Web Summit returns to Lisbon: 42,000 attendees, one overriding theme

Early November saw Web Summit 2021 take over the Altice Arena in Lisbon, drawing more than 42,000 people from 128 countries. After more than a year of remote everything, the event was a chance to see what held up from the pandemic-era digital pivot and what comes next.

The dominant thread running through the four days: connectivity is now infrastructure. Sonia Jorge, executive director of the World Wide Web Foundation, put it bluntly — the Internet "is almost as important as having water." Her organization's work centers on the gap between that reality and the roughly half of the global population that still has no meaningful access. In many regions, even those who are connected face severe constraints; Jorge noted that "some have access once a month, for example." The gender disparity in access is also acute, and the pandemic, which pushed so much of daily life online, made the divide harder to ignore.

Siyabulela Mandela, director for Africa Journalists for Human Rights, framed access in sharper terms. For journalists covering human rights, the Internet is not a convenience but a precondition for the work. It is also a vector for harm when misused — he pointed to governments shutting down connectivity to control populations, as happened in Sudan starting in late October 2021.

Metaverse promises, real-world economics

The lockdowns that kept people working, learning and socializing on screens offered a rough preview of the metaverse — minus the headsets. That future played out on stage in several forms.

Meta's CPO, Chris Cox, sketched the company's ambitions for augmented reality over the next five to ten years, framing the discussion as the start of a broader conversation. Roblox's global head of music, Jon Vlassopulos, pitched a more immediate version: virtual concerts on the gaming platform as the future of live music, with artists like Zara Larsson and KSI already "making big money from selling digital merchandise." The pitch is that virtual shows can be free for fans while still generating revenue through digital goods.

Even so, Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave argued there is something irreplaceable about gathering in person — a sentiment backed by the announcement that CES 2022 would blend Web Summit's online and offline event software. The two worlds, he suggested, complement rather than compete with each other.

Web3, workplace shifts, and the ethics of AI

Beyond the metaverse, the conversation circled back to the decentralized web, with blockchain, NFTs and cryptocurrencies powering much of the discussion. Data privacy, sovereignty and the ethics of AI got consistent airtime, with Sir Tim Berners-Lee closing the event by emphasizing user ownership of data.

The workplace was another throughline. David Kiron, editorial director of MIT Sloan Management Review, said the pandemic forced companies to rethink how they value employees, but also exposed a new problem: being "really seen by your leadership when you're not in the office." He pointed to specific fallout, including a trend of working mothers leaving the workforce entirely. On AI, Kiron cited his organization's research showing that deploying AI systems can produce a notable uplift in morale and collaboration — but only if companies ask better questions of their AI teams. Done well, AI can even help redefine what performance means, surfacing metrics the organization was not previously tracking.

From vaccination to brain stimulation: highlights from the halls

Cloudflare's team spoke with a range of attendees about how technology is intersecting with their fields.

Vice-Admiral Gouveia e Melo, who coordinated Portugal's COVID-19 vaccination plan, discussed how the country reached an 86% vaccination rate despite a late start. The Internet was essential to the effort, a mission that relied on digital tools and clear communication. But it also amplified misinformation, and Melo fielded questions on where to draw the line on controlling speech online.

Ana Maiques, co-founder and CEO of Neuroelectrics, discussed her company's work using non-invasive transcranial electrical stimulation to treat epilepsy, depression and Alzheimer's. She is also developing "digital copies" of patients for personalized treatments. On the sci-fi edge of her field — mind-reading, downloading thoughts — she was pragmatic: "It's fun to think of science fiction possibilities, but we need to act now on things and problems that are affecting us today." She also acknowledged the challenges of raising money as a woman in tech, saying the slow shift she has witnessed is why visibility matters: "It's important to get out there and explain to women that they can do it."

Yusuf Sherwani, co-founder and CEO of Quit Genius, said the pandemic compressed a decade of digital health adoption into 18 months. His digital clinic treats addictions to tobacco, vaping, alcohol and opioids, and he argued digital healthcare has moved from convenient to necessary — a shift that will not reverse. He also stressed the need for scrutiny as technology becomes more embedded in people's lives.

David Shrier, professor at Imperial College Business School, observed that while "everyone is tired of Zoom calls," the convenience they offered "opened people's minds." He drew a parallel between the rise of the sharing economy and the embrace of blockchain and digital financial services — both shifts that arrived faster than most expected.

Dame Til Wykes, professor of clinical psychology at King's College London, admitted she had to learn which buttons to push for a Zoom call. Remote consultations helped keep care going during the pandemic, but she noted the limits: in therapy, it matters whether "someone is tapping a foot nervously while giving us a smile," and that is invisible on video. She welcomed the wider willingness to talk about mental health that the pandemic triggered, while cautioning that the full effects "remain to be seen."

Lisbon's tech ambitions

Carlos Moedas, the newly elected mayor of Lisbon and former European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, made the case for his city as a growing tech hub. With Cloudflare expanding locally — more than 80 open positions — Moedas has set his sights on making Lisbon "the capital of innovation of the world," or at least of Europe. His Unicorn Factory project is the vehicle for that ambition.