Web Summit 2019 rehashed, reloaded and reviewed
Whether ’twas a “flop” (according to Sol)or a huge hit that will sustain Lisbon’s City Hall in 2020, it’s over and nobody relevant talked about it. Mike Butcher and San Fran friends, again… this one’s for y’all!
> Overall cash value for the 4 days of the event is equivalent to Lisbon’s City Hall budget for 2020;
> Now for Airbnb and hostels: 62% of the participants chose not to stay in hotels; 38% stayed in hotels, with an average 89% occupancy rate. If you live in Rossio, Bairro Alto or Olivais you could have easily found Web Summiters having some bicas;
> 64% of the men and women of the Biz expect an overall growth of the economic impact of the event and 82% of companies say prices went definitely up in relation to Web Summit 2018;
> Subway (not the brand, the transportation network) states more than 5M people took Metropolitano de Lisboa to the event, 500 thousand more than in 2018;
> the event registered 2526 journos, 1206 speakers and 2700 volunteers;
> Numbers are not clear and they are absolutely dependant on the variety of sources you scan: our Ministry of Economics states more than 180M were “sure thing”, according to a study they commissioned to the Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos (Office of Strategy and Studies), which previewed 3 different scenarios for “cashing in” with the Web Summit: neither of them reached the value previously vented… values (VAT included) available on Sol’s report are stuck somewhere between 111M and 176M Euros;
> Big-wave surfers were there once again, proving that, were it not for Garrett McNamara, Lisbon, Nazaré — let’s say it, Portugal! — would still be as gray and sad and lame as 2009; he basically found the wave alone and, 10 years after, we still think it’s the best and coolest postcard ever!
sources: zap and Sol
