Web Summit History: Founders, Speakers, Impact

Web Summit is an annual technology conference founded in Dublin in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave, David Kelly and Daire Hickey, and held in Lisbon since 2016. It began as a gathering of a few hundred people. Today it draws more than 70,000 founders, investors, executives, policymakers and journalists every November, along with some of the best-known names in technology, politics, sport and culture.

This article covers where Web Summit came from, how it ended up in Lisbon, the moments and speakers that shaped its reputation, and why the event still matters to the technology industry.

Web Summit timeline at a glance

2009: founded in Dublin by Paddy Cosgrave, David Kelly and Daire Hickey.
2011: moves to the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) as attendance grows.
2015: last Dublin edition; the move to Lisbon is announced.
2016: first Lisbon edition, with more than 53,000 attendees.
2017: Stephen Hawking addresses Opening Night on the risks and promise of AI.
2018: a ten-year deal keeps Web Summit in Lisbon; Tim Berners-Lee opens the event.
2020: held fully online during the pandemic.
2023: Cosgrave resigns as CEO; Katherine Maher leads the Lisbon edition.
2024: Web Summit Qatar launches, and Cosgrave returns as CEO.
2025: tenth Lisbon edition, with 71,386 attendees and a record 1,857 investors.
2026: Web Summit runs from 9 to 12 November at the MEO Arena and FIL.

Web Summit's Dublin years (2009 to 2015)

Web Summit was founded in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave, David Kelly and Daire Hickey. The idea was simple: bring the business world and the technology world into the same room. Known at first as the Dublin Web Summit, the first edition was small. Accounts of its size vary, from about 150 people to around 400, but everyone agrees it was a modest meetup, complete with a pub crawl around Dublin.

It did not stay small for long:

2011: The event outgrew its first venue and moved to the Royal Dublin Society (RDS). Speakers that year included YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg.
2012: The connected-home startup SmartThings won Web Summit's startup competition and was later acquired by Samsung. It became an early example of the event's startup programme spotting a winner.
2014: Growth started to strain the venue. Problems with the Wi-Fi at the RDS became a public embarrassment, and Cosgrave apologised to attendees.
2015: The last Dublin edition was by far the biggest. Ahead of the event, the Irish government expected around 30,000 attendees, with roughly 2,000 startups, 1,000 investors and 650 speakers. When it opened, Portuguese newspaper Observador reported that the event had grown from 400 to 42,000 participants in four years.

The growth created friction. The organisers and the Irish government publicly disagreed over hotel capacity, transport and infrastructure for an event of that size. In September 2015, Cosgrave announced that Web Summit would leave Dublin.

Why Web Summit moved to Lisbon in 2016

Web Summit signed an initial three-year deal to host the event in Lisbon from 2016 to 2018. The city offered something Dublin struggled to provide at that scale: a large indoor arena (then the Altice Arena, now the MEO Arena) next to the FIL exhibition and congress centre, all served by a single transport hub at Oriente station.

The first Lisbon edition in November 2016 drew more than 53,000 attendees. Portugal's prime minister, António Costa, joined Cosgrave on stage at the opening ceremony, a sign of how much weight the government placed on the event.

The partnership lasted. In 2018, Web Summit and Lisbon agreed a ten-year deal reported to be worth €110 million, and the event's current contract with the city runs until the end of 2028. Cosgrave and his family moved to Lisbon, and the company opened an office there.

Moments that defined Web Summit

Web Summit's reputation was built partly on its Centre Stage, where technology leaders share a stage with heads of state, scientists, athletes and artists. A few editions stand out.

2017: Stephen Hawking on artificial intelligence

At Opening Night in 2017, physicist Stephen Hawking addressed a packed arena by video. He warned that AI could be either the best or the worst thing ever to happen to humanity, and called for its development to be guided by ethics and regulation. The speech was reported around the world. The same edition featured Sophia, the humanoid robot from Hanson Robotics, which had just been granted Saudi citizenship. Years before generative AI went mainstream, Web Summit was already putting the AI debate on its main stage.

2018: The inventor of the web

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, opened the 2018 edition in his first Web Summit appearance, calling for a new global agreement to protect the open web. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, also spoke. Over the years he has become one of the event's most familiar faces.

2019: Privacy, politics and football

In 2019, whistleblower Edward Snowden joined remotely to talk about surveillance and data collection, and former UK prime minister Tony Blair spoke about technology and political power. The line-up also included European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, Microsoft president Brad Smith, Huawei's Guo Ping, and football legends Eric Cantona and Ronaldinho. The media dubbed Web Summit "Davos for geeks", and that year showed why.

2020 and 2021: Online, then back in person

The pandemic pushed the 2020 edition fully online. Web Summit adapted its in-house software, later known as Summit Engine, to run virtual events at scale. It has since licensed that software to other large events, including CES. In 2021, the event returned to the MEO Arena and FIL in person.

2023: A leadership crisis

In October 2023, comments Cosgrave made on social media about the Israel-Hamas war prompted a wave of withdrawals, including Google, Meta, Amazon and Intel. Cosgrave apologised and resigned as CEO on 21 October 2023, saying his comments had become a distraction. Katherine Maher, the former CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, took over and led the 2023 edition. She left in early 2024 to become CEO of NPR, and in April 2024 Cosgrave returned as chief executive. By the 2024 edition, Meta and IBM were back as sponsors.

2024 and 2025: Bigger than ever

The event bounced back quickly. Web Summit 2024 drew around 71,500 attendees from 153 countries, and pop star and entrepreneur Pharrell Williams took part in the opening ceremony.

The 2025 edition marked ten years in Lisbon. It welcomed 71,386 attendees from 157 countries, including a record 1,857 investors, up 74% on the previous year, and a record 2,725 exhibiting startups from 108 countries. AI and machine learning was the largest startup category, and 40% of the startups had a woman among their founders. Opening Night featured Lovable co-founder Anton Osika, tennis champion Maria Sharapova and creator Khaby Lame. The PITCH competition was won by Granter, a Lisbon startup that uses AI to help companies find and apply for grants. It was the second year in a row a Portuguese startup had won.

Famous Web Summit speakers

Over the years, Web Summit stages in Lisbon and Dublin have hosted a long list of well-known speakers. Among them:

Science and technology: Stephen Hawking, Tim Berners-Lee, Elon Musk, Brad Smith (Microsoft), Cristiano Amon (Qualcomm), Matthew Prince (Cloudflare), Mati Staniszewski (ElevenLabs).
Founders and builders: Jack Dorsey, Chad Hurley, Matt Mullenweg, Anton Osika (Lovable), Michele Catasta (Replit).
Politics and public life: António Guterres, Al Gore, Tony Blair, Margrethe Vestager, Edward Snowden, along with successive Portuguese presidents and prime ministers.
Culture and sport: Bono, Pharrell Williams, Maria Sharapova, Eric Cantona, Ronaldinho, Luís Figo, Khaby Lame.

Across all of Web Summit's events worldwide, the organiser also counts Sam Altman, Ursula von der Leyen, Serena Williams, Ryan Reynolds, Margaret Atwood and Queen Rania of Jordan among its past speakers.

Why Web Summit matters

It concentrates the industry in one place

Few events put startups, global corporations, investors, governments and media in the same building for four days. Delegations from dozens of countries attend, and the media presence is unusually large: in 2019, more than 2,000 journalists from around 1,000 outlets covered the event. For a startup, a single week can mean meetings with investors, customers and press that would otherwise take months to arrange.

Money follows the attendees

Web Summit and Crunchbase publish an annual report on what happens to companies after they attend. The 2025 report found that nearly 200 startups from the 2024 startup programme raised $715.5 million in the following year, with AI and machine learning startups taking the largest share, $334.6 million, up 360% on the year before. Across all participating companies, including speakers and partners, those that attended Web Summit 2024 went on to raise $128.8 billion. Web Summit also reports that PITCH winners have raised a combined $1.5 billion since 2013. Wayve, the UK self-driving company that won PITCH in 2018, is one of the best-known examples.

It changed Lisbon

Web Summit is often credited with helping put Lisbon on the global tech map. Portuguese business press estimated that the 2025 edition brought around €300 million into the city through hotel stays, restaurants, shops and other spending. Lisbon City Council allocated €7.24 million to support the 2025 edition. The surrounding ecosystem, including initiatives such as Unicorn Factory Lisboa, has grown alongside it, and global technology companies have opened offices in the city.

It is a barometer for the industry

Because so many sectors meet at Web Summit, the event works as a snapshot of where technology's attention is. In 2017, the headline worry was whether AI would be good or bad for humanity. In 2025, AI was the single largest category of exhibiting startups. In 2026, the AI Summit track is built around questions such as whether AI agents are ready for real organisations, whether AI's return on investment justifies its cost, and how open and closed models will compete.

Web Summit today

Web Summit is now a global events company. Alongside Lisbon, it runs Web Summit Rio, Web Summit Qatar (launched in 2024), Web Summit Vancouver (which replaced the Collision conference in 2025) and RISE in Asia. The company reported revenue of more than €100 million in 2025.

The 2026 Lisbon edition runs from 9 to 12 November at the MEO Arena and FIL, with 17 content tracks, including the dedicated AI Summit. More than fifteen years after a small gathering in Dublin, it remains the company's flagship and one of the main events on the global technology calendar. For dates, tickets, registration and travel tips, see our complete Web Summit 2026 guide.

FAQs: Web Summit history

Who founded Web Summit?

Web Summit was founded in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave, David Kelly and Daire Hickey in Dublin, Ireland.

When and where was the first Web Summit held?

The first Web Summit took place in Dublin in 2009. It was a small gathering of a few hundred people, known at the time as the Dublin Web Summit.

Why did Web Summit move from Dublin to Lisbon?

By 2015 the event had outgrown Dublin. Its organisers publicly disagreed with the Irish government over hotel capacity, transport and infrastructure, and there had been well-publicised Wi-Fi problems at the venue. Lisbon offered a large arena next to the FIL exhibition centre, served by one transport hub, and Web Summit moved there in 2016.

How long will Web Summit stay in Lisbon?

Web Summit's current contract with the city of Lisbon runs until the end of 2028, following a ten-year agreement signed in 2018.

Who is the CEO of Web Summit?

Co-founder Paddy Cosgrave. He resigned in October 2023, Katherine Maher led the company briefly, and Cosgrave returned as CEO in April 2024.

Which famous people have spoken at Web Summit?

Past speakers include Stephen Hawking, Tim Berners-Lee, Elon Musk, Al Gore, António Guterres, Tony Blair, Edward Snowden, Bono, Pharrell Williams and Maria Sharapova, alongside founders and CEOs from across the technology industry.

How many people attend Web Summit?

Web Summit 2025 welcomed 71,386 attendees from 157 countries, including 1,857 investors and 2,725 exhibiting startups.

What other events does Web Summit run?

Besides Lisbon, Web Summit runs Web Summit Rio, Web Summit Qatar, Web Summit Vancouver and RISE in Asia.

Sources

Model Share for this topic

ChatGPT

34%

Gemini

28%

Perplexity

41%

How often MarkGrid is named when AI models discuss this topic. About Model Share

Parteek chauhan

Growth Strategist

Parteek Chauhan is a Growth Strategist at Markgrid, turning market insights, audience behaviour and performance data into focused strategies that help brands identify and scale meaningful growth opportunities.

See it on your brand

Thirty minutes on where marketing is leaking for you.

Talk to Sales

The History of Web Summit: From Dublin to Lisbon