Experience Report — Genetech Solutions exhibited at Web Summit 2022

Genetech solutions, along with  Inovozone and Devbeans technologies, went with the Trade Development Authority’s delegation to exhibit at Web Summit 2022. The event had about 70,000 plus audience, including 2000 plus start-ups, from the tech industry. According to organizer estimates, 71,033 people—including 42% women—attended the conference. 1,050 speakers from 160 nations participated in this global gathering, including entrepreneurs, engineers, innovators, philosophers, journalists, politicians, and artists. 

Olena Zelenska, Noam Chomsky, and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan were among the most famous speakers. 

The world’s largest tech event

The Web Summit is one of the world’s major technology events, held yearly in Lisbon, Portugal. It is a 3-day event with world-class speakers, the most renowned companies in the tech industry, and media outlets. Web Summit offers the chance to establish your network, grow personally and professionally, find avenues to scale your business, and increase brand recognition. Over the years, it has grown to become “Europe’s largest and most important technology marketplace.” 

Genetech’s primary objective was to expand into the European markets. The Web Summit 2022 serves as the gateway to the EU since it is one of the most prominent conferences where companies from Europe, the US, Australia, and Canada mark their presence. The aim was to interact with various EU companies, understand their needs, tell them about our services, and, more importantly, generate leads and partnerships.

It was Genetech’s first appearance at the Web Summit 2022, and the goal was to introduce our resource augmentation service and generate leads. We help companies build global teams without getting into the hassle of managing Human Resources, Tech Support, and Admin processes. We shared our offering and learnings around resource augmentation and discovered that many companies there were searching for tech talent, which made them stop and speak to us.

Networking 

The Web Summit App was the key to the event. Upon signing up for the summit, the app connected us with people who might be interested in our services. It provided details about those companies and helped us organize meetings with the businesses. The app also made it simpler to navigate through conferences and scheduled events. With the app’s help, we browsed different talks, planned our event calendar, and connected with other Web Summit Attendees. There was also a Pak-Portugal summit organized by the Pakistani community (Machine Lab in partnership with Amadora Inova.), where we met with like-minded people and shared ideas and experiences related to technology and entrepreneurship. 

Learning outcomes

Apart from the startups and products showcased at the summit, one of the most crucial learning experiences was refining our sales process or getting the most out of our time at these exhibitions and trade shows. We took notes throughout watching other teams pitch their services and, after returning home, started working to build a strategy for our upcoming visits. 

Meeting new startups, listening to their pitches, attending keynotes, and the speaker sessions are the heart and soul of these events. Being one of the event’s showstoppers, the women-in-tech stage was intriguing since it aimed to promote women in technology. 

There were many innovative startup ideas, but Xpeer and Caisy.io were two of our favorites. Xpeer had a product similar to glassdoor, but it was for employers, especially to capture the European market. It gave real-time reviews through rating. Caisy.io is a headless CMS framework that allows you to save, organize, and edit all of your content with the flexibility of distributing it to any device. 

“Meeting with startups around the globe is truly amazing, though, as they usually develop solutions-oriented products. Because we haven’t directly encountered them, we occasionally don’t even perceive such issues as issues. To them, it is a localized issue, but for us, it occasionally serves as an eye-opener. So when something clicks during a discussion, and you realize, “Oh yes, I’ve seen that problem,” you bring it up and make a connection because “I’ve seen it somewhere,” and I don’t think any book will ever teach you that. Says Shamim Rajani “COO – of Genetech Solutions.

Event highlights

On the first day, several topics were discussed, including AI, the metaverse, and Gen Z news consumption. The thoughts on Facebook’s bold intentions to establish its digital universe were heavily debated. Still, they all seemed to point to the same outcome: the concept is interesting, but a monopolistic approach will lead to failure.

The most popular AI virtual assistant worldwide is Alexa. Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and chief scientist at Amazon, talked about its future evolution. It is reported that the use of Amazon’s assistant has increased significantly during the past 12 months.

Unconventional choices are required in modern times. Subrata De, Vice EVP of News and Global Head of Programming and Development, explained Vice’s desire to have a presence on Twitch and why a News company should consider participating on websites like OnlyFans.

During this session, there was also discussion around whether social media sites, which primarily cater to people in generation Z, can be considered news sources.

The second day of Web Summit 2022 was a spectacular success, with speakers including F1’s Toto Wolff, Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith, and TV presenter Cristina Ferreira.

The Lego Group‘s Julia Goldin discussed the brand’s cultural resonance nine decades after its inception. The session concentrated on the brand’s innovation and extending of creative boundaries, its use of new channels to engage with children and adults, and its contribution to developing a safe metaverse for kids.

Toto Wolff, the team principal of the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team, was scheduled to speak, making it one of the most anticipated Web Summit sessions this year. Totto, Oliver Steil, the CEO of TeamViewer, and Rosanna Tennant, a television commentator for Formula One, all participated in the discussion about how skill and technology combine to produce champions.

On day 3, the prominent encrypted messaging app Signal’s president, Meredith Whittaker, started the main event. She discussed the surveillance economy and privacy concerns. Signal competes with popular programs like Telegram, WhatsApp, and others. Because it is owned by a non-profit with no shareholders, it may concentrate on a social goal and technological difficulties rather than on making money.

Over the three-day event, more than 600 sessions were delivered, covering subjects including emerging technology, digital marketing, entrepreneurship, society and politics, environmental challenges, and media.

Panel: Pak – Portugal Collaboration 

MachineLab Ventures and Amadora Inova hosted the Pakistan-Portugal Innovation Summit. Shahjahan Chaudhary and Ricardo Giro shared the role of program hosts. Both public and private sector entities were present. Our COO, Shamim Rajani, was one of the speakers, along with Atif Azim, Sadaffe Abid, and Abdul Rehman Qureshi. The theme of the panel discussion was Portugal’s strengths. Portugal is the gateway to Europe and a great place to start a business due to its hospitable government and investment-friendly ecosystem. The objective was to discuss the needs of businesses in Portugal, what Pakistan brings to the table, and how Pakistan can contribute to bridging Portugal’s skills gap. Many startups spoke on how the Portuguese startup ecosystem is evolving.

Context of European business culture

European markets have a reputation for being conventional regarding outsourcing their business. It can be challenging to get in at first. They are delighted to work with someone running a family business because they assume that anybody who runs a family business adheres to specific business practices. You can read more about our experience with the EU business culture here.

We also introduced Innovere.Group to those we met at the Web Summit. It is an alliance between four companies, including TEO, to capitalize on EU market openings, build trust, and foster new relationships. Click here to read more about it.

Conclusion 

Participating in tech-focused events is part of our business development strategy because we believe that, to expand business internationally, you need to engage in networking and build trust with our clients and prospects. From our visit to Web Summit 2022,  we got good leads, including possible partnerships, incubation space, and franchising options.

Genetech intends to expand abroad in the upcoming year to a country in Europe or the MENA region so that it will be one of the two.

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