We went to Lisbon to Web Summit and mingled with 71,525 people

It is not a secret that Digital Samba’s team is a remote-working team that lives by its principals every day – connecting people through perfect collaboration video conferencing software. So, in our daily business lives, there’s no need to commute to an office or have personal contact, which, of course, has its positive and negative sides.

On the positive side, there’s no need to spend money on office space, and you can have a working team of experts spread all over Europe. On the negative side, we do miss face-to-face communication and the human touch. The same applies to communication with our respected clients.

Table of contents

1. Digital Samba's first stand: A milestone moment at Web Summit 2024
2. Exploring the Night Summit: Networking after hours in Lisbon
3. AI, data privacy, and the visionaries shaping our digital future
4. Digital Samba: Built on European values, committed to data privacy

However, one opportunity for physical encounters is, of course, fairs. Although Digital Samba isn’t big on attending fairs, this year, we decided to jump in at the deep end and test the waters at the biggest tech conference in Europe, the Web Summit in Lisbon. What began as a small event by its founder and CEO, Paddy Cosgrave, in Dublin, Ireland, in 2009, eventually moved to Portugal due to the inability of the island to provide the infrastructure—mainly in terms of a stable Wi-Fi network—for the ever-expanding size of the summit. An enormous number of people came from all corners of the world to explore the newest trends in the fast-growing and developing tech industry, network, exchange knowledge, and grow—personally or business-wise.

Digital Samba's first stand: A milestone moment at Web Summit 2024

This year, the organisers proudly proclaimed 71,528 attendees in Lisbon - including the three-person Digital Samba team, representing the most innovative video conferencing API made in Europe: the CEO of the company, Robert Strobl; the Director of Business Development, Nina Benkotic; and Dusan Savic, our newest team member and Product Owner.

Three people, three days to explore and collect what we identified as the most important thing for the company and the business this year: contacts and potential clients.

We went there without expecting much, as we’ve attended fairs before but never with such an enormous international presence and such a tight schedule. Normally, we would run around the fair, visit companies’ stands, and try to make meaningful connections. But this time was different – thanks to Web Summit’s Alpha Startup program, which we were proudly selected for, Digital Samba had its own stand for the first time in our company's 21-year history.

It was only one day, but it was enough to make the brand and the product more visible to a wider audience and to enable us to offer easy and instant demos right at the event. And, boy, did we underestimate the interest we received – from morning until evening on the second summit day, all three of us conducted numerous demonstrations, scanned hundreds of badges, and collected many, many contacts, which we are now preparing for follow-ups.

Almost every person passing our stand wanted to know exactly what we offer and how our video conferencing API works. The types of businesses were incredibly varied – from homeowner apps for meetings with tenants to modern online classes and e-learning platforms. The idea of owning a video conferencing solution and not having to send people to external platforms like Zoom and Teams makes a big difference to many, proving that this concept is the future of video meetings.

Although we were busy presenting our product most of the time, we managed to attend meet-ups on different topics – half-hour gatherings where groups of people belonging to the same industry, country, or interest group would meet and exchange ideas. We listened to fascinating startup pitches and visited many stages offering expert presentations and talks.

Exploring the Night Summit: Networking after hours in Lisbon

The Web Summit schedule isn’t just about daily events; we discovered there’s also something called the Night Summit – a series of smaller, more intimate gatherings across Lisbon's top bars and restaurants. Each event has its own unique theme and atmosphere, making this already extraordinary experience truly unforgettable.

We attended four such night networking events:

• Web Summit Warm Up Hidden Garden on 10 November, where many participants gathered in front of Quisque do Cais at the Time Out Market, located in a beautiful park. First connections were made, and it was lovely to later see familiar faces during the main event.
• “AI in SaaS” on 11 November, held in the historic Lisbon location of Palacio de Tancos, with a terrace offering a spectacular view of the city. This gathering was organised by Leo Goldfarb, Managing Partner at the Portuguese startup Albato and featured multiple industry speakers, such as Andrew Filev from Zencoder/Wrike, Sabba Keynejad from VEED.IO, Luis Batalha from Amplemarket, and Igor Ryabenkiy from AltaIR Capital VC. Alongside networking with interesting people, we also enjoyed an amusing and memorable round of pool.
• Intercom Startup Party at Web Summit on 12 November, hosted at the charming O Purista Barbiere, a venue that, in addition to serving drinks and food, also offers barber services. The host, Intercom, did an outstanding job with organisation and hospitality.

• "Into the Future" Networking Event organised by Concentrix on 13 November in their modern office space, located near the Web Summit venue. The global company, known as a CX expert offering integrated technology and services for leading brands, impressed us with its sheer size—employing 440,000 people globally.

AI, data privacy, and the visionaries shaping our digital future

And the main topic this year was – yes, you guessed it – artificial intelligence. The hype around AI is unstoppable, and rightly so. The faster AI itself develops, the more we talk about it and feel the need to exchange ideas on this challenging, mysterious, and slightly unpredictable new era of computing and technology. As much as it fascinates us, it also scares us: its unpredictable scope and the ease and speed of its development.

We heard many prognostic stories, but the one that stood out most was from Max Tegmark, President of the Future of Life Institute and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He renewed his warnings that humanity could be on the path to oblivion. He claims that either AI will eventually destroy us if it starts dominating humans, or it will become the most valuable tool ever if we control it and prevent it from having too much autonomy. Once again, the need for a legal framework and a controlled environment for the development of artificial general intelligence was emphasised – not just by him but also by many other speakers and participants.

While most of the topics revolved around AI, one talk we particularly enjoyed was by the father of the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The World Wide Web, now in its 35th year, was envisioned by its creator as a platform to foster creativity and information-sharing on a global scale. Reflecting on its evolution, he noted that much of the web aligns with his expectations, but he marvels at the unexpected innovations it has enabled. While celebrating its positive impact, especially in education, Berners-Lee expressed concerns over the polarising effects of social media algorithms and emphasised the need for regulation to address these issues. 

He has now turned his focus to tackling data privacy through the Solid Project, launched in 2016, which empowers users to control their data via secure, personal "Pods." By allowing individuals to manage how their data is used and shared, Solid seeks to restore the values the web was originally designed to uphold. Berners-Lee remains committed to ensuring that technology serves humanity, describing his lifelong mission as enabling people and reclaiming the lost value of personal data.

Digital Samba: Built on European values, committed to data privacy

With this in mind, we are happy to conclude that our software, Digital Samba, is built with love in Europe with exactly the same privacy concerns in mind, and we are proud to share the same values as the visionary leaders we admire so much. 

If you’d like to find out more about Digital Samba’s video conferencing API and how it can address your data privacy concerns, don’t hesitate to book a meeting with one of our sales representatives, who will be happy to explain why Digital Samba is the number one choice for data security.