Web Summit investigates Lisbon ticket touting

Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave has said his organisation is investigating alleged cases where discounted student tickets for the upcoming technology conference in Lisbon are being touted for more than 130 times their original price.

Mr Cosgrave, who set up the annual so-called “Davos for geeks” summit in Dublin in 2009 before moving the event to Lisbon last year, said on Sunday that Web Summit is “investigating touts reselling half-day tickets reserved for students that were €7.50 at more than €1,000” ahead of this year’s gathering in the Portuguese capital next month.

His comments, on Twitter, follow a report in Portuguese newspaper, Diario de Noticias, on the inflated prices ticket touts for seeking for the resale of half-day student passes for the event. Web Summit put 10,000 such tickets on sale last week.

60,000 attendees expected

Prices quoted on Web Summit’s website for attending this year’s event, taking place between November 6th and 9th in Lisbon, include €1,500 for its most popular ticket to €4,995 for “executive” tickets.

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Web Summit, one of largest tech conferences in the world, is expected to attract more than 60,000 attendees, over 1,000 speakers – including Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich, Tinder co-founder and chairman Sean Rad, and former US presidential candidate and environmentalist Al Gore – and 2,200-plus journalists.

The tech conference that started in Ireland in 2009 with fewer than 400 attendees and grew to about 40,000 by 2015, caused controversy when it upped and left for Portugal last year under a three-year deal.