The WebSummit is an annual event that’s centered around facilitating a fully functional, decentralized, and user-friendly web community. This year, the summit in Lisbon was graced by a special guest, Her Excellency, Mrs. Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s First Lady, who joined the co-founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, and other well-known guests on the opening night of the summit. 

In case you missed the event this year, this post discusses the key highlights of the 2022 WebSummit. Representatives from LAB325325, including our founder, Julie Koinak, gave us rich insights into current trends in the world of development, web advancement, business, and many other trending tech-related conversations. Discussions at the summit mostly revolved around the evolution of Web3 development, the Metaverse, the beauty & fashion industry, wellbeing, fitness/medicine, and investments in business/business scaling.

Ideas from Innovative Startups

The Summit provided an opportunity for break-up startups (tech investors and innovators) who are currently rolling out transformative ideas to share their progress. Here are some of the startups highlighted at the grand opening of the summit.

1. Lokalise: Lokalise has introduced a novel idea that helps break down the language barrier in mobile apps. The company is focused on facilitating a functional solution that is easy to integrate, and it requires minimum knowledge from developers, as well as reduces time-to-market, while still being able to communicate with the customer in their language.

2. Tactic_fyi: Tactic enables B2B companies to optimize their GTM data 4x faster, increasing revenue efficiency by 40%. It is a solution that allows for easy gathering and analysis of data from different sources in one place to reach faster decision-making and boost revenue generation for businesses. 

3. Amity_HQ: Enables users to easily add pre-built social features to their app or website: chat, profiles, forums, feeds, video stories, and more. The company offers a plug-and-play format for easy integration and securing of users’ personal data.

4. Ask_AI: This platform provides a solution similar to Google, where users can ask any natural language question and get an exact answer. It eliminates time-consuming keyword searches across multiple sources or skimming long articles. It facilitates fast and seamless AI search through different services offered by a company, such as Gmail, CRM, etc.

5. Abacum.io: This is a platform for strategic financial planning provided in a team collaboration format. It features integration with ERP, CRM, and data warehouse, and is believed to be relevant in times of crisis, when there is a need for quick management.

Recent Updates in The Tech Space

The CEO of Binance noted that quite a number of things are unstable in the world right at the moment, but the cryptocurrency market is stable even though It’s volatile. This is because of the progress that has been made toward greater transparency, and the exponentially growing number of people who believe that cryptocurrencies belong to the future.

Secondly, the cryptocurrency community uses Twitter as its voice. This makes for open sharing of ideas and fast dissemination of information. However, the strict cryptocurrency trading in economies like China and other countries, such as Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Nepal, Qatar, and Tunisia is something to watch out for.

Addressing Racism

Following the events leading up to and after the #BlackLivesMatter protests, leaders in the global community are taking proactive efforts to address racism and other forms of discrimination in society and corporate environments. For instance, in 2021, Apple launched a major new Racial Equity and Justice Initiative project to challenge systemic racism, and advance racial equity across the US. 

This includes a first-of-its-kind education hub for HBCUs, empowering entrepreneurs through funding partnerships, and an Apple Developer Academy in downtown Detroit, with a particular focus on the Black and Brown community. 

Improving User Experience Through Technology

User experience is very important in technology. In her opening speech, The First Lady of Ukraine while commending the efforts of the tech community noted that technology out to be used to better the experience of everyone. As seen in the Russian-Ukraine war today, Russia is deploying technology (missiles, drones, etc.) for the destruction of lives and properties. 

Reports also have it that Russian specialists who worked in conventional IT before the war have also moved to actively cooperate with the Russian army and support the military invasion of Ukraine territories. It is, however, notable that Ukraine is developing a mental health program with military realities for children to help cushion the effects of the war. 

Pitfalls in NFT Marketing

Many people do not understand that NFT is a long-term project, as opposed to the fast-money-making platform that it appears to be. And it is providing a bridge that connects Web2 and Web3. Web3 is an incentive online community that focuses on promoting an open, 3D-immersive internet for everyone. 

Unlike in the past when there were customer sessions to listen to the customer, the community itself now forms the request for a product. Speakers also suggested that the crypto community, which is strongly reliant on Web3 needs a platform (different from Facebook and Twitter) where audiences are able to interact better than what existing social media platforms currently offer. The big change expected of web3 is to ask the users directly, not Facebook or Twitter. This is expected to improve user experiences, as opposed to buying lists from Facebook for targeting. With Web3, it is possible to interface directly with the user. 

Industrial Metaverse: Hype or Hero?

The Metaverse can be seen as a natural revolution of intellect that is connecting fiscal reality with digital creations. Speakers Peter Koerte, Jean-Marc Ollagnier, and Caitlin Ostroff noted that the Industrial metaverse has immense potential to make businesses more sustainable. Moving away from entertainment, video gaming, and watching sports, the Metaverse is offering professionals and other users alike a unique opportunity to interact and share ideas. 

The success of the Metaverse is also believed to be hinged on the contributions of Web3, as both are intricately linked. The Metaverse is more than VR headsets. In fact, Matt Drinkwater, Head of Innovation Agency LCF London, thinks that the Metaverse could be worth up to £4 trillion by 2030.

Monetizing Metaverse

On monetizing the Metaverse, Amanda Cassatt mentioned that it is a place for minds to relax, and therefore has enormous potential to yield great financial rewards. Amy Peck also added that one of the steps that companies can take to ensure they get reasonable returns on their investments in the Metaverse is to first understand where to plug it into their business. It is also important to set economic rules: Who will own what, and what should be paid for?

The main idea of the speakers is that now we are at the very beginning of the path and the economic model itself is only being worked out. As such, monetization will be only the next stage after that. 

How to Win The Talent Race for the Future

The summit touched on winning the talent race for the future. Many small and mid-sized organizations find themselves in difficult times when it comes to hiring the best talents to join their teams. Remote’s co-founder and COO, Marcelo Lebre, talked about changes in the hiring marketplace. 

Most notable are the recent drive for remote and hybrid work models, the clamor for better work-life balance, the impacts of the recent pandemic, and the war in Ukraine. Now people are stressed not only by their work but by different events happening around the world. Recently, some companies have faced the refusal and outright quitting of staff when asked to get back to the office full time.  Businesses must take cognizance of these trends if they must attract and retain top talents in their firms.

Scaling Internationally

Many local businesses hope to scale internationally, but it is not always as easy as it is planned. According to Vivino’s founder, businesses should still commit to it once the process is started. There are quite a number of things to deal with. This makes scaling internationally – even for the strongest of brands – a major challenge. There is the language barrier, funding restraint, legal issues, etc. Heini Zachariassen (Founder at Vivino), Bhumi Bhutani (Founder at Way.com), and Aaron McDaniel (Author at Global Class) share insights that can help organizations that are trying to enter international markets grow globally and avoid pitfalls that lead to waste of money and time. 

For example, regulations vary across borders, having local support centers in new markets can help reduce customer support frictions (according to the Bhumi Bhutani), and management styles also vary from market to market. Another aspect is the importance of trust in the company culture. The speakers maintained that despite the global or local economic downturns, entering a new market is still a good opportunity for many businesses to ensure continuous growth. 

This year’s WebSummit was no exception and demonstrated how dramatically the world is changing, and how it is affected by technology. We must not forget how we are pursuing the goal of implementing a particular innovation, moreover, remember that the burden of moral decisions will be on humanity for many years to come. That is why the phrase “We need to move from the fee for a service to a fee for value” is more relevant than ever. The value must be the number one priority in everything we do right now.

Main image of the crowd at Opening Night of Web Summit 2022:​​ Ben McShane/​​Web Summit (​​CC BY 2.0)

.