Web Summit 2023 Opens in Lisbon with Ukraine and Kyiv Post Represented

Lisbon has been gearing up for the opening of this year’s Web Summit – the largest assembly of tech, media and political and social leaders of its sort.  Last year over 70,000 participated, and the organizers are confident that as many, if not more, will attend this week.

Certainly, on Sunday Lisbon airport was packed with hundreds of newly arrived guests eager to register in the giant pavilion erected outside the entrance for this purpose.

There were specialists and representatives from all over the world, including several I met from Ukrainian startups and IT companies.

Apart from the multitude of top CEO, tech gurus, media chiefs and government officials, this year’s speakers will include the leader of the Belarusian democratic opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

I’m personally honored to be moderating a discussion with Ukrainian-ex-world boxing champion, Volodymyr Klitschko on Nov. 14 and later, participating in a panel discussion about war and journalism.

We hope to remind the world about the gruesome if heroic struggle that Ukraine, dismissed by many in early 2022 as a lightweight standing no chance against the heavyweight Russian Goliath, has been waging for close to two years.

And, as Kyiv Post’s Chief Editor, to pay tribute to those journalists, domestic and foreign, who have, and continue to, report on Russia’s barbaric war and the threat that it represents to the democratic world.

Both Klitshko and I are among the selected guests invited to dinner this evening by the Portuguese government.

I hope to be able to be able to provide you with further details and images from the event as it gets going.