Web Summit in Lisbon set to attract more than 60,000

More than 60,000 people are expected to attend the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, next week.

Organisers say the event, taking place at the FIL and Altice Arena (formerly known as MEO arena) from November 6th-9th, will be the largest gathering in history of technology companies.

Anyone who hasn’t got a ticket already, however, will have to fork out a hefty €1,500 to attend. The deadline for the so-called cheaper €995 admission expired in recent days.

“It’s going to be an incredible melting pot of leading minds from every corner of the globe,” according to the organisers.

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The tech conference was first held in Ireland in 2009 with fewer than 400 attendees and grew to about 40,000 by 2015, and caused controversy when it left for Portugal last year under a three-year deal.

Mr Cosgrave earlier this year said the move to Portugal had enabled Web Summit to expand its offerings to focus on new areas such as policymaking and autotech, although he did not rule out a move back to Dublin at some point in the future.

Address by PM

This year’s event kicks off with some short talks on the evening of November 6th. However, the summit doesn’t get going in earnest until the following morning with opening remarks from Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, at 9.35am.

UN secretary-general António Guterres will then open the Web Summit, and Al Gore, former US vice-president, will close it on November 9th.

In between, there will be 25 conferences as well as 1,000 speakers including Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich, Tinder co-founder and chairman Sean Rad, and former France president François Hollande.

This year’s event will be carbon-neutral for the first time. All emissions generated by Web Summit and its attendees will be offset by new forests in Portugal and all single-use water cups will be 100 per cent recyclable onsite.

The carbon dioxide emissions generated, including those generated by attendees’ air travel, will be totally offset by a pine tree plantation. The summit attracted 53,056 attendees from over 166 countries in 2016.

A firm called the Navigator Company will establish and manage this forest, with official certification provided by an independent body.

An estimated 95,000 pine tree saplings, which will grow and sequestrate carbon dioxide for at least 35 years, will be planted in the centre of Portugal, contributing to a greener Web Summit.