Web Summit Guide: How to prepare and generate leads

Web Summit Conference by the Numbers

Web Summit attracted a record number of investors – 1,857 in 2025. They struck deals with the best of 2,700+ startups. According to event organizers, the sales pipeline and volume of negotiations initiated at the event exceeded €3 billion.

Based on preliminary forecasts, 70,000+ participants from around the world are expected to converge on Lisbon, including:

• major venture capital investors (VCs);
• C-level executives from the world's top tech companies – FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) and other technology giants;
• 3,000+ startups, among which may be your potential partners and competitors;
• 1,000+ speakers – prominent figures at the center of the global tech community. In 2025–2026, the stage featured world-class stars such as Eduardo Saverin (Co-founder of Facebook, Co-founder of B Capital), Alexander Wang (Founder & CEO of Scale AI), Alexis Ohanian (Co-founder of Reddit, Founder of Seven Seven Six), Cliff Obrecht (Co-founder of Canva), Larry Lee (top investor, three-time Forbes Midas List), and others.

Trending topics include AI, DevOps, SaaS, fintech, healthtech/climate tech, and the creator economy.

Those who extract the maximum value from attending the summit include:

• startup founders seeking investors;
• B2B marketers selling subscription-based software who are looking to connect with major clients and partners in person;
• investors (angel investors, venture funds) identifying promising startups;
• C-level executives of major global corporations looking to acquire startups or gain access to new technologies.

Common Mistakes Made by Summit Attendees

Despite the enormous number of potential clients, 80% of companies leave disappointed, with no tangible results. This is due to several factors.

• Failure to warm up the target audience in advance.
• Ignoring pre-arranged networking meetings (fewer than 20% of attendees use the official app for scheduling meetings).
• Delayed follow-up on collected contacts. There is only a 48-hour window for follow-up. If you miss it, 80% of leads go cold – people simply forget who they spoke with and what was discussed.

As a result, instead of 500+ high-quality contacts that could have been obtained, companies head home with a stack of business cards to sort through "later." The budget is wasted, and there is nothing to show for it.

The Benefits of Pre-Event Marketing Before Web Summit

• 2x lead growth. For example, investing from €2,000 in pre-event marketing generates 500,000 impressions among ideal customers and their look-alikes.
• ROI increases 5–10x.
• Access to decision-makers: investors, CTOs, and top executives.
• Scheduled meetings with C-level executives and investors, a packed agenda of business conversations.
• Building a retargeting audience. Capturing 10,000–50,000 contacts in pixels that can be retargeted after the event.

How to Prepare for Web Summit: When to Start

Proper preparation for the Web Summit exhibition significantly increases your chances of being noticed at the event. Ideally, you should allocate six months for pre-event marketing.

• May–June. At the preparation stage, define your goals and KPIs: how many impressions and meetings you need to generate. Create an ICP profile for the person who can close a deal or write a check on the spot or within a week of the event.
• July–September. The main phase is during which you need to maintain consistent visibility and build brand recognition.
• October–November. In the final stretch, hesitant prospects are nurtured, meetings are confirmed, and booth operations are in full swing.

Pre-Event Marketing Campaign

A thorough analysis of the product and the company's product line is conducted, and the target audience is studied. The marketer's task is to build an ideal customer profile, understand their needs, and maximize marketing reach. It is worth noting upfront that social media alone does not guarantee reach, although exceptions do occur in the form of viral Reels, LinkedIn posts, and YouTube Shorts.

In addition, the following steps are required:

• building customer databases (based on phone and email lists, analytics counters, etc.);
• tracking digital footprints, placing pixels to identify the right types of website visitors;
• constructing the right, compelling sequence of touchpoints;
• launching audience warm-up campaigns with announcements of exhibition activities.

The main pre-event promotional channels are as follows.

• Twitter creates information noise and spreads the word that you exist (for free).
• Meta (Instagram/Facebook) runs targeted advertising that captures everyone who has shown interest and keeps them warm through retargeting (mid-range cost).
• LinkedIn reaches out to C-level individuals to schedule meetings (expensive but highly targeted).
• Email notifies existing contacts and finalizes meeting appointments (free, but highly effective when you already have a ready-made database).

The heart of the ad campaign is a dedicated landing page – "Meet Us at Web Summit." All links from ads, posts, and emails lead there. It features announcements, a "Book a Meeting" button, and an offer to receive a relevant industry guide in exchange for contact details. The recommended touchpoint frequency is at least 3 times per week.

Pre-event marketing preparation is what allows you to arrive at the exhibition already recognizable, with meetings scheduled and clients who are practically warmed up and ready to sign contracts.

Scheduling Meetings

One month before the summit, you need to go into maximum activity mode to build your list of upcoming meetings. The following tools can be used for this.

• The official Web Summit app (b2match). Set filters for attendees by role, company, and country. Fill in your meeting slots (realistically, you should select 100–200 of the most relevant contacts).
• Personalized LinkedIn outreach. Reach out to specific individuals with a proposal to meet at Web Summit to discuss their particular pain points and offer a solution. With this approach, 40% of people respond, and for the remaining 60%, brand recognition may kick in later.
• Content and announcements. Post content such as: "We'll be at Web Summit, booth D23 – come by for a free Kubernetes audit." Teaser videos: how preparation is going, what you're bringing, what prizes you're giving away. Reels and YouTube Shorts showing behind-the-scenes preparation.

How to Generate Leads at Web Summit: Turning Meetings into Real Opportunities

It's easy to get lost at Web Summit, as tens of thousands of people converge on the venue. Not every attendee will become a client. But from every meeting, and even from a simple visit to the exhibition, you should extract maximum value.

There are three technical methods for capturing people's attention.

• QR code + NFC at the booth: a person taps their phone, data instantly enters the company's CRM, and is enriched automatically.
• Geotargeting: capturing everyone who enters the exhibition zone or nearby hotels. This provides a +30% boost to scan rates.
• Tracking: pixels record the scan event and raise the contact's lead score.

If someone is interested in the product and stops by the booth, you have just 2–3 minutes to strengthen their attention and set the stage for future collaboration. With strong preparation, 40% of meetings convert into genuinely interested prospects.

The best-performing offer is one that clearly names the pain and its solution. For example: "Let's run a 5-minute AI scan of your DevOps setup just to identify your bottlenecks. Free of charge, purely out of interest." This is not a pitch – it's help.

What to Do After Web Summit

Once the exhibition ends, the active work of consolidating agreements and processing accumulated attendee data begins. Time is critical, whichever competitor follows up first to reignite the interest sparked during a meeting typically wins the new client.

Within the first 24 hours, you must follow up to demonstrate your interest. A simple email is enough: "Thanks for the meeting, [Name]! As promised, here are the slides on [topic]. Let's think about what we do next."

Within the first week, you should:

• call the top 50 hottest contacts;
• launch targeted LinkedIn and email marketing for those who have not responded.

During the first month, actively track analytics (pixels + CRM) to see which channels worked and which did not. Always calculate ROI. Those who are not yet ready to convert should be placed into a long-term nurture sequence.

In this way, by investing 5–10% of the budget (€2,000–5,000) in pre-event marketing, you can achieve:

• 500,000 impressions among ideal customers;
• a pixel audience of 10,000–50,000 people (who can subsequently be retargeted with ads);
• 2x more visibility than your competitors;
• ROI of 5–15x and a sales pipeline worth €500,000+.

If you do not have configured analytics or a team to ensure basic marketing preparation with minimal investment, we offer an outsourced Chief Marketing Officer service.

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Conclusion

Do not put off your Web Summit preparation. The earlier your brand appears in the feeds of your future clients, the greater the chance they will come to you specifically. We will help you prepare for the event, build recognition, and generate real results where others simply burn through their budget.

Frequently Asked Questions