Lisbon wants be seen as one of Europe’s innovation centres as it prepares to host the 2016 Web Summit, Europe’s largest technology event.
To fuel the expansion of start-ups and to attract foreign investors, the government lobbied to lure the annual Web Summit to Lisbon, away from its Dublin home.
Lisbon’s hotels are full as is accommodation in a wide area around the capital as 50,000 participants and 15,000 companies from around the world are expected to attend the November 8-10 event, nearly double the 27,500 people who attended last year.
Portugal’s Secretary of State for Industry, Joao Vasconcelos, said he hoped that hosting the event, at FIL and the MEO arena, will give rise to a new generation of entrepreneurs.
“We are a peripheral market, the digital economy is a unique opportunity for Portugal,” added Vasconcelos, the former head of a Lisbon start-up incubator.
Web Summit founder and chief executive Paddy Cosgrave said the strong government support that is being offered to start-ups in Portugal was one of the reasons why he was persuaded to move the event to Lisbon.
“They recognise the value of technology and want to put Portugal on the map as a tech hub,” he said, adding that the Portuguese capital is well placed to become a tech hub because it has strong infrastructure, a “vibrant tech community,” cheap rents and an educated workforce that is fluent in English.
“These are all key factors for making a good environment for start-ups,” he added.
Ricardo Marvao, co-founder of Beta-i, a non-profit that helps start-ups develop by providing office space and free legal consultancy, said “2015 was a turning point” for Lisbon’s notoriety as a start-up centre.
“When a dozen Portuguese start-ups raised five to ten million euros each in just a few months, investors started to show interest in what is happening here. With the Web Summit, the hype around Lisbon will rise,” he added.
Of the 220 firms that took part in the Lisbon Challenge, a three-month start-up acceleration programme organised by Beta-i in 2013, roughly two-thirds were founded by foreigners who were drawn by the city’s low costs and mild weather.
Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Samsung are some of the companies that are sending delegations to participate. Budding entrepreneurs will have direct access to investors to try to raise funds.
"The hotels are booked out from Lisbon to Sintra," said José Manuel Esteves, from the hoteliers' association AHRESP.
"As a matter of ethics they have not increased room prices," sais Esteves who the event to being in more money to his members than "an Expo, or a Euro" - "We estimate a direct impact of hundreds of millions of euros."
The Web Summit should have an impact of €200 million euros in Lisbon, according to the city council. Tickets, now sold out, were from 1,000 to €5,245 inc. VAT
See also 'Lisbon startup entrepreneurs aim to create Berlin-style 'tech buzz'
