Web Summit second day welcomes football legends to stage

Some 53,000 people from 167 countries expected to attend Lisbon conference

The MEO Arena in Lisbon  is illuminated by attendees’ phones as     US actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes to the stage during the Web Summit. Photograph:  Miguel A Lopes/EPA
The MEO Arena in Lisbon is illuminated by attendees’ phones as US actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes to the stage during the Web Summit. Photograph: Miguel A Lopes/EPA

Day two of Web Summit is now underway in Lisbon with keynote speakers today including football legends Luis Figo and Ronaldinho.

The former players appear on a panel discussing whether footballers can be entrepreneurs. On a related note, a second panel, which includes the Financial Times' columnist Simon Kuper, will be looking at how social media is redefining the game.

Staying with sports, former Olympic swimmers Nikki Dryden and Allison Wagner will be discussing whether technology can defeat dopers.

Elsewhere, well-known blogger and tech evangelist Robert Scoble will appear on stage alongside Amnesty International secretary general Salil Shetty and Recode senior editor Kurt Wagner to consider whether the benefits of technology are worth sacrificing our privacy for.

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Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at MIT will be discussing what lies beyond the second machine age, while Facebook chief marketing officer Gary Briggs will join his counterpart from Forbes, Tom Davis and Publicis Group head Maurice Levy to look at changes in the advertising world.

Mark Zuckerberg's younger sister Arielle, a partner at KPCB will be on a panel discussing funding along with the founders of Seedcamp and Trailblazer Ventures.

Irish speakers

Among the Irish speakers on stage today are Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom who will be discussing how to keep your product relevant, while Currency Fair’s

Brett Mayer

will be commenting on P2P networks.

The relocated Web Summit kicked off last night with an opening address by Portugal's prime minister Antonio Costa.

The opening ceremony didn’t go without a hitch with wifi connectivity problems impacting co-founder Paddy Cosgrave’s address and some 3,000 attendees left watching the event from outside the MEO Arena.

The summit, which continues until November 10th, is expecting 53,000 people from 167 countries to attend.