Vancouver Shines on the Global Stage as Web Summit Lands in North America

Vancouver made history in late May as it hosted the globally renowned Web Summit at its iconic Convention Centre. This first-ever North American edition of the conference highlighted the city’s rising status as a tech hub connecting the Americas, Asia, and Canada’s West Coast. Over four dynamic days, Vancouver became the focal point for the world’s tech ecosystem, setting the stage for innovation and collaboration on a global scale.

Web Summit has long been celebrated as more than just a tech conference. This year’s event drew 15,000 attendees, including educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors from nations as diverse as Italy, India, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, and Ukraine. With Forbes hailing it as “the best tech conference on the planet,” the summit showcased the expertise of major industry players like Microsoft, IBM, Dell, Mastercard, Snapchat, and Figma, alongside 150 other world-leading partner companies.

Spanning industries from AI and machine learning to sustainability and cleantech, Web Summit 2025 offered a rich lineup of sessions and discussions. The event provided a platform for exploring the latest trends and challenges shaping global technology, underscoring its ability to foster cross-industry collaboration and spark transformative ideas.

One standout session featured economist William Lazonick, who examined the historical role of tariffs in the 19th century, particularly in the US. He explained how tariffs once served as vital tools for revenue generation and domestic industry development. However, Lazonick critiqued modern tariffs, such as those introduced during the Trump administration, as outdated and ineffective in today’s global economy. He urged Canada to seize opportunities arising from restrictive US trade policies, noting, “Many European countries are already taking advantage of this situation.”

Another engaging discussion, ‘Brands in Uncertain Times: The Citizen Consumer Project,’ delved into the intersection of tariffs, consumer trust, and political expression. Sociologist and entrepreneur Angus Reid joined FCB global CEO Tyler Turnbull to explore the findings of the Citizen Consumer Project, a collaboration between FCB and the Angus Reid Group. The study revealed a growing trend of consumer activism, with many Americans and Canadians expressing their political views through purchasing decisions.

“We have around 50% of Americans and Canadians saying, I vote, not too much at the ballot box, but at the cash register,” Reid remarked. “In a society where people often feel left out, brands have become a vital outlet for individuals to make their voices heard.”

Despite the cost of living being a primary concern, Turnbull highlighted that Canadians are willing to pay 20-30% more for products made in Canada. From a branding perspective, he emphasized the importance of authenticity for Canadian brands and caution for US multinationals operating in Canada. “There’s a deeper need to be more genuine if you’re a Canadian brand,” he said, “but also to tread carefully if you’re a US brand with a significant presence here.”

The evolving nature of consumer attention also took center stage at the summit. In a keynote address, one speaker predicted that by 2030, over 80% of marketing content will be AI-generated, reflecting the growing influence of artificial intelligence in the sector.

During the ‘Marketing in 2025’ panel, Janice Min, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Ankler, moderated a discussion featuring Joey Camire, CSO at SYLVAIN, and Charlotte Mostaed, CMO at Health-Ade. The panel emphasized the urgency for brands to diversify marketing strategies beyond social media to foster deeper connections with consumers and adapt to the rapidly changing landscape.

Discussing the strategy behind Health-Ade’s in-person giveaways and experiential efforts, Charlotte explained, “It’s about building a portfolio of reach opportunities, because people are putting away their phones and they’re looking to interact with brands in a different way, and there’s still a great deal of storytelling we need to do.”

Also advocating for real-life experiences, Joey admitted that while social feeds are important, consumers are being inundated with content, making it harder to stand out.

Citing the involvement of influencers in experiential and social marketing strategies, he stated, “Historically, if you use a celebrity in a commercial, there was an understanding that they were a spokesperson. I think where it starts to get blurry is when you go into these influencers who are conveying they use a product. That question of what is true and real all starts to get blurry and can potentially tarnish a campaign.”

Talk of the growing importance of consumer events and experiences was prevalent across multiple panel sessions and speeches at Web Summit. According to leaders across industries, the seismic shift brought about by AI has resulted in a rise in the popularity of in-person experiences, with these opportunities now playing a very significant role in business. Despite the growing interest in AI and virtual technologies, marketers are observing that the key to brand building is happening beyond the scroll-through.

SEO and GEO

In a world where nearly every purchase decision starts with a search engine, a new way of thinking about discoverability has surfaced. With SEO-driven KPIs being a mainstream business concern since the early 2010s – companies are somewhat obsessively monitoring the most powerful and cost-effective ways to drive traffic, build visibility, and grow revenue online – it would appear ‘AI mode’ is now at the top of Google search.

As we shift towards more AI-driven interactions, Google’s search is undergoing a major shift that will change the way content is optimised for search results. Jim Louderback, editor and CEO at Inside the Creator Economy, calls it GEO: Generative Engine Optimisation. According to Jim, this isn’t just about text—it’s multimodal. “When you ask ChatGPT or Google Gemini something, it’s a discussion, and the things that it surfaces are very different from what Google’s actual search engine does. If you want to take your video content, your text content, whatever, and get it surfaced in this new version of search, you have to think about the trusted AI, and how you get it to think about your content as being authoritative and interesting.”

ColdStart, a leader in the burgeoning realm of GEO and AI-powered audience growth, showcased its capabilities at the Exhibition level of the summit. CEO Brandon Teller and his team demonstrated how tools like auto-generated sitemaps and multimodal formatting can automate and optimise content, aligning it with the way AI engines crawl and present information.

As more companies like ColdStart take charge of the technical backend of GEO ecosystems like ChatGPT and Gemini, advertisers and marketers can focus on strategy and storytelling. This shift underscores the growing need for businesses to adapt to the AI-driven evolution of search and content discoverability.

The Future of Filmmaking

On the final day of the Web Summit, the highly deliberated subject of the future of filmmaking was addressed by four film and media specialists: Brian Newman, founder of Sub-Genre; Tod Plotkin, founder and CEO at Green Buzz Agency; David Bloom, senior contributor at Forbes; and Dana Harris-Bridson, senior VP/editor-in-chief at IndieWire. The panel discussed the rapid technological advancements reshaping the industry and explored innovative approaches to storytelling, distribution, and audience engagement. From AI-assisted production tools to the increasing importance of direct-to-consumer platforms, the session highlighted the profound transformations defining modern filmmaking.

Exploring the much-discussed role of AI in future filmmaking, Tod Plotkin emphasized the importance of training the workforce to use new technologies, such as AI and virtual production tools. He detailed the efficiency gains from AI in production, noting how it saves 20% on pre- and post-production tasks like generating images and fixing aesthetic issues, enabling faster content creation.

The topic of trust arose again, this time in relation to values in brand content and the power they wield. Brian Newman shared that major brands like outdoor retailer REI are shifting from branded content to real movies, funding films and leveraging their extensive membership base. “REI has 30 million members. They trust that brand, and when that brand brings out content to them, people want to see it. The film space is getting more crowded every minute, so working with a trusted partner is key—it’s a way to cut through the noise.”

Advocating for greater transparency at the intersection of technology and film, Dana Harris-Bridson introduced IndieWire’s new vertical, ‘The Future of Film,’ designed to help navigate the complexities of the evolving industry. Addressing the balance between AI integration and human-centric storytelling, she remarked, “One of the reasons I started future filmmaking was because we wanted to cover AI – that was actually my initial focus. It’s something that’s slowly seeing more acceptance: Darren Aronofsky has been doing more stuff with it, Natasha Leone is making an AI movie. It’s going to be a slow burn because however the films are made, no one’s going to watch them unless they are human films.”

To close, all four panelists agreed on the necessity of continuous learning and up-skilling to stay competitive in the ever-evolving landscape of filmmaking. Despite challenges, the discussion ended on an optimistic note, highlighting innovation, collaboration, and long-term planning as essential elements for embracing new business models and technologies in a thriving film industry.