Since its first year in 2009, the Web Summit has grown from 400 in Dublin to over 71,000 people in Lisbon. This year, four of our colleagues - all of them women in tech, attended the conference and are sharing their highlights. We sat down with them and wanted to know what they enjoyed most about Web Summit and what their main takeaways were. Here’s part one of our team's roundup, but there is so much more left to share. Find out more in part 2 of highlights and keep an eye out for further insights and content deep dives!
GPMD team’s highlights and takeaways from Web Summit 2022:
Thayse Scussel - UI/UX Designer
I enjoyed being around so many creatives on the first day and to get inspiration from them. It was really nice to listen to very inspiring people in the industry during the three days.
My favourite session was from Tony Fadell, who created the iPod and iPhone, which was very insightful about the design process behind building these iconic products, and nowadays he is an activist against climate change, developing and accelerating startups that fight the climate crisis.
My main takeaways from the Web Summit were that design and accessibility are linked together now. With the current technology we can combat an accessibility crisis, in which we as designers have the power to make a positive change for everyone.
Additionally, the event highlighted that the digital design industry is a really vital point to tech. Most of the speakers who created products we love and business models we feel inspired by were part of teams in which a design driven mentality was at the core.
Laura Peebles - Ecommerce Project Manager
There were a few sessions I really enjoyed. One was at the Book Summit, Desert Island Book Shelf, and as being a fan anyway of the radio programme Desert Island Discs, I was already predisposed to enjoy it. Each of the speakers had interesting things to say about each of the books they had picked and touched on some really interesting topics — there was brief discussion on theories such as whether it’s ever possible to separate the artist from the art and the banality of evil. I could have listened to the discussions all day!
Another session I found absorbing was Transforming Culture Alongside Technology. I found that Rebecca Parsons (CTO at Thoughtworks) in particular, was a great speaker, who had some really interesting insights to share in terms of how to bring people along with you during a transformation journey and encouraging a culture in which people feel free to be experimental and innovative.
I also attended the In Conversation session with Tony Fadell (iPod and iPhone creator) and loved it too. He is fascinating to listen to and an inspiring speaker (...as well as a great salesperson too apparently as I am now very keen to buy his book).
From the Web Summit, I have also taken away a number of ideas centred around hybrid working and how to collaborate successfully across hybrid working environments. A key tip for me came from Figma’s Yuhki Yamashita who shared that when they are running hybrid meetings, everyone (including those attending in person together) log on to the meeting so that everyone has the same presence within the meeting. This also means that those who are remotely joining, are now able to see everyone in the meeting room clearly. A simple but very effective sounding solution that hadn’t crossed my mind!
