2nd day at the Web Summit 2018, we chose to focus on those who create the great modern-day adventures of innovation and services: the startups. Indeed, at Web Summit, startups are everywhere! In all major international tech and digital trade fairs, dedicated startup corners or pavilions have been flourishing for several years; some have even made them the foundation of their event, such as Viva Technology Paris.
In the 4 pavilions of the “Atlantic Pavilion” or now renamed the “Altice Arena”, startups are divided by sectors of activity: verticals. And by categories: Alpha (at early stage or having never raised funds) or Beta (if they have already completed at least 1 round of fundraising) and can be short-listed to participate in the Pitch competition that takes place every day.
The peculiarity is that startups can only exhibit for 1 day out of the 3 days of the fair, which stimulates the dynamism of the event because the investors, who travel in large numbers, come every day to see different startups in the sectors they desire. And startupers must maximize their chances on their exhibition day but also go to different places and times (sometimes side-events just minutes from Web Summit) to meet different potential investors.
It is, in reality, quite an interesting and coherent game of cat and mouse because the doctrine of the Web Summit is “where the tech world meets”.
Other startups are outside the Alpha and Beta categories and appear under the pavilion of a large company, these are called “partners,” and this is what we generally see a lot at trade fairs (Microsoft, IBM, Business France/La French Tech stands, country pavilions, …), and they come from all over the world.
On the technology side, we haven’t been blown away by one or more innovations in particular so far, we will simply say that we distinguish 2 large groups:
– localized but scalable solutions and services (many services allowing for the improvement of daily life, geolocation of specific nearby services, … improved customer relations in very specific areas, …)
– deliberately global solutions and services (SaaS platforms, international services, APIs accessible and usable for many domains, …)
Reassuring, improving, and designing the web of tomorrow
Once again, after the opening speech of the event by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (considered the founding father of the World Wide Web), and the desire to return to the idea of the web as a tool and vector for social equality while net neutrality is increasingly threatened in various countries. The launch of the #ForTheWeb movement, whose first signatory was France on Monday evening via the Secretary of State for Digital Affairs Mounir Mahjoubi, reflects the desire of web actors (and mainly startups?) to realize that things must be done better and more carefully with user data and the way services can be perceived (too intrusive).
In the choice of words, for example, as soon as we talk about artificial intelligence, we immediately attach synonyms of humanization (surprising, isn’t it?!), personalization, adaptation, or improvement of data processing for more consistency, …
It is even more symptomatic during round tables and debates on the various stages of the Altice Arena; the ecosystem of web actors and regulators seeks to find points of agreement on the future of the web and technology.
This is perhaps why this Web Summit 2018 marks an interesting turning point in tech (AI, smart city, automation, …); we are becoming aware and looking for solutions that will allow technologies to offer freedom, while guaranteeing confidentiality and quality of data, (re-)humanization of exchanges, … and this begins above all with a real assessment of what did not or no longer works to anticipate and prepare for the future.
Find our live tweets from the event on the Normandie Web Xperts Twitter page: @n_w_x
Lamine Talakela – CEO Consulting TIME, for NWX and the Founder Family.
