On the opening night of Web Summit, one of the world’s largest tech conferences, the final speaker, though high profile, was not someone associated with the tech industry.
Quite the opposite.
In a surprise appearance at the annual event hosted in Lisbon, Portugal, Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska told a rapt audience about how Russian forces use advanced machinery and engineering to wage a brutal war.
“Your chosen profession, your field of expertise, is now a battlefield in Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Zelenska told the crowd of tens of thousands. “The dystopias we read about in science fiction novels and all the threats of life destruction are much closer than you think.”
(l-r) Dor Skuler, CEO of Intuition Robotics, companion robot ElliQ and Anne Gaviola, Global News Senior Digital Broadcast Journalist at Web Summit 2022.
Photo by Lukas Schulze/Web Summit via Sportsfile
Another major trend from an industry at a crossroads, is the wider adoption of cryptocurrency, according to Qi. Despite the fallout of the failed deal by Binance — the world’s largest crypto exchange, whose founder Changpeng Zhao was also among the opening night speakers — to rescue smaller rival FTX, she says the buzz around fintech is palpable.
Canada’s third-largest pension fund, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, is taking a hit to its US$95 million investment in troubled FTX, which filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. on Friday. In August, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec was forced to write off its US$150 million investment in crypto lending platform Celsius Network which went also went bankrupt.
“There is a crisis in crypto but I personally think it will be good for it because it will mean more regulation to make it a more grown-up industry so more institutional investors can come in,” says Qi.
Disclosure: Anne Gaviola moderated three panels at Web Summit, with the organizers covering her airfare.
