The city of Lisbon will host the popular Web Summit for the next 10 years, the organization has announced, in a € 110 million deal, with a buyout clause of € 3 billion.
Paddy Cosgrave, CEO of Web Summit, and Antonio Costa, Prime
Minister of Portugal revealed today that Lisbon will remain the host city of Web Summit for the next decade. This is under a new €110 million deal, including a large-scale venue expansion to facilitate the conference’s fast-growth.
After a robust and competitive tender process involving offers from over 20 cities across Europe, the company behind the world’s largest technology conference has come to a new agreement with the Portuguese government. As part of the deal, Web Summit will receive €11 million per year from the country.
Additionally, a part of the deal is to double the size of the Altice Arena and FIL (Feira Internacional de Lisboa) within the next three years, to fit Web Summit’s growth forecasts. Commencement of the first phase of the expansion project will start in the coming months and will be completed for Web Summit 2019.
Web Summit has also agreed to a €3 billion buyout clause. The buyout clause is the minimum expected economic impact of Web Summit to Portugal over the duration of it’s contract, and provides security to Portugal that Web Summit will remain in it’s capital for the 10 year period.
It was estimated by the Government of Portugal that Web Summit generated more than €300 million in economic impact for the country. Web Summit has also helped elevate Portugal and Portuguese companies on the global stage. Portugal was described recently by The Wall Street Journal as “one of Europe’s hottest stars, with tech startups mushrooming and investment pouring in”.
Mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina said:
“This 10 year agreement with Web Summit will decisively make Lisboa a key capital for innovation, entrepreneurship and talent. I am confident the next few years will bring a sharp raise in IT investment and employment in Lisboa. We are thrilled to continue to write this story together with Web Summit”
In the words of Inc Magazine “Web Summit is the largest technology conference in the world”. Forbes says Web Summit is “the best tech conference on the planet”, Bloomberg calls it “Davos for geeks”, Politico “the Olympics of tech”, and the Guardian “Glastonbury for geeks”.
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