News Analysis
New Web Summit CEO reconnects audience with Lisbon conference
Web Summit , the world ’ s biggest technology event , named Katherine Maher — previously CEO and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation – its new CEO just weeks before the 2023 edition in Lisbon , 13-16 November
atherine Maher holds
K a number of corporate board positions and took over the CEO post from Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave . He had stepped down following contentious remarks he made after the 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel .
Although Cosgrave later released a statement saying he “ sincerely apologised ” for any hurt caused by his comments , adding that the Hamas 7 October attacks were , in fact , “ evil , disgusting and monstrous ”, many high-profile tech figures said they had been so appalled by his comments that they would no longer participate in the 2023 Web Summit .
Maher did not address the issue head on but , in a blogpost shortly after taking over as CEO , she attempted to steer the debate back to conference business as usual , writing in a blogpost : “ My first time at Web Summit I was struck by the openness of the event . It wasn ’ t a pitch competition , or a trade show , or a policy conference . It was all these things and more . It had engineers discussing the potential of carbon capture alongside politicians debating the merits of various data privacy regulatory schemes .”
She added : “ It was a place for the smallest start-ups and the biggest household names , all brushing shoulders in the same spaces , connecting over collaboration or challenging the status quo . It was a place for fresh ideas to find lightningin-a-bottle opportunities , and for established wisdom to receive new hearing . A place that saw technology not just as an industry but as a force transforming business , politics , and society .
“ If you ’ re reading this , though , you ’ re undoubtedly aware that in recent weeks Web Summit has been at the centre of the conversation , rather than the host . Its purpose was overshadowed by the personal comments of the event ’ s founder and former CEO , Paddy Cosgrave . Paddy has apologised and stepped down from Web Summit .
“ Today Web Summit is entering its next phase . I am excited to announce that I am joining Web Summit as CEO , because I believe in Web Summit ’ s mission to connect people and ideas
Left : Katherine Maher that change the world . Our immediate task at hand is returning the focus to what we do best : facilitating discussions among everyone involved in technological progress .”
Despite the backlash against Cosgrave , the 2023 edition of the tech conference , seemed to thrive at Lisbon ’ s Altice Arena , with organisers estimating 70,000 people attended .
Artificial intelligence ( AI ) took centre stage at Web Summit 2023 , including at the event ’ s start-up competition , PITCH .
The event fielded 806 speakers , while 906 investors participated in the proceedings , which included the presence of 2,608 start-ups from 93 countries . Signal Foundation president Meredith Whittaker , Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales , former US military analyst and whistleblower Chelsea Manning , and Alibaba president Kuo Zhang were the keynotes . In discussing AI , Whittaker reprimanded Meta ’ s “ surveillance business model ” and called for the creation of privacy regulations that traverse jurisdictions .
Wales advised the tech community to be wary of the “ lazy alarmism ” that stalks the rise of AI . He believes ChatGPT is not good enough for a great many purposes but hailed it as an “ amazing thing to play with , but when you really start to use it , what initially seems fantastic , you realise is pretty bad . It will continue to get better , but , we ’ re still a long way from it being able to be a reliable source .”
Comments on social media broadly complimented organisers on the quality of the content and speakers at Web Summit , although , ironically ( considering it is a high-level event discussing technology ), one topic that cropped up more than once was the poor quality of the AV for the speaker sessions .
www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 6 2023 43