IN.TO the 2020 Web Summit
Web Summit is one of the biggest European tech conferences. Every year, hundreds of speakers, professionals, investors, startups and journalists gather with over a 100k attendees to discuss and point out the future ways of tech, media, gaming, music and basically everything that’s trending. It’s one of the best places to be if you’re interested in state-of-the-art technology, marketing and out-there ideas.
Like every event, it happened remotely this year. Much like its on-site version, the online summit had five different stages — after all, according to The Guardian, it is Glastonbury for geeks. Speakers talked about a wide array of topics, from deepfakes to woman-led innovation, plant-based meat to big data, subscription-driven clothing lines to digital transformation.
Fortunately, some of the aspects worked even better online. For instance, they created Mingle Hour, 3-minute randomized video chat sessions with professionals who were also attending the event. It was a great way of networking and we loved it.
Now let's dive IN.TO some of the insights we found in the event.
Communication with purpose
Mascha Driessen (Microsoft) & Ingo Bertram (OTTO)
We had a blast listening to Mascha and Ingo talking about purpose, diversity and value. It’s hard to pinpoint content from their panel, but we’ll try to summarize it. They talked about how brands have unique opportunities to put their clients, their community, first, and how it shouldn’t be taken for granted. Brands should go the extra mile to make their customers feel included, showing real people in a true and diverse way.
This, of course, is but a human response to the aggressive stereotyping that became a norm over the years. But the numbers back it: brands representing diversity in their advertising are up to 70% more trustworthy, and 85% of consumers say they’ll only consider buying from a brand if they trust it.
Their core message was sharp and strong: we should do the right things, not just comply with them.
Entrepreneurship skills
Women Will (Google)
Women are fierce, powerful entrepreneurs. So when Women Will hosts a workshop focused on boosting entrepreneurship skills, we listen. And when they tell us we shouldn’t try to prove we deserve to be where we are, we applaud. After all, Imposter Syndrome is a thing. Another great takeaway is that we shouldn’t be too conservative about our projects, for the world is filled with people scared to take risks. Oh, and the greatest quality for an entrepreneur? Resilience. That’s a combination of hardiness, for sustaining under pressure; resourcefulness, for finding solutions in changing situations; and optimism, to continue seeing the positive even when it’s hard to, even if only to take lessons from failures.
And just to wrap up, a dash of pure genius: when you’re pitching a project, keep in mind: if you ask for advice, you’ll get money; if you ask for money, you’ll get advice.
Pandemic work, remote settings and timing
Jason Fried (Basecamp) & Jessi Hempel (LinkedIn)
First of all, Jason made clear what we’re doing isn’t remote work. It’s pandemic work. We’re adjusting to a reality most people never dreamt of. We were taken by surprise and the conditions are far from ideal. But since we’re all dealing with it, at least there’s an open conversation.
While we’re at it, he reminds us remote work is different than normal work — if you treat it like just another day, over and over, people will burn out. He advises we should focus on small groups, talk only about what’s needed in each session, and prioritize talking directly to people. Also, respect the fact that remote work is mostly asynchronous, and every person works in their own time and schedule. So rather than making people stop everything to jump into a call, consider writing down ideas and making yourself available to discuss them.
What’s Impossible? Rethinking technology, meat-free and plant-based
Patrick Brown (Impossible Foods) & Laura Reiley (Washington Post)
It may sound like a stretch, but a panel about a meat-free world presented a brilliant vision on technology, efficiency and addressing the changes our world so badly needs. Patrick has a clear and distinct idea of the transformation his company is proposing to the world. If people are still struggling to accept a burger that looks, smells and tastes like meat, but is 100% plant-based, he discusses things from an advanced but lucid and straightforward point of view.
He talked of how animals are awesome, loving, special creatures and how they’re being treated as a technology that transforms plants into meat — a technology that’s painfully expensive, ineffective, and slow. After all, cows and chickens didn’t evolve to be meat machines. His point is that once we overcome the idea that meat must come from animals, we’ll accept a better technology. One that will lead us to better tasting, more succulent, convenient and cheaper products with up to 90% less environmental impact and zero animal suffering.
Apart from our tendency of admiring the efforts and cheering for their success, being vegetarians and all, we were baffled by their business vision. Their expansion plan, ideals and quality control make it clear they are dead serious about transforming the food industry. Let’s not get caught up in the burger, or the ground beef, and understand our relationship with nature, its byproducts and what we can do to be even better.
Divisive times, bipartisan support and mutual understanding
Chris Evans (A Starting Point) & Laurie Segall (Dot Dot Dot Media)
During the panel dedicated to A Starting Point, founded by Chris Evans aka Captain America, there were moments of clarity we’re almost unfamiliar with. Along with his co-founders, he talked about the importance of a bipartisan platform to discuss political issues and get informed as neutrally as possible. They acknowledge our times are divisive, and that the ever-growing hate that dominates the dialogue keeps people away from these important topics. No one wants to get caught in a crossfire of right versus left, and that discussion itself has been cluttering the debate with meaningless opinions.
One way they plan on doing that is by parting with the “vanity metrics” of likes and the usually troll-driven comments section. Another big aspect of it, of course, is fact-checking — according to Evans, it will be “air-tight” so people can trust the content they’re consuming. The platform is being developed and has lots of ground to cover in its mission to provide a safe, neutral space for civic engagement. But when it comes to transformation, every step should be cheered upon.
Hate speech and the role of moderation
Mike Schroepfer (Facebook) & Jeremy Kahn (Fortune)
As much as we hear people saying Facebook is dead and has been for the last five years or so, that’s not true. They are still a massive social network and one that’s especially strong in connecting friends and family. But one of the reasons it is being resisted today is the political clutter, as Chris Evans previously addressed. The fact that people believe they are free to act as they wish, and that there’s a veil of anonymity that protects them, surely doesn’t help. There’s an idea that “freedom of expression” comes at no cost, and apart from being brutally wrong, it is a powerful fuel to online hate speech. Mike Schroepfer’s interview was a deep 30-minute dive into the challenges of controlling that behaviour, both from the mechanic and the policy levels.
One important takeaway is that they do acknowledge the issue and have been working to solve it. AI is a huge ally in this battle, helping identify problematic content, and the enforcing of policies allows them to actually take down an ever-growing number of bad apples in the platform. The amount of content that was taken down for being accounted as hate speech has increased five-fold from the second quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2020. There’s still a long way to go, but the progress and the acknowledgement are extremely important.
Meditation and mindfulness
Deepak Chopra & Deepak’s AI
In a world that never stops, with conflicting topics being ever so important, Web Summit reminds us that meditation and mindfulness are not BS. They are important for everyone, and their ancestral value has been getting recognition in the tech industry over the last decades. This time, it shows up as a day-starter meditation with Deepak Chopra himself, presented along with its AI version. For about twenty minutes, attendees were able to stop, breathe and ground themselves listening to one of the great minds of our time.
Wrapping up
The panels, workshops and masterclasses we attended inspired every one of us and were the subject of long talks with the team. We only wish we could have clones to dig even deeper into everything Web Summit has to offer! Now, what about you? What did you like the most? Which insights are you bringing to work? Let us know in the comments :)
