Summit Engine
Software is the backbone of Web Summit and powers events on three continents. The software – Summit Engine – has been built over a decade by a 50+ team of engineers, data scientists and product owners.
Our software
From its early days, Web Summit tapped into data analytics and network science to ensure attendees meet the right people at the right time. In two words: digital serendipity.
“The World Cup of tech conferences” – Forbes
Web Summit developed an event operating system that activates all elements required to deliver large and complex events.
The mobile and desktop apps have always been central to Web Summit conferences. Through these apps, attendees connect with each other, hold meetings, and watch onstage content on several simultaneous channels.
Summit Engine is built to be scalable and adaptable to all events, whether it’s for 100 or 100,000 attendees. After spending a decade perfecting the software, Web Summit licence Summit Engine to power some of the world’s largest events including CES in Las Vegas.
Powering the world's largest events
Earlier this year we licensed the proprietary event software Summit Engine to the Consumer Technology Association, owner and producer of CES.
An ecosystem of products
Attendees use the Web Summit apps to plan their event experience throughout their whole journey. They can plan their days, consume content, chat and engage with tailored recommended people.
"Could anyone really create a virtual conference for 32,000 people with only a couple months’ lead time? They could, and they did.”
Inc. Magazine
Frequently asked questions
Q: Is Web Summit an event company or a software company?
A: The simple answer is both; we build our own software that powers our events and the events of others.
Q: What is Summit Engine?
A: It is the event operating system containing all the software powering an event, both back-end and customer-facing.
Summit Engine allows us to power large scale remote events, delivering video, chat and networking opportunities to virtual attendees.
Q: What software has Web Summit developed?
A: Our websites, our mobile app, our ticketing platform (Ticket Machine), our registration platform (Robeka), our central database (Avenger), and our web app (live streaming and chat). Together, they are known as Summit Engine.
Q: What is network science and why is Web Summit so keen on it?
A: You can think of an event like Web Summit or Collision as an ephemeral social network where tens of thousands of people are coming together for a short period of time.
Network science is is used to organise a complex system such as this and deliver matchmaking recommendations that can result in lead generation, investment, collaboration and simply meeting interesting new people.