Speaker 1 0:00

There's a good chance that next year the Web3 stage will be back at WebSummit. Hello everyone and welcome to the Web3 CMO Stories podcast. My name is Joeri Pilast and I'm your podcast host, and I had an exciting week at the WebSummit, so today is a special solo episode. This edition of WebSummit broke a record, with more than 71,000 attendees, including CEOs, startups, investors, trade delegations, media. Like me, I had the media access. The event floor was sold out, with more than 3,000 companies exhibiting and with AI emerging as the most represented industry. Ai was everywhere. There were people from more than 153 countries. A lot of people from Belgium too. I understood from the organization, as you know are Belgian but currently living in Sintra. Not understood from the organization. As you know, I'm Belgian, but currently living in Sintra, not far from Lisbon, and so for me it was the first time that I had not to fly in to go to the event. Actually, I took the plane because I was in Belgium to give an AI workshop for a client. So I came back to Portugal, but not specifically to go to the Web Summit, but just to go home and then take the boat or the train from Sintra to the Web Summit, which was at the Mio Arena in Lisbon.

Speaker 1 1:38

New this year were the meetups. So, through the WebSummit app, I think there were about 250 meetups scheduled. I joined a few of them. It was like between 20, 30, 40 minutes of time that you were in a closed area with people around a certain subject or area. For instance, it could be around Web3. It could be around crypto, it could be around country like Belgium, it could be around health and wellness, and actually those were the ones who attended those meetups that I just mentioned. So it was a short networking break, I would say, and in a short time could make different connections. But it was also short networking break, I would say, and in a short time I could make different connections, but it was also a bit chaotic. Next to the meetups, there are also the side events, and I went to a few of them.

Speaker 1 2:35

I went to the Deepin Day Because actually there was not really a Web3 stage this year. I asked the question to Paddy Cosgrave, the founder and the CEO of WebSummit, why there was no Web3 track this year. You can find this video on my social media but he said actually, web3 is everywhere, on every stage, in every talk. He said actually, web3 is everywhere, uh, between every on every stage, in every talk, he said. But because I was not the first asking the question, he said there's a good chance that next year, yeah, the web3 stage will be back.

Speaker 1 3:14

But so I went to the the deepin day, which was a side event organized by Outlier Ventures, and it was interesting to connect with people from the Web3 space that were also in Lisbon for Web Summit or just for the side events With a drink. I also met Diego Borgo. I was already connected with him online but for one or another reason reason we always missed each other and now we were there at the same event. Actually, when he will be speaking in Belgium next month, I will be speaking in Egypt, and this actually also happened in the past, that we were always at a different place, but now I was able to meet him in real life and that's always so much better. And, by the way, on the first day of WebSmith actually the opening night I went to the opening night, but I also went to Ethan Pierce's Web3 side event and it was so good to meet Ethan again and some other people from the community. And side events are always a good place to network, but mostly they are smaller and you get to talk to people in your space. Another side event I went to was organized by midnight at a rooftop bar. What happens is because I went to different Web3 events at WebSummit and there was not really a Web3 stage or track, so mostly I met the same people again and again and this was also, of course, a good way to build relationships. Throughout the event it was not only a one-time conversation, but different conversations on different days with the same people.

Speaker 1 4:59

Exciting is always the podcast booth the same people. Exciting is always the podcast boot. I record a podcast episode with Anneliese Osborne, who is a chief business officer at Cadena. That is a layer one proof of work blockchain for business. This episode will come out very soon, so stay tuned for that. It's always fun to record podcast episodes on the web summit ground.

Speaker 1 5:26

And then on the last day of web summit, I met two other people with whom I will be recording podcast episodes. The first one is nicola enhoff from the eternity foundation and the second one is Yamel Yardi, executive Director at Decentraland, one of the co-founders. And that same day I spent a lot of time at the AFV booth. Afv is a Web3 nonprofit organization In full. It is Asociao Finance Valley. It's in Portugal and they are committed to building a sustainable and inclusive digital economy by providing essential tools and knowledge for a smooth transition from Web 2 to Web 3.

Speaker 1 6:14

It was so good to talk to Sergio and we'll probably be doing things together, and maybe another interesting fact is that WebSummit has seen a remarkable increase in women-founded startups, reaching more than 1,200 this year, which is almost a half of the total 44.5% to be more specific, and last year it was 29%, so that's a big increase. It was an exciting week, an exhausting week for me, and probably, if you are to web submit, you will feel the same exhausted, but also hyped up because of all the new connections that I've made, with all the new collaborations, opportunities that are there, people that I've met that were listening to the podcast and gave me their feedback, people that are subscribed to my LinkedIn newsletter and that I met in real life. This is always so motivating for me to get feedback from people that they like what I'm doing. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for being a subscriber to the show. If you are not subscribed yet, this is a really good moment to do this.

Speaker 1 7:37

If you're interested in Sintra Synergies, maybe you saw my post already on social media, maybe you heard it in an earlier podcast episode. Sintra Synergies is my Web3 and AI retreat. I do a pilot retreat in February. The goal is to do some masterminding, do deep networking, but also to take time to relax and to come up with your next inspiring big idea and also seeing ways how to implement it. If you're interested in Citra Synergies, be sure to send me a message and we can just have a chat about it. So again, thank you so much for listening and I hope to see you back next time. Take care.