Web Summit 2017 - The Startup League looks back

by Startacus Admin

The Startup League is just back from Web Summit 2017 where they supported over 50 startups. Here, they gave us their take on their experience of this years event...

"The Startup League is just back from Web Summit, Lisbon. In it’s 7th edition, the conference saw 3 crazy days and over 60,000 people walking into the event. Hosted at the same venue in Lisbon as last year, the event has definitely expanded in scale - most easily witnessed with attendees standing in the 20-minute long entrance line during the morning rush!  

What we saw at Web Summit

In their signature format, Web Summit hosted 25 different conferences within the 3 days, from auto tech to content marketing, sustainable technology and robotics. The days, filled with hustle between workshops and talks, faded into pub crawls and sunset summits - an easy way for the attendees to wind down over a few drinks and discover the amazing city of Lisbon.

These stages attracted over 1200+ speakers; including a fair representation from Government giants including the likes of Al Gore (Former VP, USA, and currently Chairman of Generation Investment Management), Francois Hollande (Former President, France) and Margrethe Vestager (European Commissioner for Competition). Of course, a tech and startup conference would be incomplete without the voice of speakers that included the top executives from Intel, Microsoft, Amazon and successful unicorns Slack, Booking.com, Tinder etc.

Startups at Web Summit

The 3-day conference also saw close to 2500 startups exhibiting, and 200 startups in the PITCH competition. Apart from the startups exhibiting, a large percentage of the crowd belonged to younger startups that were not able to exhibit through booths but were walking around to find partners, funding, mentors etc. Often, it becomes difficult for startups to weigh out the high cost of an exhibition booth vs the exposure derived. Understanding this need of a startup, the Startup League program aims to assist their community of 140+ startups in their marketing endeavours by providing at least 25% sponsorship each time they exhibit at any startup/tech event.

At Web Summit, the Startup League supported over 50 amazing startups in their journey to Web Summit, in form of booth sponsorship, PR support and free booth goodies. Out of these, 5 startups received their booths at 100% sponsorship - www.nu-rise.tech, www.sensei.tech, www.pavnext.tech, www.okoai.tech, www.oceowater.online.

Among the startups that pitched, www.pavnext.tech, www.diluvium.tech and www.botscape.tech were present, with www.watr.tech making it all the way to the finals.

UK based Watr.tech is working to build smart monitor systems that help track the health of water - one of the earth’s most precious, and fast depleting resource. The Monitor provides affordable solution to improve water quality, reduce losses and increase productivity for water-based industries.

What was new on the floor?

Keen participation from accelerators and innovation arms of large companies and governments alike was seen on the exhibition floor. Marriott Test Bed, Airbus and Booking.com were a few among the niche acceleration programs present. Startup Pavilions by the likes of Swedish Hotspot, Business France, Qatar Development Board etc just went on to prove the vested interest of governments from developing economies towards startups.  

The Startup League also supported startups from various parts of the globe like www.animall.online (Hong Kong), www.botscape.tech (Belarus) www.digidice.tech (India) to name a few. Even Web Summit’s pricing strategy to lower the cost of ALPHA stands this year onward was to attract a larger global representation of startups and solutions on the floor.

It isn’t uncommon to come across attendees running to the next talk across 4 pavilions, startup founders squeezing in yet another investor meeting and exhibitors vying for the eyes of all walk-bys by serving popcorn, beer, handing out free goodies! The hustle of Web Summit is what makes it a crazy 3 days that are bound to leave each one present exhausted, and full of possible new ideas and contacts!

About The Startup League...

If you are a startup looking to exhibit at Web Summit, or any other startup or tech event like TechCrunch Disrupt, Techday, London Tech Week etc., reach out to the Startup League team - and they will help you out with a cool sponsorship on your exhibit, among other support like free branded goodies, PR exposure and more! Apply now on www.startupleague.online

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Published on: 14th November 2017