- The Government supports the three candidates to bring to Spain the largest European congress of digital technology
- The economic impact of the 2017 edition is estimated at around 250 million euros
- The Spanish women compete with 6 other cities to host next year's edition, after 3 consecutive years in Lisbon
Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia are the three Spanish cities that are candidates to host the 2019 edition of the international Web Summit technology congress.
The Secretary of State for Commerce, Xiana Méndez, and the Secretary of State for the Information Society and the Digital Agenda, Francisco Polo, wanted to know the proposals of each City Council and made available the total commitment and institutional support from the Government.
The Web Summit is the biggest digital technology event in Europe. It is one of the largest congresses in the world aimed at startups and open innovation, and brings together thousands of entrepreneurs, large companies, digital leaders, investors and media from five continents every year.
In its 2017 edition, Web Summit managed to bring together more of 60,000 attendees from 160 countries, and had the participation of more than 2,100 exhibiting companies, 1,400 investors, 1,200 spokespersons and 2,600 accredited journalists. The economic impact of this edition was around 250 million euros.
The Web Summit Organization plans to publicize the decision of the city chosen by end of next August. The three Spanish cities compete with six other foreign locations: London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Hamburg and Munich.
Web Summit celebrated its first six editions in Dublin, after which it moved to Lisbon in 2016. In the face of the autumn edition of 2019, the organizers are looking for alternatives that accommodate a congress that grows year by year.
Hosting both the Mobile World Congress and the Web Summit would make Spain a unique worldwide reference in new technologies.
