It’s just a week since the final day of the final Irish Web Summit for the foreseeable future and it already seems like ancient history.

Two days later, the area that had been crammed with start-up booths and the main stage was instead hosting Pet Expo; a spectacle filled with a variety of dogs, donkeys, pygmy goats, cats, a pony, birds and reptiles. A bit of a surreal contrast (as tempted as one might be to make quips about dog-tired attendees or snaky VCs).

I’d have been happy to leave the whole Web Summit subject, so (understandably) headline-grabbing last week, for another year.

Except, current events have intervened to kick it back into consideration as the socio-political dimension has changed abruptly in Portugal this week.

Following elections in October there, the centre-right, austerity-focused government that negotiated and supported the Web Summit bid was unable to re-form a stable government.

This week, a coalition of parties on the left – including Portugal’s socialists, communists, and middle-ground left parties – aligned and prevented the old government from restructuring with some left-wing fragments. This has forced a changeover of leadership and created a new, left-led coalition, with very different priorities.

Gone from office is the person who has been the Web Summit’s main government supporter internally, the then deputy prime minister Paulo Portas.

The new government will face difficulties of all stripes. Judging by media reports, it is a fairly weak alliance of many disparate constituents, some having vastly different ideas of what should be on the political and social agenda.

Think in terms of an Irish government cobbled together out of everyone on the left, from Labour to Sinn Féin to the People Before Profit Alliance and the whole anti-austerity mix. Cabinet meetings undoubtedly would be entertaining, but governing would be a challenge.

Swan song

What far-flung tech-cluster in the world is left that has not yet insisted it is becoming the Silicon Valley of [insert region here]?

Web Summit organisers as well as Lisbon officials must be concerned about what happens next. Will the new government retain commitments to improve infrastructure to accommodate the event?

I spoke to several people at Web Summit last week who were from Portugal – a mix of Portuguese technology people, and outsiders who work in the tech industry there. All were voicing scepticism about whether the infrastructure promises could or would be met, and that was before the government changeover occurred this week.

The agreed deal was for a €1.3 million investment into infrastructure, such as the transport connection to the airport and to the venue. But some of that cash was also to support smaller companies so they could participate, and to “assist the coverage in the international press”, according to an article in the Portuguese presmedias.

Infrastructure needs

The election creates further uncertainty. There’s no guarantee the new government will maintain these Web Summit goals or this timeline, or even share the same enthusiasm as previous officials for hosting the event.

If – as also seems likely – there’s further turbulence ahead and more elections, deadlines will be hard to hold to in the midst of ministerial and policy changeovers, even if a general commitment to the event is sustained.

All of this raises the question of why, out of all the options on the table, did Web Summit opt for Lisbon, a question that puzzled many (even many of the Portuguese delegates) at Web Summit?

If my big table items in the negotiating process were infrastructure improvements, government support and certainty about who I’d be dealing with for the lead-up to the event and for the three-year term of a commitment, I wouldn’t have chosen a location where signs have long indicated the last government was increasingly unstable and likely to be ousted.

Hopefully, commitments will remain in place and promised infrastructure will stay on target but having to negotiate multiple government changeovers will inevitably end up a major and time-consuming headache for Web Summit organisers.

The kind of thing I thought they were trying to avoid.