Web Summit to host hundreds of curated community meetups in Lisbon this November
Web Summit will return in 2024 with more than 70,000 attendees, including 1,000-plus investors and an all-time record of 2,750 startups. The event will have a fresh focus on promoting meaningful connections and communities through meetups, powered by Summit Engine, Web Summit’s proprietary software. “This will be our biggest, but also our smallest, event yet”, explained Web Summit founder and CEO Paddy Cosgrave.
Web Summit will invite attendees to at least one curated meetup based on their interest and backgrounds.
Companies that will be partnering and/or speaking at this year’s event include Meta, Alibaba.com, Amazon Web Services, Adobe, Visa, Wiz, KPMG, Zoom, LVMH, Salesforce, Qualcomm and more. Web Summit will also host The Ukraine Tech Ecosystem initiative, and welcome Ozempic creator and Europe’s most valuable company, Novo Nordisk, to the event for the first time.
Lisbon, September 10
Web Summit has announced today that it will host hundreds of curated community meetups in Lisbon this November, powered by its proprietary software, Summit Engine.
This initiative is part of Web Summit’s renewed mission to foster meaningful connections and communities. By bringing people with similar backgrounds, interests and objectives together in community meetups, Web Summit hopes to make the event feel smaller and more intimate for attendees, as it continues to grow and scale across the world. Hundreds of these community meetups will take place alongside signature challenging discussions on how technology is shaping the world.
So far, this year’s top speakers include:
Yinon Costica, co-founder of cybersecurity powerhouse Wiz, which recently made waves by turning down a US$23 billion offer from Google
Julie De Moyer, LVMH’s recently appointed chief data and AI officer
Lidiane Jones, CEO of popular dating app Bumble, which harnesses AI to improve matchmaking
Cristiano Anon, CEO of Qualcomm, the company working to create bigger, better, and more affordable AI chips
Meredith Whittaker, president of encrypted messaging app Signal, which is fighting against government measures to scan citizen’s private messages
Also taking to the stage will be:
Alibaba.com president Kuo Zhang
Škoda Auto CMO Meredith Kelly
Amazon Web Services VP of AI Matt Wood
Meta’s global head of consumer marketing, Eshan Ponnadurai
Manchester United CEO Omar Berrada, and much more
They will be joined by world leaders and changemakers, including:
Germany’s Vice Chancellor, Robert Habeck
Portugal’s minister of youth and modernisation, Margarida Balseiro Lopes
Exiled Venezuelan opposition leader, Leopoldo López
Global tech companies, including IBM, Adobe, Intercom, Samsung Next, and Niantic Labs, will exhibit on the floor alongside financial giants such as Visa and American Express. Other notable partners include Novo Nordisk, Bosch, EDP, and KPMG.
New for 2024: Hundreds of curated meetings
Of course, Web Summit isn’t just about the speakers – it’s about the connections. That’s why this November, our curated meetups, powered by Summit Engine, will bring together attendees with shared roles or interests in AI, fintech, crypto, food tech, sustainability, and more.
To do this, Web Summit’s data science team uses in-house software to group attendees who have common interests and backgrounds, helping uncover emerging communities. This technology was tested this year at Web Summit Rio in April, and at Collision in Toronto in June. From data scientists in Uruguay and food tech startup founders and investors to public sector AI innovators, Web Summit wants to make sure that the right people find each other at our events. Attendees can use the Web Summit app to easily connect and stay in touch with those they’ve met long after the event ends in November.
“This is going to be our biggest but also our smallest event yet … we aim to host thousands of community meetups at the event and across Lisbon in November. We are evolving from being one large event to becoming a collection of a thousand deep, interconnected experiences,“ said Paddy Cosgrave.
“Over the last 15 years, the world has changed in many ways, and we’ve always been committed to adapting and re-evaluating our mission and goals to meet evolving challenges, ideas, and global circumstances. We’re currently in an especially charged moment in time,” Paddy continued.
“We are bigger than ever, but our mission remains the same – connecting the people, companies and ideas that change the word. Ultimately, the best event experience is when you walk away with a stronger network than you came with,” added SVP of product Brian Flanagan.
Just announced:
The full list of speakers at Web Summit is being announced today:
Lidiane Jones, CEO of Bumble
Anastasis Germanidis, co-founder and CTO of Runway
Meredith Kelly, CMO of Škoda Auto
Sarah Myers West, co-executive chair of AI Now Institute
Patrick Kluivert, former footballer with Barcelona and The Netherlands
Paula Goldman, chief ethical and humane use officer at Salesforce
Omar Berrada, CEO of Manchester United
Hans Niemann, chess grandmaster
Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal
Munya Chawawa, actor and comedian
Atul Bhardwaj, chief digital and technical officer at The Lego Group
Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom
Alex Hirschi, founder of Supercar Blondie
New speakers are being added regularly on the Web Summit speaker page.
About Web Summit:
Web Summit is a technology events company, bringing together a global community of founders, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors to connect and exchange ideas about the technology and trends shaping the world. Web Summit events – including Web Summit in Lisbon, Web Summit Rio in South America, Web Summit Qatar in the Middle East, and RISE in Asia – have gathered nearly one million people since Web Summit’s beginnings as a 150-person conference in Dublin in 2009. Its newest event, Web Summit Vancouver, will launch in May 2025.
