What are the first few things you associate Portugal with? Vasco da Gama, surfing, yellow trams, and pastéis de Belém? It is all true but this week Portugal breathes entrepreneurship. Starting from November 6, Lisbon has turned into ”Davos for the geeks” to welcome over 60,000 visitors at the Web Summit which is being hosted from November 6-9. Many of the participants have already arrived beforehand to enjoy the sunny weather and to go surfing.
The organizers have focused, not only on the daily program which will be full of relevant workshops, inspiring speakers but also on sessions with venture capitalists you often see on the front pages of newspapers and magazines. Besides the representatives of Amazon, Uber, and Tinder, the former US President Al Gore, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and former Olympian and campaigner Caitlyn Jenner will be around to meet the next generation business leaders.
However, for the Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave, what happens after 5 PM is also essential. He believes the best networking relationships are forged over dinner or a long walk through the city. That is why his team has also organized a wide range of out-of-hours activities.
Paddy’s experience has shown that a third of the entrepreneurs that showcased their products and services at the previous editions of the Summit, found an investor within a year. This year, there are about 2,000 startups in Lisbon and nearly 1,500 high-profile business angels.
If you are in Lisbon now, do not forget to drop by at this event! StartUpBahrain is at Stand S743 where we are looking forward to meeting inspiring individuals from all around the globe. We already got involved in sessions on virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Our delegation also did not miss the Ecosystem Summit during the opening day of the event. We had the pleasure to represent Bahrain in the company of global leaders to discuss sustainable investing strategies and corporate engagement initiatives. Mohamed AbdulAziz Abdulla, Acting Director of eServices & Channel Development at Iga Bahrain, Shaikha Al Fadel, Director of SMEs Development at Ministry of Industry and Commerce, John Kilmartin, Simon Galpin, and Pakiza Abdulrahman of EDB shared best practices and gained new valuable experience on how to accelerate the startup ecosystem in the Kingdom. To know more, follow us on Instagram!
