The bright orange Dutch booth was right at the entrance of the conference floor and therefore hard to miss, it served up drinks and good conversations. But it also brought in a number of overseas tech entrepreneurs who were seriously considering to move their business to British Columbia. One Colorado-based Dutchman in the booth made it clear: ever since Trump had emerged, Canada all of a sudden had become a possible and attractive location to move his start-up to.

These founders came on a fact-finding mission and in a way so was Web Summit itself: is Vancouver the place to move the annual North American conference to after having been hosted for many years in Toronto?  Like any entrepreneurial decision, it was a move that was not without risk. Where in Toronto some 40,000 would attend and the European version in Lisbon even more, attendance last week in Vancouver was closer to a modest 17,000 according to a Web Summit principal. The conference organizers, however, managed to mitigate any potential downside risk by ensuring that $14.8 million in government support (combined federal, provincial and local) was secured for three years.

From a Canadian and in particular Vancouver perspective, the question then becomes, was it worth the public investment, and more crucially, does the investment from the government drive the sort of returns that the local tech community needs to see? Is it possible to track increased investment, exports and a material increase in economic activity?

It is hard to say this soon after Web Summit and most of the initial feedback is anecdotal and informed by the sheer energy that visited downtown Vancouver last week. LinkedIn feeds have been spammed with photos and updates while enthusiastically tagging the responsible BC ministers, Brenda Bailey and Diana Gibson as well as Mayor Ken Sim.

Many new connections were forged, partnerships initiated, ideas incubated and many who had been working together for years finally connected in person. And Web Summit works: it cleverly merges panels with a convention floor with booths, workshops and with focused ‘meet up’ spaces: all to drive connections and conversations. And like the Toronto and Lisbon versions, there simply is so much on offer that attendees needed to plan ahead – even the smaller scale event in Vancouver meant you were still drinking from a firehose.

So all good on the inputs of a ‘smaller’ Web Summit, but it also raised some hard questions. Many local tech organizations offered ‘side events’ and while it was great to have breakfasts and evening parties, great food and drinks everywhere, one wonders how daytime side events contribute to the success of the main event itself. If the government pours in money to help your sector, does it make sense to organize competing events during the day? Also for Canada’s national venture capital organization (CVCA) to get together in Alberta while Web Summit comes to BC is a counter-productive move, to say the least. If there is one thing Web Summit and the many entrepreneurs need on the floor it is investors, yet a lot of them were hobnobbing in Calgary. It was an inadvertent move, yes, but please get your calendars aligned folks, we are all working together for Canadian success.

And it is not that Web Summit itself is totally in the clear here. Many people active in the local tech industry complained about the excessive ticket prices, upwards of $800 closer to the event. And that fits in with the often-heard perception that the Web Summit organization is extremely profit-driven and that the bottom line trumps pretty much everything else. Maybe that is why they were also not bringing in some of the stars that used to attract the big crowds; Cornel West was nice, but he is no Al Gore or Peter Thiel who previously headlined at Web Summit events. There even was a wall of fame on the conference floor with past celebrities, none however were present at the Vancouver event.

Maybe the organization thought it was wise to stay away from divisive political issues following the hot water Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave got into a few years ago, but it would be nice to bring in some noted politicians or commentators. Get a left-wing and right-wing view on how big tech is entangling itself with governments, now that would be a debate to listen in to. And that would not only attract more attendees, it would also befit an industry where taking risks and struggling with controversy is a core piece of its ethos.

The local tech community in Vancouver, often divided and living in parallel universes, deserves a lot of praise. The week before Web Summit was Vancouver Startup Week and that proved to be an excellent warm-up to what was to come and a great opportunity for the ecosystem to get ready. A lot of hard work was done by Innovate BC who offered the preparatory R2WSV programs and who jumped into it, having never done something similar before, with full enthusiasm and energy. And it worked. Much of that was reflected at the BC Pavilion on the actual Web Summit floor: a well-trafficked hub with panels, pitches, pitch prizes and lots of BC founders. The province was shining and the world could see it in real time.

So with all of that said, deals were done, connections made and BC tech managed to take the stage and the next steps in a world where global realignment is creating huge opportunities to build and export local tech. If the government, industry and community can align even better and learn from this year’s beginner’s mistakes then Web Summit 2026 could become a transformative driver for tech success in Western Canada. And by that time some of the entrepreneurs that came to visit this year may already have set up shop here.

Pieter Dorsman is a director at Angel Forum.