Europe’s biggest tech conference, Web Summit will be making a return as an in-person event when it goes down in Lisbon, Portugal this November.
The news of the event’s in-person shift was confirmed to Reuters by its organizers. Last year’s event, like so many others, was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and was held online last year as an alternative.
Web Summit CEO, Paddy Cosgrave said this past November that Lisbon’s Altice Arena was booked for this year as he expected the event would return to in-person in 2021, the news just confirms this.
“We couldn’t be more excited to return in person. Seeing people safely connecting in-person again, and re-experiencing the magic of face-to-face interactions, will be incredible,” Cosgrave said in a statement.
Organizers confirmed that they have been in regular contact with health authorities to help organize a COVID-safe Web Summit. With that being said it hasn’t been decided at this point in time if masks or tests will be required says communications manager Katherine Farrell.
The Portuguese government is planning to lift the use of masks in outdoor areas in September. Masks will still be required in large gatherings and mandatory for indoors. While nothing is set in stone for the event, the venue is being set up for social distancing.
Web Summit revealed that it will have over 1,000 speakers—including Amy Poehler—and 1,250 startups attending the event. The attendance of the event is expected to be over 40,000. In comparison, the 2019 event sold 70,500 tickets while last year’s online-only event had around 104,000 attend the event.
Portugal’s daily cases in June and early July have risen to a level not seen since February, back when the country was under a strict lockdown. Since then cases have slightly fallen as of late July.
According to government data, close to 71 percent of Portugal’s population has received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine. Meanwhile, the country’s fully vaccinated number is about 62 percent.
Web Summit is set to place in Lisbon, Portugal in the Altice Arena from November 1st through the 4th.
