“Lisbon hottest spot in Europe” says Cosgrave

“Since we’ve arrived with Web Summit, Lisbon has come the hottest spot in Europe” according to the CEO of the event, Paddy Cosgrave.

According to the co-founder he decided to bring Web Summit to Lisbon because he believed the Portuguese capital was an “exciting city with a huge potential” he said in an interview with Dinheiro Vivo.
Five years Cosgrave says that this opinion has not only remained the same, but has been reinforced by the number of startups and companies set up, not only Portuguese ones, but also ones from overseas.
Cosgrave says that in May he wasn’t even sure that Web Summit would go ahead “then in June we received the good news that the event in November would go ahead”.
“We looked at the initial numbers and we thought we’d get 10,000 people and we knew we’d have a maximum capacity for 40,000 people. It seemed we’d get 20-30,000 people and now we’re reached maximum limit and I can’t wait for WS to start”, he said.
Among the key speakers at Web Summit is Facebook critic Francis Hogan (Day 1) in his first appearance on stage or anywhere since testifying before the US Congress and addressing the British parliament.
One of the main themes is sustainability and there are over 200 startups and many speakers presenting projects and giving talks and presentations about the UN’s Sustainable Development Objectives. “I think there is no greater issue than the climate. Of course, we’ll be talking about technology companies in general, but climate change is inevitably the biggest issue and we’ll get to a more sustainable world through innovation.” Other themes, he said, include cryptography.
Web Summit will run between 1-4 November.