Cosgrave’s Web Summit prospering without Israelis

Several days after October 7, 2023, Paddy Cosgrave angered Israel’s tech community, which was still licking its wounds, with a series of tweets in which he criticized Israel’s response in Gaza, which appeared to leave no viable options for responding to… Cruel attack. After years in which Cosgrave, as CEO of Web Summit, courted Israeli startups, CEOs and entrepreneurs to pay for booths and speak at the conference, the Israeli tech community was surprised by the Irish businessman’s unexpected cold shoulder.

Protests by prominent Israeli tech figures last year led to the mass cancellation of Israeli participation in the conference, with Cosgrave continuing to criticize Israel. The protests escalated and led to the cancellation of sponsorship by Intel, Google, Amazon, and Siemens. A severe crisis of confidence led to Cosgrave’s resignation shortly before the conference, although he remained the main shareholder behind the scenes. In April, after the storm calmed down, he resumed his position and is currently in the midst of marketing efforts and recruiting clients and partners for next month’s conference.

The global tech community seems to have forgotten the events of the past year, except perhaps for the tech community in Israel. Several top tech figures are scheduled to speak at Web Summit, including Microsoft CEO Brad Smith, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, and Dutch AI company Hugging Face CEO Thomas Wolff.

According to Cosgrave, while last year was “the worst in the history of the conference, this year is the best ever,” with revenues up 30%. According to him, the number of American startups is already more than 150 and is expected to reach 250. “The number of startups representing Spain and Italy will increase by more than 50% compared to 2023, and even from non-traditional markets such as Serbia it will rise to 50. Double last year.” What about Israeli startups? There is nothing. Cosgrave has moved on quickly, but Israeli technology will probably never forget him.

Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on October 9, 2024.

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