Web Summit Vancouver to succeed Collision Conference in 2025

Web Summit, the global technology events company, is launching a new North American flagship event in Vancouver. The first Web Summit in North America, which will take place in Vancouver, Canada in May 2025, represents a new era for Web Summit and joins an expanding international roster of events run by the Dublin-based company.

Web Summit Vancouver will take over from Collision in Toronto, which became the fastest-growing technology event in North America. The new event will continue the company’s mission to support and connect the global technology ecosystem. In the last two years, Web Summit has introduced three brand new events, including Web Summit Rio in South America, which has gathered more than 55,000 attendees in its first two years, and Web Summit Qatar in the Middle East, which drew 15,000 attendees in its first year. Web Summit’s flagship event in Lisbon is set to bring more than 70,000 attendees from 150-plus countries to Lisbon this November. In total, participation at Web Summit events has increased by 51 percent since 2022, and by the end of the year, our 2024 events will have drawn more than 160,000 attendees.

The first Web Summit in North America will take place in Vancouver in May 2025.

Web Summit aims to bolster this growth further as it takes over Vancouver in May 2025. With more than 11,000 tech companies, technology has become the fastest-growing sector in the province. The tech sector is growing at twice the rate of the overall economy, and Vancouver ranks first in high tech job growth in North America.

Home to notable unicorns, including Dapper Labs, Blockstream, Trulioo, LayerZero Labs, Visier, the city also hosts major tech companies Salesforce, Apple and Amazon.

“We can’t wait to gather the tech world and take over the city next year. Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities with a flourishing tech community that connects the Americas, Asia and the West Coast. The time has come to transition Collision into Web Summit. We have had the most incredible time in Toronto and are looking forward to continuing our Canadian journey in Vancouver,” said Paddy Cosgrave, founder and CEO of Web Summit.

Millions in economic impact

Collision brought CA$189 million in economic impact to Toronto over its last three in-person events (2019, 2022, 2023), and is projected to bring CA$77 million in economic impact next week. From next May, Web Summit Vancouver will attract thousands of tech enthusiasts from around the world and inject hundreds of millions into the economy over the years.

“British Columbia has a 30-year track record of creating and advancing world-class technologies, and we want to scale up our ability to commercialize innovation and translate these successes into a sustainable competitive advantage for our provincial economy,” said the Honourable Brenda Bailey, British Columbia’s Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation (JEDI).

Destination Vancouver anticipates that Web Summit Vancouver will generate CA$172 million in direct spending and CA$279 million in overall economic impact for British Columbia over three years. Web Summit’s direct economic impact can be worth €200 million annually in cities such as Lisbon, where it hosts its flagship event.