person in the app or online, so my surprise was large when, e.g., Facebook executives were on a Zoom connection. Also, having a headline talk canceled mere two hours before the talk was supposed to happen (Dr. Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon) was rather disappointing. I’d appreciate more transparency here for better expectation management. On the other hand, speakers on the smaller stages were very approachable and likable.

Security

The massive security teams and Lisbon police put on a good show to implement a probably good security concept but execute it poorly. Everything was available, from X-Ray scanners to metal detectors, but it was effortless to surpass by going in a line that did not have any equipment. If you are a woman and have a male police officer, you will be looked at up and down with your jacket on and then pass right along. I think someone could easily bring a massive weapon in. Similarly, getting your hands on a "volunteer" T-Shits allows you to simply nod to the police and pass by. For high-impact individuals like the Portuguese President or Apple Executives, this may be worrisome and I would have appreciated better checks.

Night Summit

The Night Summit is a Web Summits after-hours event that allows you to discover Lisbon and meet other attendees. Basically, for everyone not connected or elite enough to get into the parties happening all around the city, interesting places around Lisbon are listed in the app. Here, you likely will find other Web Summit attendees. The locations for the Night Summit are surprisingly well selected. There was a significant overlay in Night Summit recommendations to the places recommended to me by friends living in Lisbon. The people you meet are pretty hit or miss, but I found interesting international groups to hang out on the two nights I went out.

Night Summit definitely is not an organized networking event. You need to find people willing to spend time with you on the streets as, besides Web Summit signs throughout the city, there is no aid by Web Summit.

Wednesday — Meeting Friends New and Old

On Wednesday, I finally got into the conference groove. I was meeting and talking with people from over twenty countries which simply is fun and interesting. I actually enjoyed getting sales pitches or job offers in every second conversation, as I found it interesting to see people's different approaches. From great storytelling to cold hard facts to "we pay you a lot of money," it was a great opportunity to learn from the pitches people give you to improve your pitches down the road. Surprisingly, I also met old friends I bumped into randomly. Eating, hanging out and enjoying the energy with people I knew also was a welcome change.

Food

For some reason, I love conference food. I am a huge fan of food trucks, and a conference brings dozens of these together. Although (of course) rather expensive, especially for Portuguese prices, most food offerings were pretty good. Unfortunately, even though the food offering was massive, lines were massive, too. Eating at lunchtime takes 20–30 minutes to stand in line no matter which vendor you choose. However, Web Summit offered takeaway lunches which did not taste great but at least were quick to grab.

Thursday — Startup Booths

The startup vibe was the primary reason I wanted to visit Web Summit. Wandering the startup booths, this vibe became more than apparent. High-energy founders telling you how their company is just days before going into hyper-growth, crypto startups pitching the next big alt-coin, Web Summit has it all.

Suppose you want to get a job in a startup; there probably are not many better places to go. Without once mentioning that I was looking for work, I received job offerings every couple of minutes. Sure, technical skills mixed with a solid portion of business knowledge make me an attractive early-stage employee, but I was surprised by the number of job offers. The variety of founders, sectors, products, and pitches was huge. The quality of startups was below the level I had expected, but this is also a good sign as it means that it is easier to get into if I want to present my own startup there one day.

Unfortunately, even though Web Summit co-founder Paddy Cosgrave presented that the "Web Summit will be dominated by two Cs: crypto and climate" (source), there were only a few startup booths with sustainable missions. This was what I was looking for, and although many talks were on these topics, there don't seem to be many startups that could be convinced to fly to Portugal. Putting more of a focus on not only talks on sustainable topics but also startups accelerating the transition to sustainability would have been nice.

Conference Closing

The conference closed with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa coming on stage and moving the crowd more than pretty much any other speaker. I have never experienced a high-level politician this beloved by the citizens of their country. He spoke about the future he and his government see for technology. Of course, the government's goal of building a "Unicorn Factory" is way easier said than done. Still, the Portuguese politicians convinced me that they will do almost everything to become the place to be for startups. This support from not only the industry but also politics was a great closing in my opinion.

Summary

Did I love it? Did I hate it? Was it worth USD 5000 (including opportunity cost consulting four more days as a self-employed attendee)? Personally, I do not have any regrets. Getting out of the house was a welcome change. From a pure ROI perspective, at least for me, it would be hard to argue, but I don't know what will come down the road with the connections and knowledge I have gained. The conference had good ideas and great concepts, but the execution was not excellent in many aspects. Nonetheless, it inspired me to get into the startup ecosystem again, so the goal of getting inspired was fulfilled.

Appendix: Covid Spreading Event

Agh, how I'd love not to write this part as everyone is sick and tired of everything relating to the pandemic. However, I feel like something irresponsible may be going on. In Germany, many use the Corona Warn App (CWA), which allows people with COVID to notify all others with whom they had closer contact automatically and fully anonymously. The 42.000+ attendee event had 3G rules (vaccinated, recovered, or tested), which were also checked, and that some people still spread covid is logical due to simple statistics. However, I received three separate "critical" contact warnings meaning I was in close proximity for extended periods of time three others who tested positive within the following weeks. This is the most I've gotten throughout the whole pandemic. Now, if we assume, 10% were German (likely less), and 50% of these used the CWA, it means that way more people got infected with COVID but may not know it. This on its own, I do not think, is condemnable as anyone going to an event of this size must be aware of the risk. However, I have not received a single email or warning by Web Summit that cases of COVID are known to spread at the event and that precautionary participants should get themselves tested. To silence a very possible large spreading of COVID is not cool — not cool at all. Transparency always wins.

‍