Web Summit Rio: Startup program, women in tech and exhibition space are sold out

Startup program, women in tech and exhibition space are sold out ahead of Web Summit Rio

Maeve Harris

Several Web Summit Rio programs have reached capacity ahead of our South American event, with exhibition space, women in tech and the startup program all sold out. Two weeks ahead of the second edition of our South American event, Web Summit Rio, several of its programs have reached capacity. Our women in tech initiative, developer program, startup program and exhibition space are all sold out, making this a historic year for our event in Rio de Janeiro.

Exhibition space
More than 30,000 attendees will converge in Rio de Janeiro. The floor space at this year’s event – which has increased 25 percent since last year to cater for a 43-percent increase in attendee numbers – is sold out for the second consecutive year. Some of our global partners are joining us at Web Summit Rio, including KPMG Private Enterprise, Huawei, Grindr, IBM and JCDecaux.

Startups
Building on last year, which saw more than 950 startups exhibiting at Riocentro, this year’s event will bring together 1,000-plus startups – 44 percent of which are women-founded. We’re proud to say that this is the highest proportion of women-founded startups at any Web Summit event, and the largest gathering of women founders at any event in South America. As part of Web Summit’s ongoing Impact initiative, 15 percent of the startups present at Web Summit Rio will be Impact startups focused on pursuing one or more of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Women in tech
Our women in tech program, which is committed to changing the gender ratio at our events and empowering women across the globe, is sold out for the second consecutive year – and has been since early January. This year, Banco do Brasil is powering the Women in Tech Lounge, a space that helps facilitate meaningful connections among attendees.

Developers
Our developer program, which aims to give back to active members of the open-source developer community, is also sold out, confirming that our South American event is the place to be for programmers looking to network and make connections. Notable developers who have attended Web Summit Rio in the past include Signal president Meredith Whittaker, Google chief decision scientist Cassie Kozyrkov and 1Password CEO Jeff Shiner.

Web Summit Rio
Web Summit Rio is the largest international tech event in Brazil. This year’s event will bring together over 1,000 startups, 45 percent of which are women founded. This is the highest ever proportion of women founded startups at a Web Summit event, and the largest gathering of women founders at an event in South America. These startups are joined by more than 700 investors, 200 partners, 600 speakers and 900 media from all over the World.

Web Summit Global
Web Summit runs the world’s largest technology events, connecting people and ideas that change the world. Half a million people have attended Web Summit events – Web Summit in Europe, Web Summit Rio in South America, Collision in North America, Web Summit Qatar in the Middle East and RISE in Asia – since the company’s beginnings as a 150-person conference in Dublin in 2009. In February, Web Summit held its hugely successful inaugural event in the Middle East. Web Summit Qatar welcomed more than 15,000 attendees and was supported by over 100 partners including the Qatar Investment Authority, Snap, Deloitte, TikTok, Huawei, Microsoft, Shell, Palo Alto Networks, EY, Builder.ai and Qatar Airways. Web Summit Qatar showcased the work of more than 1,000 startups from around the world, and helped introduce them to a network of more than 300 investors in Doha. Web Summit’s mission is to enable the meaningful connections that change the world. Web Summit also undertakes a range of initiatives to support Diversity, Equality and Inclusion across the tech worlds: this includes IMPACT; Women in Tech; AMPLIFY; the Web Summit/Qatar Foundation Scholarship Programme; and our Community Partnerships.