My top 9 insights from the Web Summit 2020

In any year, connecting with others from a diverse background feels good and is important for self-development. In the "year of COVID", you may agree, events are often one of the best and last possible choices! That was one of my biggest motivators in order to join the Web Summit and as many sessions as I could last week.

Today, I will share with you in few minutes these insights I captured in a few hours:

1. The importance of collaborating AND competing
2. Thing big - considering the holistic organization for AI implementations
3. Educate your stakeholders in order to be successful with your Digital Transformation
4. "Secrets" from Mark Cuban: how to become a successful entrepreneur and / or investor
5. What is next about Blockchain
6. Thinking forward and strategize for a better world using the UN Global Goals
7. The importance of ethical technology usage
8. Why you should be considering and implementing a Product Model
9. How to apply Antifragility to build your business

But, wait a second... what is the Web Summit?

It is NOT a technical or IT event! It is definitively not about developing web applications, or surfing on the web! You can check their own definition from their web site)...

... or get the summary from my own experience: it is considered to be the largest technology conference in the world (like, 1,000+ speakers!), a great opportunity to understand how technology is changing multiple industries, to learn about business development, to connect with interesting start-ups and also to connect with people with different backgrounds.

Now... back to the insights!

1. Competing or Collaborating? A surprise to get things started

There were hundreds of sessions scheduled, during afternoon and evening in the central European time. The evening sessions gave me the opportunity to book the time; else I would take any few minutes of a meeting cancelled or wrapped up quicker than planned to join the event and see what was going on.

That's exactly how I came to join the last few minutes of an interview with Vas Narasimhan, our CEO at Novartis, where they were having a very interesting conversation about how our industry could work in the future.

A highlight of the conversation: when asked about the future of collaboration in the industry, after an year of collaboration to solve the COVID-19 crisis, he noted that collaboration shall continue to improve and yet the competitiveness in Industry must also continue, for the good of the patients; one company challenging the other works in the best interest for the people. It creates alternatives. It pushes the scientists to find better options, to improve the treatment experience, to reduce side effect. Striking a better balance between competing and collaborating is the key!

2. Think Big: Redefine your AI strategy and challenge your thinking [Microsoft]

What are you doing different because of AI? That was the tone during this interesting presentation from Microsoft, where different business cases where presented. It was not much about which technology to use and how, but how to change the thinking process.

According to the presenter, the best strategy is to look holistically and re-think how the organization works. Stop focusing on smaller, short term gains and consider the end to end processes to reinvent the company, or the industry for all that matters!

Think big. It becomes more valuable to reflect on what was impossible to do and may be possible now, since technology barriers have dropped significantly. To get inspired, discover how Starbucks turns to technology to brew up a more personal connection with its customers.

3. Educate your Stakeholders: Data-led consumer intimacy (How Nestlé is growing, now) [CI&T]

The focus of the session was around how the data became an enabler for Nestlé in Brazil in order to extend their relationships with key stakeholders, including B2B and B2C. There were aspects of organization, technology and partnerships addressed during the session, explaining to a reasonable degree of detail how CI&T and Nestlé partnered in this journey.

The key insight of the session for me was around partnership: more specifically, the need to invest on the growth and education of other stakeholders. Sometimes, that meant for them to limit their own developments and acknowledge the stakeholders needed more time to mature. Other times, it meant they had to step in and invest on the partners, or even the customers, before gathering any kind of benefit. It is a big challenge: how to elevate the digital maturity of other organizations, when we sometimes struggle to raise it within our own businesses? 

4. How to be Successful as Entrepreneur and / or Investor

A Q&A with Mark Cuban

Q&A sessions are very useful to collect multiple insights in a short period of time; I find we use it less than we should. With Mark it was no different, and instead of telling a story of what happened it makes more sense to share the specific top insights:

• He is spending hours, everyday, understanding new technologies (are you?)
• Building the best team (Dallas Mavericks) = having the best players. A bad organization can destroy a good team, but a great organization with all wrong players won't succeed
• On selecting a partner or even on hiring, consider this: "Is the candidate the kind of person who creates stress or reduces stress?".
• Creating a business case, be clear about: 1. what is unique about it; 2. why; 3. how to get there. Use simple words, be objective and instigate questions.
• Mark will almost all the time invest only after a start-up has a MVP and is capable of monetizing. 

5. Why should you know about Blockchain: What now? [The Linux Foundation]

No big surprises, though it was an interesting and objective (short) session. The highlighted topics were around how traceability really matters for supply chains, and having Digital Identity as a next (almost immediate) step as a key use case of the technology.

The opportunities are actually vast and growing, and it will become more tangible as productive and market solutions mature. I am probably very lucky to work with some references in the market, like Marco Cuomo, Daniel Fritz and Francesco Spoto. I learn a lot with them. If you are interested to know about what they are doing, click on the big logo above... or connect with them here on LinkedIn!

6. Thinking Forward: Strategizing for a Better World [UN]

Then it came the time to face some difficult truth: we are not making as much progress in terms of Sustainability as we should have been. That includes, but it is not limited to, the ongoing climate crisis (yes, crisis) and socio-economical inequalities growing at faster pace with COVID. 

It was a good opportunity to go briefly through the UN's Global (life-changing) Goals:

It is such an amazing framework, and it is out there to serve as a reference and a guide. Everybody has a long road to go through, yet I do take a moment to appreciate the efforts from Novartis and so many colleagues that keep some or all those topics in their hearts. If you are interested to know more, check the company's Environmental, Social and Governance page.

It was a lot of food for thought for our strategy conversations and a good reminder of how much more we, collectively, still have to do.

7. The importance of ethical technology usage: Decoding Human Emotions [Affectiva]

This was a great opportunity to get to know a company that is already transforming the work through the usage of artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics through capturing and processing non-verbal human interactions. It was presented by their CEO, Rana el Kaliouby, who I came to know also wrote (at least) a book, called "Girl Decoded" (immediately added to my wish list after the inspiring presentation).

More than the technology itself, it was a session about concerns of ethical usage of technology, about considering the impacts of your organization in society, and about having a vision for the future.

You could feel from her words how easy it would be to influence people in whatever direction using their technology, and the many billions she already turned down - not only as part of her consciousness but rather board (difficult) discussions.

As part of her aspirations, it was quite interesting to hear how Rana thinks their technology can be used for helping autistic kids (glasses with real time feedback about the interaction with other people). Something so powerful, that could serve well the good and the evil.

8. Why should you consider a Product Model: What is Promise Market Fit during a pandemic? [HYPE Capital]

This was kind of a summary session, probably by accident yet serving well as a recap, and at the same time an ode to the Product Model applied to entrepreneurship. A number of suggestions from the presenter would link back with what I had seen from Microsoft, CI&T, Affectiva and even Mark Cuban:

• Build monetization upfront. It is key for a business case
• Work on a Product Module. Work Agile. Only develop key features (MVP)
• Decentralize product community
• Build for interoperability - expand your possibilities and design for compounding effects
• Avoid building a complete and detailed plan that explains how exactly you go from A to Z... it will make your business fragile and prone to failure, as it produces too much rigidity.

9. Antifragile as opportunity for the next normal [Picnic Technologies]

We should build things that thrive with change, that benefit from chaos, that are more than resilient. For accomplishing that, it is important to detect change faster than others, and then understand how to benefit from that change. How to make it happen?

• Good planning and forecasting; invest in enabling technologies; ensure you understand what your exceptional scenarios are, and how you could benefit from those
• Include the community as part of your design. In an example, the presenter demonstrated how he would give upfront notice to customers about planned deliveries, e.g. showing the driver in the map on the way, thus allowing the customer to read and anticipate change, finally allowing for reducing the impact of a no show
• Question your data. Having data is not enough; one must challenge it. Data may be misleading and then it becomes very dangerous for a data-driven decision business
• Go for short-term through incremental changes with very tangible benefits... or moonshots, with big bold vision and trying the impossible. Avoid the middle of the way and intermediary steps, as they make you fragile (e.g. dependent of too many pre-conditions or assumptions)
• Go to parties...well, connect with people (go to events like this!). Go beyond your industry and frequent partners. There is where you will be able to anticipate trends, anticipate change, and think out side of the box. Allow for serendipity in your life!

The session was in the end an interpretation of the book "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder", by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, for entrepreneurs. This is a book I recommended in the past and re-enforce the recommendation, as it is a good eye opener to understand a lot of what we are going through this year, and understand that it will happen again.

Additional Insights from the Event Structure

We use a lot of Zoom or Microsoft Teams these days (ok, ok, let me include Cisco Webex as well, even thought I am not as exposed to it). Such shared platforms are great, they help with adoption & usage, and get better everyday with interesting features and usability experiences. Yet, sometimes you will do better with a "custom" platform, like the folks in the Web Summit did. I got very curious to learn which technologies they have used to develop their show!

One challenge on hosting such virtual events is the difficulty to establish relationships, which in a normal setup would be resolved with coffee breaks and "Apéro". There again the event organizers implemented an interesting "Mingle" feature, almost like a speed dating with some good matching algorithm (or maybe people?) running behind. It worked very well - not to the same level of the real thing, still good compromising. I wished I had more time to use it! Such feature could and should be kept in mind while organizing events. 

One last twist that got my attention: emotions. During the events, people had the opportunity to instantly react to what was said using a variety of emoticons, and one of them surprised me: ?? ! Basically, you were given an opportunity to throw a virtual tomato, and hit the speaker for something he/she said. I understand the concept, however I found it harsh and borderline inappropriate. After the first day, and I believe due to one specific session and participant who got a lot of tomatoes during the session, they removed that particular emoticon... it was a good demonstration of agility to recognize mistakes and fix them... almost live.

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Joining the Web Summit 2020 was a great experience, and I would have wished to be able to plan more in advance and join even more sessions. Writing whatever I captured helped me solidifying the knowledge acquired and think about how to use it going forward.

Now you: what was the last business-related event you have attended, and what were your biggest insights?