Organisers of one of the world's largest technology conferences, which was called off last year due to Covid-19, have hailed the fact that its return is taking place in a country with one of the world's highest vaccination rates.
With some 40,000 attendees flying in to Portugal from worldwide -- all of them required to show proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test -- Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave said there was huge excitement, as well as caution.
"There's that very strange euphoria that probably happened at the start of the roaring twenties. People are coming out of an apocalyptic pandemic," Cosgrave told AFP.
The Web Summit's capacity has been cut from 70,000 to allow for greater social distancing, with masks required throughout the Altice Arena and one-way systems in place for an event which runs through Thursday.
Haugen, the former Facebook engineer who leaked a trove of damaging internal documents, tops the bill at a conference that will also see executives from some 70 tech unicorns -- start-ups valued at over $1 billion -- take to the stage.
The future of Facebook, the world's biggest social media platform, is set to provide a key talking point as the company struggles to move on from the scandal.
The "Facebook Papers" have unleashed a torrent of negative media reports in recent weeks, showing that company executives knew of their sites' potential for harm on numerous fronts.
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