Your Startup’s First Web Summit: Essential Preparation Tips

Web Summit Lisbon we are back, and to be honest we’ve missed you. Last year was our first time attending this worldwide tech conference and it was interesting, chaotic, and sometimes even overwhelming but don’t all beginnings feel like that?

This November is going to be totally different since we know what to expect and how to manage our expectations (almost as good as BCMS handles content). So before we give you a little tease of our strategy for Web Summit 2024, we decided to help all newcomers by writing tips based on BCMS last year's Web Summit experience.

How to prepare your startup for Web Summit as a first-timer?

Before diving into preparations, it’s important to understand the key programs designed for startups at the Web Summit. The program includes several key components designed to support and highlight startups:

• ALPHA and BETA programs: These programs are tailored for early-stage and more developed startups. Participating startups get exhibition space, access to workshops, and networking opportunities with investors and other industry leaders.
• PITCH competition: This competition is a major highlight, where selected startups present their business ideas on stage to a panel of judges and an audience of investors and media. The competition is open to startups that are part of the ALPHA and BETA programs and have received less than €5 million in funding.
• Startup showcase: This event allows startups to present their solutions to industry challenges in quickfire presentations. It offers significant brand exposure and the opportunity to attract investment and media attention.
• Mentor hours and masterclasses: These sessions provide startups with direct access to industry experts and seasoned entrepreneurs who offer guidance on various aspects of business development and scaling.

As a first-timer, your startup will be in the ALPHA program (most likely) so here’s what you can expect:

1. Exhibition space: You will have a stand to showcase your startup to attendees, investors, and media.
2. Your startup will be eligible to apply for the PITCH competition.
3. Participation in the Startup Showcase, which involves presenting your company’s solutions to industry-specific challenges in quickfire presentations.
4. Ideal opportunities to expand the network with potential partners and investors.

For more information and to apply for the ALPHA program, you can visit the Web Summit startup program page.

What to expect from Web Summit 2024

This annual four-day live conference for corporations, startups, investors, and individuals, focuses on the technology aspect across industries. It will be held in the MEO arena and five airplane hangar-sized pavilions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enEtab4cyBs

With more than 70k attendees, 160 countries represented, and thousands of companies, you must organize yourself well.

Every year there is a Summit's major theme. Last year's focus was AI and its impact on the industry, and even though this year's theme hasn't been announced yet, CEO of Web Summit, Paddy Cosgrave gave a little sneak peek at this year's focus:

“As Web Summit becomes bigger, our aim is, in a way, to make it smaller for our attendees. More intimate. More community-focused. We will seed small communities at our events, and then help those communities thrive long after each event.”

So, first-timers maybe this change will put you more in focus, but still, you need to get prepared.

Tips for getting the most of Web Summit as a startup

Every year the number of startups participating in this conference grows. Last year a record was broken with the presence of more than 2.5k startups.

First tip: Lower your expectations because, with so much competition, the chances of investors investing in your startup are very low.

Don't think about things you can't influence, but rather focus on your organization and on the messages you want to convey while presenting your product.

Here are some useful tips you can use to prepare for your performance:

Install the event app

Web Summit app is your security blanket. You can follow all the information, keep up with the event timetable, and chat and schedule meetings with other participants.

Plan your booth

Forget about preparing a show and smoke mirrors, organizers have strict rules for your booth. Custom-printed boards for your stand, pop-up banners, and other large marketing materials are prohibited. All participants get the same look of the stand.

So what you can bring to your booth:

• Display screens (but it must be 27 inches or smaller).
• Product demo (make it interesting and interactive so visitors can see your product performance).
• Marketing materials such as business cards, brochures, one-pagers, and so on.
• Ensure you have enough crew to cover the booth and attend sessions.
• Tech toys like VR or smart robots are allowed.
• Consider wearing matching shirts that have your company logo and name.

Think about your slogan

Since you have limited customization at your booth, you need a slogan that encapsulates your startup’s mission, values, or unique selling proposition. Don’t use buzzwords and don’t be afraid to be simple and direct. Our last year's slogan was:

“BCMS: Open-source CMS for developers and their clients”

Pack smart

Organizators will provide you with free WiFi and power outlets but since there are more than 70k attendees there might be a chance to have internet speed issues. Since private hotspots and network tethering are strictly prohibited as they interfere with the wifi network you should prepare yourself with:

• Offline access to your materials
• Bring chargers, portable batteries, and adapters

Prepare your pitch

As with the slogan, it is important what kind of information you want to convey to the visitors of your booth. Don't sell, try to explain to them what solution to their problem your product or service brings. So for the best practices:

• Prepare a concise pitch.
• Create different versions for various audiences (investors, potential customers, partners).
• Be honest and forget about selling techniques.

Attend key sessions

Remember this, quality over quantity. With so many sessions and speakers, focus on those most relevant to your field or product.

Don’t forget about Night Summit

Less official meetings but still useful for networking and meeting possible collaborators. Every night there is a party at emblematic spots of Portugal's capital.

Besides networking, you can present your team company by by participating in various activities during the party, from karaoke to board games, and other interesting challenges. I need to admit, last year BCMS team had a lot of fun and winnings too.

What BCMS prepares for Portugal this year

Well, we don’t to brag, but this year we are coming to present all the news and new features related to our product BCMS-headless CMS.

So, what’s new with BCMS?

New dashboard design and improved workflows

Brand new dashboard design will make content management and content workflows between content creators and dev more intuitive and independent.

We've focused on making the all-new BCMS more intuitive and scalable while keeping you unstoppable as a developer.

Here's a summary of the stuff we’ll ship:

• Input flexibility: Allows for more customization of content.
• A faster media management system that makes it easier to navigate and find files.
• Editing with ease: Your writing and editing process will be smooth and productive.
• Teamwork inside BCMS is easier than ever with new tools making teamwork easy and fun.

We wanted to try all these innovations so our first client was BCMS 😎 and they wanted a new, fast, and scalable website so we built it.

BCMS's new website

This picture is just a tease, soon there will be an official launch so if you want to stay informed follow BCMS on X, LinkedIn, and GitHub.

BCMS Frontend integrations

We promote BCMS versability trough making free code starters and showing our audience for how many different projects they can use BCMS and on the other side showing developers that they can integrate BCMS with their fav tech stack.

We are planning to show this in the MEO arena too, by showcasing 24 free code starters for major industry frameworks Nuxt, NextJS, and Gatsby.

These code starters are open-source, responsive, styled with TailwindCSS, and yes, they're free.

But we will have more surprises:

As you can see we are ready for this November in Portugal. I hope that this article will help you and will serve as a guide for all of you who are going to participate for the first time this year.

At the end of this article, I will:

1: Leave you some useful links:

• Meet speakers: Find out who are the headliners, and what they are going to talk about, and plan your visiting schedule
• Meet the startups: Use these startup databases to start networking and make connections with companies that already have this kind of experience.

2: Remind you that you need to take advantage of the opportunity to be a tourist when you are already in one of the most beautiful locations on the Iberian island.

3: We’d love to connect with you at the Web Summit! Stop by our BCMS booth, or reach out to us directly on LinkedIn or via email.

4: Wish you all a good look and an awesome time spent in Lisboa.