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The announcement was made by Paddy Cosgrave through a statement from his company, Connected Intelligence Limited (CIL): an edition of the Web Summit will be launched in Japan in September 2022, which will take place two months before the Lisbon edition. The choice, says Paddy Cosgrave, makes perfect sense: “Japan is the perfect country to host the Web Summit. For decades it was the world leader in innovation, creating some of the most sophisticated and advanced technologies we use today, ”the mentor of the technology event mentions in the note.
However, the idea is that the summit will continue to be held in Lisbon – and it will be renamed Web Summit Lisbon – more because there is a contract signed with the Government and the Lisbon City Council, which represents an investment of 11 million euros per year, for a total of 110 million euros.
But Cosgrave showed the need to create replicas of the event in other parts of the world, as will later happen in Japan in 2022. The organization of the event justifies the launch of a replica of the Web Summit in Tokyo with the need to expand to other regions of the world. balloon. “I met with various political and business leaders from Japan. It is clear that Japan is determined to strengthen its startup economy. Bringing thousands of entrepreneurs, CEOs and global leaders from around the world to Tokyo will possibly support this (government) vision. from Japan, ”Paddy Cosgrave says in a statement.
But this is not the only news announced by the Irish. Also in 2022 there will be an event in Brazil, with two cities currently competing for the conference: Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro. The Rise event, which until now was held in Hong Kong, will now be held in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur.
On this matter, João Pedro Costa, Social Democratic councilor of the municipality, tells the SUN that «Lisbon does not have an exclusive contract, but to host the annual Web Summit event».
The councilor explains that the initial contract “does not contemplate any exclusivity for all the activity nor would any global company, it would be a contract.” Thus, “the object is the annual event and what worries me is that this event will serve to leverage the move from Lisbon to the 1st division of international fairs and attract many more”. For that, he says, “the expansion of FIL is missing. I still don’t understand why Fernando Medina and António Costa have stopped everything. Almost two years have passed and we continue at it.
OR SUN attempted a reaction from the Lisbon Chamber on the Web Summit in Tokyo, but got no response until press time.
But until 2022 rolls around, the outlook for next year, after an atypical year like 2020, is the best. At least, this is the hope of Cosgrave, who admitted that when the pandemic is no longer such a significant threat, the event can take place in a hybrid format: online and in person. “In 2021, the venues will have the same dimensions (as today), but I think we can unite the 70,000 people in Lisbon with the 70,000 people who watch online,” said the official.
Three days of online success but without the same shine
The covid-19 pandemic has caused several changes in the world. It was initially thought that the Web Summit could be held in a hybrid format, but the increase in cases around the world, including Lisbon, did not allow this format to happen. Thus, the Web Summit took place over three days -from December 2 to 4-, in an unprecedented way, in a completely online format. But the comfort of the sofa and the ease of attending various conferences in record time ended up dulling the event and allowing such important contact in this type of event.
In this online version, Filomena Cautela hosted the event that started last Wednesday, with encouraging speeches from the Prime Minister, António Costa, and the Mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina.
For António Costa, there is no doubt: an event of this dimension can only transmit a message of “strength and hope” in these times of “uncertainty” due to the pandemic. “The post-pandemic world will be different. We must guarantee that it will be better. We will make the Web Summit 2020 the starting point to build this better future ”, said the Prime Minister at the opening ‘ceremony’, without hiding his pride in the event:“ There is nothing more powerful than having 100,000 creators, entrepreneurs and politicians to discuss new solutions for the future ”, he emphasized.
And, although this year the pandemic forces a different format of the event, the prime minister guarantees: this is the year in which the country “jumps to the league of innovation champions.”
And Fernando Medina also maintains that this type of event is important and necessary.
Even in the version online, it was impossible to attend all the events, as many were held simultaneously. But this edition was full of conferences on the most varied topics, with an emphasis on Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, who guaranteed that “Europe is attracting more capital for startups than any other region in the world.” The official also said that the rules of the digital market on the continent will be rewritten.
But there was much more and with an emphasis on the national: José Mourinho received the Innovation in Sports award and there were more Portuguese winning awards.
The SMART project, which includes researchers from five Portuguese institutions, won the first edition of the AI Moonshot Challenge. The team will receive 500 thousand euros to develop a project to combat pollution in the oceans. This project aims to combine machine learning with the principles of the laws of physics to build models to predict and simulate the accumulation of plastic in the ocean.
Numbers exceeded
The 2020 edition did not bring any benefit to Portuguese tourism, but the number of ‘visitors’ was a record. The organization expected about 100 thousand subscribers and the number was exceeded: 104,328 people registered for this edition. In addition, the Web Summit was attended by participants from 168 countries, five more than last year. But there are other numbers to increase, such as the presence of women: this year, 45.8% of the participants were women.
