Web Summit: event in Brazil is marked by problems – 04/05/2023 – #Hashtag

Chaos sums up the opening day of the Web Summit. Those who arrived after 5pm could not get in, despite having paid R$2,000 for a ticket to the event that took place in Rio from the 1st to the 4th of May. The organization claims that it warned through the application throughout the day that there would be a maximum capacity smaller than the total number of tickets sold, which is somewhat unusual. In addition, those inside reported available seats.

Either way, it’s never a good sign for an event to start with the organization screaming through megaphones, “Sold out, no more coming in.”

In an attempt to assuage the frustration, Web Summit buses took those left out to the bars on Avenida Olegário Maciel, in Barra da Tijuca, to “prolong the networking”.

The problem was that he dropped the participants off in an empty block full of closed benches, and the drivers didn’t give any directions where to go. I felt like the lost John Travolta meme.

Overcrowding was one of the main bottlenecks at the Web Summit, especially in the first two days of lectures. Queues for each performance were huge, and vacancies were few.

After being barred from a lecture, you would run to another one of your interest on the other side of Riocentro. In vain. She also had no more seats. I lost count of how many I couldn’t see, even arriving a few minutes in advance.

When, finally, it was possible to get in (to sit down is demanding enough), the sound was bad, either because there were few headphones available, or because the multiple noises inside the pavilion competed with each other. I heard reports of mediators who didn’t listen well even to the speakers at their table.

The food court was not enough either. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, queues of up to an hour to order food — expensive, in small quantities and of only reasonable quality. I felt like I was at a music festival. The only slightly smaller queues were for food trucks outside, in the 30°C carioca sun. In jeans and a shirt, I didn’t have the courage.

It’s not a Web Summit problem per se, but getting to and from Riocentro is always chaotic. Upon arrival, a lot of traffic. On the way out, in addition to the traffic jam at 6 pm, the value of Uber was sky-high and the wait of up to an hour.

Positive point for the Web Summit application, very functional and with great resources, despite not signaling some canceled events, such as the one by the Minister of Indigenous Peoples Sonia Guajajara, on Thursday.

The variety of topics on the program also deserves praise. Artificial intelligence, fintechs, crypto, innovation, data, marketing, environment, education, health, urbanism, among others, show that it is one of the main technology events in the world. Those who went to do networking did well, with the presence of professionals from all over Brazil and from several countries around the world. There were more than 21 thousand participants from 91 countries and almost a thousand startups present.

As Mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD) pointed out at the Web Summit, Rio intends to consolidate itself as a global technology capital. And it is well on its way to that, hosting events of the size of the Web Summit.

For the 2024 edition (another four are already planned), it is worth looking at these details so that the ticket price is worth the experience in full.

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