Web Summit was founded in Dublin in 2009 by Paddy Cosgrave. It started as a 150-person tech conference in October 2009. Since 2009, Web Summit has gathered together over a million business people from around the world. Its flagship event is Web Summit in Lisbon, which takes place every November. During the year, Web Summit now hosts events around the world, including Web Summit Rio in South America, Web Summit Qatar in the Middle East, Collision in North America, and RISE in Asia. Web Summit Qatar is the largest gathering of international startups in the Middle East.