GATHER | Web Summit Vancouver 2026 x Global Tech Conference

"We meet at a critical moment in the history of technology."

Physician/author Dr. Gabor Maté and Twitch political streamer Hasan Piker

Waterfront—(May 11 to 14, 2026) For the second year, Web Summit Vancouver's annual three-and-a-half-day global conference, known as the "Olympics of Tech," gathered 20,235 attendees (up from 15,727 in 2025) spread across three levels of the Vancouver Convention Centre West, once again hosted by the titular Dublin-based technology events company.



Among the thousands of tech workers and leaders, 1,197 startups and a record 768 investors (up thirteen percent) from 120 nations joined Web Summit Vancouver. This is the largest investor turnout the North American conference (previously Collision Conference in Toronto) has ever seen. Crunchbase's own data suggests over $77-billion was raised across all companies that attended last year, from startups, speakers, and partners.

Exhibition Level

Throughout the week, there was a strong focus on the sovereignty of artificial intelligence, machine learning, SaaS, healthtech, wellness, fintech, financial services, and education as the top sectors represented. Powered by an AI-driven recommendation system, there were also 157 curated meetups planned to connect attendees together through shared interests.



Speakers tackled hot industry topics such as AI integration, the chip wars, tech geopolitics, film's future, and the emerging creator economy. Professionals from around the world, including 32 government and trade delegations from Cabo Verde, Italy, South Korea, Portugal, Qatar, Lithuania, Poland, and others, joined the global crowd of technologists.

Speaker Lounge

Web Summit Vancouver's 2026 attendance was up nearly thirty percent from last year's inaugural edition, as it maintains its status as the city's largest conference and the fastest-growing tech conference on the continent. For Canadians, the festivities marked an inflection point over our own sovereignty and technology as Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave reminded us about the raging AI battle over open-sourced versus closed models, among other issues facing us.

Canadian Minister of AI and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, Cohere Chief AI Officer Joelle Pineau & Bloomberg Bureau Chief Thomas Seal

Web Summit includes its flagship conference in Lisbon, Web Summit Rio in South America, Qatar in the Middle East, and Rise in Asia. Collectively, they have welcomed almost a million people since the original's inception in 2009.


More | YVArcade / 2025 / BetaKit / CBC / CTV