Doha, Qatar: Web Summit Qatar 2024 has been acclaimed as a resounding success by rising tech ventures and household brands from around the world.

The global event’s Middle East debut in Doha drew more than double the anticipated attendees—15,453 to be exact.

The summit, which took place between 26-29 February, brought together the largest conglomerate of startups in the region and the biggest presence by Africa-based ventures at a Web Summit event, with women in tech coming to the fore of the conversation.

Founder and CEO of Replit, Amjad Masad, expressed his awe at the remarkable advancements Qatar has made in cultivating a thriving technological ecosystem. He said: “Qatar’s technological progress is truly impressive. The country has the three key attractive elements for investment – market, capital and competencies. I enthusiastically participated in the Web Summit 2024 and plan to attend future editions.”

Paul Schneider, Senior Information Risk Manager Oil and Gas Assets at Shell, said: “What I really like is that people are now really open to collaborating and working together. I think this is really a gamechanger for this region and especially for Qatar. I am really impressed with where we are and now we go out with a bang,” said Paul.

Shadi Kandil, General Manager, Global Business Solutions, TikTok Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Pakistan, said the energy on the floor was inspiring. The leading social media platform signed an agreement with the Government Communications Office to establish its first Creative Studio in Qatar and grow the country’s creator economy.

“If you just reflect on the past four days, the energy, the buzz, the expertise from all around the world that came to share, to learn–it is just transformative, it is inspiring. The energy that got us through is just inspirational and we really look forward to next year’s iteration,” Shadi noted. Rising names in the world of AI, a conversation centrepiece at the event, seemed to be equally impressed by Web Summit Qatar 2024.

“This is a big opportunity for Qatar and I think it is a great showcase-platform for local businesses to leverage and go global. We love Web Summit for the last seven years and we are so happy it has come to Qatar because we understood the opportunity here,” said Varghese Cherian, Senior Vice President at Builder.ai. Another venture that propelled to the front ranks of attention was Groq, an innovative company developing chips to accelerate AI models and enable high-speed inference for generative AI models.

Groq’s Founder and CEO Jonathan Ross, whose Web Summit Qatar debut was also his first experience at a Web Summit event, described the event as ‘thought provoking’.

“Such a great event. I will be happy to come back. Technology is advancing so quickly. Last year, AI chatbots had just become a thing. Now we’re demoing natural speech on stage. What’s going to happen next year? You’re going to have to come to find out,” Jonathan concluded.

Alex Chernenko, Founder and CEO of Translit, a live AI interpretation solution for events and meetings, said Web Summit Qatar 2024 was an unforgettable and eye-opening experience. He added: “We came somewhat prepared and had an opportunity to explore Doha in greater detail, and at every step we were reminded that Qatari hospitality is real. Brief conversations over a cup of coffee quickly grew into referrals and introductions. Coming to Qatar, some of us had preconceived notions that completely transformed upon arrival.”

Web Summit CEO Katherine Maher said: “We had record numbers of people come. We had the most international Web Summit first-year event we have ever done. I am so impressed by the Qatari hospitality. So excited to be able to come back year after year. Just could not be happier.”