The Web Summit is one of the largest technology conferences in the world. It was founded in Dublin in 2010 and has since been held in various cities around the world, including Lisbon, Portugal, where it has been held since 2016. The conference brings together entrepreneurs, investors, and tech enthusiasts from around the world to discuss the latest trends and innovations in technology.
At the Web Summit, you can expect to hear from a wide range of speakers, including tech industry leaders, politicians, and celebrities. You can also attend workshops, networking events, and exhibitions showcasing the latest technology and startups.
Myself and 4 of the IT Recruitment team here at FRS, jetted off in the early hours on Wednesday morning and landed in sunny Lisbon just in time for lunch. I have never been to an event of this scale and the crowds reminded me of All-Ireland final day outside Croke Park.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we split up to explore the 5 pavilions. Each pavilion was packed full of start-ups, established companies, entrepreneurs, investors and techies from all over the world. The line-up of speakers was phenomenal, with some of the biggest names in tech, sport and politics, discussing and sharing their experiences.
One of the highlights for me was Toto Wolff, Team Principal of Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team and Oliver Steil, CEO at TeamViewer, talk on “Giving F1 a tech edge. They briefly discussed the success of Mercedes over the past decade, how they had a tough year last year and that they are using tech to take them to the next level in F1.
Mercedes are utilising AR (Augmented Reality) to connect labs, robots and people in a remote working world. This will help them meet sustainability targets set out by Formula 1 as it will reduce the amount of engineers that need to travel on race weekend but also help with performance enhancement.
One of the stand-out experiences for Chris was speaking with a cohort of several Irish-born start-ups. Their stage of investment and headcount ranged from early “Alpha” to a more sustained “Growth” stage and a common defining element of each of these companies is that they are making jobs available in not only Ireland but across Europe. It was a refreshing reminder also to see a diverse crowd of investors and potential customers flood their stands. It was no surprise we often had to wait in line for several minutes to have a chat!
James found the ability to network with high quality attendees was incredible. He connected with a lot of people at C-level in start-ups, small and medium size companies. Conversations were easy going but also very business focused. People were very much in the mindset to learn from one another.
John attended a fantastic talk by World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero and how his company is leveraging blockchain technology on his sports fan platform. He really enjoyed the fact that everyone was happy to engage in conversations and the possibility of future collaboration.
The talk about Ukraine and the benefits of technology in the current war with Russia was eye opening for Darragh. Mykhailo Fedorov the vice prime minister of Ukraine spoke about how some of the biggest tech companies in the world such as Microsoft, Tesla and Meta have played key roles in helping Ukraine defend their country.
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