More than 40,000 people are set to arrive in Lisbon over the next week to attend the largest tech event to take place since the pandemic began. Portugal, now the most vaccinated country in the world, will host founders, investors and media from all over the world. People will once again be able to connect in person with stars including Amy Poehler and Thierry Henry, tech giants such as Apple’s Craig Federighi and Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, and the next generation giants like Sorare’s Nicolas Julia.

“We have defied all odds. The return has been way faster than we expected. We didn’t think we’d even get to 10,000 attendees. Everyone has been in lockdown for two years. Very few of us have been able to connect, so the excitement among attendees this year is palpable,” says Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder and CEO at Web Summit.

The Opening Night, taking place on Monday, November 1, will see Black Lives Matter co-founder Ayọ (fka Opal) Tometi, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia take to the stage in the Altice Arena. More than 1,000 speakers, 1,500 journalists and 700 investors will be taking part in the event, alongside 1,250 startups and partners, including global brands such as Google, AWS, Siemens, H&M, Cisco and eToro.

Web Summit will ensure all appropriate measures, as set by the Portuguese health authorities, are adhered to. Official Covid vaccine certificates will be required to access the venue. Where official certificates cannot be provided, organisers will require a negative PCR test, which will only remain valid for 72 hours, or a negative rapid antigen test, which will remain valid for 48 hours.

Earlier this week, Web Summit announced that the software in use at the event will be licensed out for use by CES 2022 – the world’s largest trade show – in Las Vegas.