How #WebSummit Landed in Lisbon
Last year, while attending the #WebSummit in Dublin, I had a chance to talk with its founder Paddy Cosgrave about his controversial decision to move Europe’s biggest tech conference from its Dublin origins in 2009 to Lisbon. See here:
Now that we’re in Lisbon for the 2016 WebSummit, it’s easy to see why he made the move. The Lisbon venue, Parque das Nacoes (MEO), which was built in 1998 for the World Exposition, can accommodate 80,000 people and enjoys a more contiguous footprint than Dublin’s Royal Dublin Society (RDS) arena, i.e., no exhausting walks between presentations. Also, Lisbon is an impossibly scenic city (not that Dublin didn’t have its charms.)
At the opening night dinner, hosted by my former (B-M) client Accenture, I had chance to rec0nnect as well as meet a good swath of tech’s mover’s and shakers. This included Robert Scoble who I first met a decade ago(!) when he was Microsoft’s pioneering star blogger.
Always the early adopter, Scoble today evangelizes for AR/VR hybrids or #mixedreality as evidenced by the hololens he donned last night. (Let’s hope he stays out of the shower with this one.)
Finally, I chatted up the co-founder of Lisbon’s largest tech incubator about the city’s startup ecosystem and how the WebSummit came to land here. He shared the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to the momentous decision, which included the fact that Lisbon, unlike other major European cities, was without a large tech-focused convention in spite of its large and fast-growing tech community.
He also extolled the virtues of the proposed venue, and its capacity to accommodate greater numbers with a better physical flow. Finally, the Portuguese government played its part by offering Paddy & co. significant financial incentives to bring the Web Summit to Lisbon. The nation’s president who was the former Mayor of Lisbon spoke here yesterday, while the country’s Prime Minister and Lisbon’s current mayor were on the docket to speak today.
…more to come.
