The pandemic forced the rethinking once again the event that is expected to start in early December, but without face-to-face actions.
In the summer, the Web Summit organization gave the first signs that this year’s edition could be different. The hypothesis of part of the technological summit happening online and the other in person were given. This Thursday, October 7, it was announced that there will be no events in Lisbon and will only be held over the Internet.
“Lisbon remains the home of the Web Summit, but with the growth of covid-19 infections and outbreaks in Europe, we have to think about what is best for the Portuguese and our participants,” explained Paddy Cosgrave, the founder of the event, in a statement quoted here by “Jornal Económico”.
The decision comes after meetings with the government and the municipality of Lisbon. “The safest and most reasonable way to repeat the Web Summit is to do it completely online in 2020.” The dates remain the same as they were scheduled, from December 2-4.
An online channel will also be created only for Portugal, with the aim of promoting the country, since the financial impact and return this year to the city will be virtually nil with the event to be held in this way.
The Web Summit 2020 has already confirmed 800 speakers, such as Eric Yuan, the founder of Zoom, which has long been discussed in recent months, Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s chief technology officer, or actor Chris Evans.