10 Things to Take Away from Web Summit 2019

Web Summit, the biggest IT event in Europe, remains on top of the expected gatherings. This year Lisbon is expecting another 70 000 participants with 1200+ speakers, 2000 journalists, and 11 000 C-level representatives.

Taking part in such huge events is where you feel and realize that future trends start here and now, right in front of your eyes, and you are part of the big thing. An unrivaled opportunity to stay up-to-date with technology sentiments and to expand your horizons tempts to visit the Web Summit year by year. This is a unique spot on the earth where all global top people, top technologies and top ideas are in the same place, at the same time. 

So, we didn’t miss the opportunity to see, listen, hear and come up with some conclusions.

1. Web Summit is a great training playground for early stagers. You can basically pitch everyone & everywhere, as all the city full of WS guests, and the majority of them are techies that will actually listen to you and give meaningful feedback.

2. Hype is a real thing. If you want to draw attention to your project, add magic words — AR/VR, AI, FinTech, Big Data and others. Technologically speaking, you can add them later.

3. Web Summit smells like money. Like any concentration of good commercial ideas. The world is full of people to assist you on the way of growing your startup. Entire countries and cities put their eco-systems on display. Hubs, acceleration programs, investment companies. Just choose one and dive in. 

4. There’s a significant growth in number of country and city booths, meaning that more and more people gather in communities that progress and achieve higher results together. United we stand, as they say. 

5. Word of the year is Sustainability. If you want to play big, you have to be sustainable, or at least stick it to your logo. Let’s be honest, while company representatives are standing on a booth built entirely from plastic, shouting about eco things is a bit of hypocrisy, but hopefully we all are going in the right direction.

6. Ukraine turned out to be the 10th most represented country on Web Summit this year. And it’s not only software development agencies (as you might think). There were at least 2 startups from Ukraine in each category.

7. Like always – networking is a king here. If you don’t, you are losing the game. The whole summit area and the Night Summit events are designed to get a snack or a drink and start a conversation. Meeting an investor in a kebab queue is a real thing. 

8. Handout crisis is hitting big conferences. People like free stuff, but just t-shirts are not cool anymore. You have to be inventive to attract attention and create a like. Google does, so you can do too.

9. Follow up, and follow up again. With thousands of people around your only way to be remembered is to remind about yourself. Networking is not only sipping wine in a lounge, you know.

10. If you missed Boston Dynamics speech on the Main Stage, you didn’t attend Web Summit this year. 

And don’t miss the next Web Summit, cause it’s one of the best conferences in Europe and a great trendsetter event.