Metaverse is no substitute for real-world technology insights at Web Summit | Business

This week 70,000 people are descending on Lisbon for its Web Summit annual technology conference. It’ll be the first time this has happened at full scale since the pandemic and the overwhelming volume of emails and social media buzz shows the scale of excitement among those attending.

An enormous marquee has been set up outside the arrivals hall at the airport to welcome guests and to hand out badges. It is a happier tent than those set up in these vast spaces during Covid to process swab tests. Investors, developers, big technology companies, politicians, philosophers, academics and innumerable start-ups — they’re all here.

The Praça do Comércio is the grand square that faces out on to the harbour, from where Portugal ran its trade empire.