How to survive at Web Summit: reflections from a participant and partner

Hi everyone,

Two weeks ago, I visited Lisbon and #WebSummit and want to share some thoughts and reflections on my experience at this conference, based on two trips to Lisbon and one to Rio de Janeiro. I will primarily review my Lisbon experience, as it is the largest and most popular startup event in Europe.

Why I'm Sharing

I participated in two roles: as a partner (Lisbon) and a regular attendee (Rio and Lisbon). It's crucial to manage expectations, especially if you participate for the first time.

Networking

As many of us participate in the conference mainly to network and gather leads for subsequent negotiations (regardless of whether it's about partnerships or finding future clients), let me start with this point.

If startups in early stages (pre-seed, seed) are your target audience, Web Summit is a great place—lots of booths that change every day!

For all other segments (investors, experts in different fields around tech), it is a bit complicated. Be ready that:

• It is serious pipeline work to reach out to people through the app: add them to contacts, attract their attention, arrange meetings.
• Web Summit is really huge in terms of physical size, and it takes time to find each other.
• There is very little opportunity to catch speakers after their speeches, as they go away from the stage into a special space behind the stage. It takes some ingenuity to understand when and where you can reach them to exchange contacts.
• Be prepared that you will be tired, and your voice will be overshadowed more easily than at mid-sized or small events because of the amount of noise and people around.
• Check the side events (there are around a hundred): sometimes they are small, but due to their narrow targeting and more comfortable surroundings, they can be more efficient than the 70k attendees at Web Summit itself.

Lead Generation by Partnering

If you are partnering with a conference and doing workshops or masterclasses to gather leads, be prepared to receive the contacts of exact people coming to your exact workshop, which you need to scan yourself. The main issue for our company was that we didn’t receive anyone’s contacts who ticked the box “I’m coming” but didn’t attend for any reason (no time or not enough space). I got used to receiving everyone interested and ready to share personal data from my experience with other events. We discussed this issue with our Web Summit manager for quite a long time; however, it was strict and unavailable to gather all interested.

Content

Web Summit is famous for all types of speakers and various formats. Don’t worry if you can't choose between the main stage (where there are usually stars and even big politicians) and others—choose others, as you can see videos from the main stage later on YouTube for free.

If it matters for you: on the majority of stages, there are no options for questions or interaction with speakers afterward. In my personal opinion, content is mostly inspiring rather than deep expertise (sessions are rather short to be very deep).

What else to use?

• You definitely need an app to follow the schedule and network. I recommend not only scanning badges while talking (you will then see someone’s email), but also exchanging LinkedIn or any other contacts.
• There are lots of side events; I liked this web aggregator to check formal & informal events around Web Summit - https://innovationscene.pt/websummit/events/.
• Last but not least, take your time in Portugal before or after: the ocean and local culture are amazing!

A bit of personal reflection

Having been an organizer of mid-sized tech & startup conferences in the past, I am observing how the experience of attendees is changing with the growth of the conference. It is frustrating for me to face unavailability of speakers and investors for interaction, very inflexible conditions for partners and sponsors, many more B2G booths (like those from Netherlands or Serbia for startups) than B2B booths (tech companies or VC), and more people skipping Web Summit, coming only to visit side events. 

Do you feel the same? What is your opinion about the conference?