WebSummit key moments - Day 1

Stellium is attending the WebSummit in #Lisbon (our second home) and the team is having a blast at the biggest tech conference in Europe. It’s very busy (over 70k attendees) but we’re getting the most out of it and will be sharing some insights with you.

Here are the ones from our first full day (Nov 2nd). Let us start but talking about the hot topics both on and off-stages.

1.??????The Metaverse

This is a keyword that was included in many of the talks. We were able to assist the one from Accenture representative Yves Bernaert and Dominique Pouliquen from Cintoo, on “Gearing up for the enterprise metaverse”.

“It’s all about the Internet of spaces within Web3.” – they said.

Space is taken to the next level (the 3D one) with #augmentedreality. This technology has been around for a long and now it’s ready to be deployed. Together with optimized and metaverse-ready data, it is already enabling #virtualreality.

Accenture started by implementing it in #hr (hiring through the metaverse) and highlighted the fact that companies wanting to join the #metaverse wave should be worried about training staff on this and developing a proof of concept before investing.

??????Modern Workplace and access to global talent

The post-pandemic world is remote, and most people want it to continue that way. We’ve met different people from all over the world during the Conference and we can confirm that it’s the trend (and the way to go).

The pros and cons of this still considered new reality are a matter of discussion on a regular basis. One of the hottest topics is related to HR – the hiring process in specific.

If, on one hand, being remote has enabled companies to access #talent all over the world, on the other hand, employers are challenged to deliver a great hiring experience without physical contact. They cannot impress with the fancy offices (unless they are already in the metaverse world), offer snacks, or go around the office to promote the nice office surroundings.

But when it comes to specific challenging job areas – such as software engineering – the pros clearly surpass the cons. There’s a shortage of these professionals in Europe and even in the US but, remotely, we can access global talent.

Johnathan Siddharth, from Turing, approached just this during this talk on “AI, but to unleash the world’s untapped human potential”. Starting with a great perspective on how we, as businesses (and HR professionals), are changing from a credential-based to a skilled-based hiring method.

Machine learning-based Turing technology empowers the match between software engineers and developers with companies who are searching for these profiles.

3.??????The future of SaaS and how to sell it

This was one of the best of the day. Ryan Neu, from Vendr – a developer platform used to help companies to purchase #saas – hosted a great session on “Why nobody wants to buy SaaS from you – and how to fix it”.

As an experienced salesperson (former HubSpot), he was sharing about how broken the sales process is broken and completely outdated. It’s crucial to move from a system where sales are mined with a lack of trust in a macro-climate to a model where customers can lean on trust within a fair system.

This is easier to do with the product but it’s also possible with SaaS. As Ryan stated

“SaaS doesn’t have to be negotiable.”

The process of selling services can ultimately be as simple as selling Pizzas: you order it, chose your ingredients, pay for it, and wait for a great – yet fast – delivery experience. And that is non-negotiable.

Transparency and a customer-centric approach are required to be the basis of any sales process in the way society works nowadays.

---

These were our main takeaways from day 1 but there was much more going on. Follow us on Instagram and check out our stories for some live content. We will do a proper wrap-up tomorrow. Stay tuned!