Finlay Sandy Gress’ Post

The Web Summit has officially come to an end, but the emotions and positive impressions are still with me. I made so many new connections, had numerous conversations, and discovered shared passions. Attending events like Web Summit is a powerful investment in personal and professional growth. From inspiring keynotes and skill-building workshops to building valuable connections and discovering new opportunities, such events broaden your perspective and fuel innovation. Happy to be part of such events! #WebSummit #WebSummit2024 #UkraineAtWebSummit #UkraineAtWebSummit2024

Speaking At Web Summit For The First Time? Here’s What I Learned: 1️⃣ Prepare, But Stay Flexible: Rehearse your speech, but leave room for authenticity. The best moments often come from listening to your audience's beat. 2️⃣ Know Your Audience: Understand who will be in the room and tailor your message to their interests. A great speech is as much about them as it is about you. 3️⃣ Start Strong: Open with a hook — a surprising fact, a bold statement, or a personal story. Capturing attention in the first 30 seconds is key. 4️⃣ Keep It Clear and Understandable: Simplify deep tech topics to a business-level perspective. Ensure the examples you provide are relatable to everyone in the room. 5️⃣ Practice Speaking to the Room: If possible, visit the venue beforehand. Familiarizing yourself with the stage and setup helps ease nerves. 6️⃣ Engage, Don’t Just Present: Treat your talk as a conversation. Look at your audience, joke, connect. 7️⃣ Don’t Let Nerves Take Over: Feeling nervous means you care — embrace it! Focus on delivering value instead of aiming for perfection. Yearly this conference in Lisbon is attended by 70 000 tech enthusiasts. Taking the stage at Web Summit for the first time is an unforgettable experience. What advice would you give first-time speakers? Let’s share ideas! #websummit #lisbon #speech #tips

🌍 Missed out on the Lisbon Web Summit 2024? No worries! The full experience is now available on YouTube! 🚀 Catch up on the latest tech trends, insights, and groundbreaking innovations shared by industry leaders. Head over to YouTube, sit back, and dive into everything you need to know from the summit. Let’s keep the conversation going—share your thoughts and favorite moments below! #WebSummit2024 #Lisbon #TechInnovation #YouTube #FutureOfTech

Getting ready to go to the Web Summit a goal: to discover innovations that bring real progress to people. For me, the web summit is a chance to explore trends, developments, and innovations shaping the world far beyond technology. At ELP Network, we make outside-in inspiration a regular practice. Because part of growth is knowing what is happening in the world around us. For me, that means exploring trends and breakthroughs that impact people’s lives in meaningful ways. We talk a lot about “progress,” yet many don’t see improvements on what truly matters—basic needs, security, well-being. This disconnect fuels dissatisfaction and polarization. How can we create breakthroughs that genuinely impact people’s lives, meeting individual needs, without side lining sustainability and social change? Real progress should feel tangible, not just an abstract idea or another corporate target. As usual, I will be joined by an amazing group of people: Yvonne Kubbinga, Geesje Mosies, Chiara Liqui Lung, Mandy Op het Veld, Rosan Gompers, Dulce Monteiro, and many more! If you’re at Web Summit and believe in driving meaningful change, let’s meet. It’s time to build a future where growth and individual progress go hand in hand. #WebSummit2024 #InnovationForImpact #GrowthMindset #MeaningfulProgress #Sustainability ELP Network | Realising Breakthroughs

As the summit approaches, I predict that key conversations will center on energy efficiency, sustainability, renewable energy, GHG emissions from AI data centers, and AI for social good. With AI and data needs expanding, it's timely to explore how green energy sources, emissions reduction, and innovative cooling solutions can lessen environmental impact. I anticipate discussions on how leaders can contribute by supporting green policies, investing in renewable infrastructure, and inspiring public action.

Great initiative to invite people, me included, to predict topics of interest at the upcoming #WebSummit, thank you for the opportunity Sam Shead! First, let's define that there are two types of topics: on-the-record and off-the-record. For the on-the-record ones, apart from the usual suspects such as AI, mobility, robotics, etc. I bet the Space-related tech will be a subject, as for example a European feasibility study of building data centers in Space. As for the off-the-record ones, I bet people will talk about the 2025 IPO market opportunities in the aftermath of the US elections. Looking forward to discovering how these predictions will play out.

“Fully immersed in the Web Summit experience! Grateful to be part of this inspiring event, surrounded by innovation, technology, and top-level networking. Ready to soak up knowledge, make new connections, and bring fresh insights to the future. 🚀 #WebSummit #Innovation #Networking”

🌟 Was Web Summit 2024 Truly Inspiring, or Slightly Disappointing? 🌟 I had the incredible opportunity to attend Web Summit 2024 in Lisbon, and while there was no shortage of innovation and creativity, I’m left wondering – was it truly as inspiring as it seemed? There were so many bold ideas and groundbreaking solutions, and the energy was undeniably contagious. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel that some speakers strayed a bit from their announced topics, which made the experience feel a little less focused. While the event was undeniably valuable and motivating, I did expect a bit more depth in some areas. Overall, an unforgettable event, but was it as inspiring as I hoped? 🤔 What do you think? Was Web Summit 2024 inspiring for you, or did it miss the mark in some areas? #WebSummit2024 #WebSummit #TechConference #Inspiration #Lisbon #Networking #Motivation #EventReflection

So what are people going to talk about most at the Web Summit? Generative AI tout-court would be too easy a guess. I will go with two key specific themes. One is indeed related to generative AI, and it will be about how to beat AI at its own game with... AI. The biggest issue we face in today's AI-generated content is that it’s becoming closer and closer to human-written content to the extent that the latter hardly passes AI-check detectors, because AI keeps feeding on human content, making it resonate more and more like AI-generated work. This is a huge deal that dilutes originality by the hour, and the future of AI adoption for generating content, in my opinion, depends on finding a solution to this. Therefore, I believe that one key topic at Web Summit will be the future of AI personas trained and tailored on and to each individual adopter. The second theme is much closer to my chords, and yet related to the first one. I think that there will be an extended buzz over how the content distribution sector is inevitably shifting from an affiliate business model, where content creators work for the big machines, to a more entrepreneurial one where they do direct business with their audience without platform interference. Your thoughts? #WebSummit

Morning Sam Shead - Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the topics for discussion in the forthcoming #websummit. My question is quite simple: How does the drive towards AI and technical excellence help those poor, starving people around the world who don't even have clean water to drink?