QNA
Doha
Founder and CEO of Web Summit Paddy Cosgrave, which is set to be held in Qatar in March 2023, said that the summit will address several significant topics, such as artificial intelligence, tax evasion, as well as other technological issues, in addition to crypto currency, cyber security, and international tax justice for multinational corporations, which were the main focus of the previous summits.
In remarks to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Cosgrave anticipated that Web Summit Qatar, the first of its kind in the Middle East, would attract a large number of participants in the various fields and topics it would address, unlike other previous summits, especially after the end of COVID-19 pandemic, as International conferences used to be held through videoconferencing.
“I think a lot of people will be quite excited about coming to Web Summit in the Middle East because this is one of the most important markets in the world. You can’t ignore it if you think about growth over the coming decades. There are lots of growing businesses in the region and participants want to find customers elsewhere in the world and the Middle East is going to be a really important market,” he added.
CEO of Web Summit pointed out that the first Web Summit had 150 attendees to increase from one summit to the other. “We know that events take time to grow like the Qatar Economic Forum, which somebody told me had 400 people, maybe 600 people in the first year. So I would say low expectations, hopefully, there will be maybe 5000 people from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and from all over the world,” he added.
“It’s not easy to persuade people that the Web Summit can take place in the Middle East, and I think the first year is probably the demonstration year and things get easier in the second year. It’s a 5-year commitment and these things take time to build,” he said.
Paddy Cosgrave noted that a host of stakeholders and specialists would participate in the 3-day Web Summit Qatar, representing sectors and other levels in the technology industry, including executives, experts, politicians, and other interested parties.
He also referred to the close cooperation between the Web Summit and Qatar regarding organization and partnership regarding hosting such vibrant events. He pointed out that they chose Qatar to hold the Summit for its record of hosting and holding various significant international conferences and summits in all fields.
He also noted that Qatar Development Bank (QDB) attended the 2016 Web Summit as a partner.
Regarding his view and evaluation of the third edition of Qatar Economic Forum, Cosgrave stressed that this was his first time attending the forum, and he thinks it is very impressive and successful by all means in terms of participation, key speakers, and economic topics and files that the forum discussed.
He noted the mega international events and conferences that Qatar hosts from time to time, saying that the location of Qatar geographically is quite incredible and unique.
Qatar has got a massive market and emerged as a global hub. Qatar also has a distinguished international airport and a world-class pioneer airline - Qatar Airways - which means easy accessibility to Qatar. Cosgrave congratulatedQatar for its incredible hosting of the World Cup.
