We Attended Web Summit Qatar 2026 — Here's What We Took Away

The Moment We Walked In

There's something about standing in front of that giant Web Summit sign at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre that makes it all real. We'd been following the event for years — and this February, the MyDesigner team finally made the trip to Doha to be part of it firsthand.

Web Summit Qatar 2026 ran from February 1–4 at the DECC (Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre) — a venue that matched the scale of the event perfectly. Over 30,000 attendees from 127 countries filled the halls, making this the largest edition yet, more than doubling attendance from the inaugural edition just two years ago.

What Made This Edition Special

This wasn't just a conference. It was a signal.

1,600+ startups participated — the largest single-venue startup gathering in the MENA region. Nearly 1,000 investors were in the building. Major names like Google Cloud, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and TikTok had booths. And the speaker lineup was remarkable: from Cliff Obrecht (Co-founder of Canva) to Cristóbal Valenzuela (CEO of Runway), to keynotes from Qatar's Prime Minister and members of the royal family.

The 14 specialized tracks covered everything from the AI Summit and Fintech Summit to New Energy, Health, and Government — each asking hard questions about where technology is actually headed, not just where it's being marketed.

What struck us most: the conversations happening between sessions were as valuable as the sessions themselves. The mix of MENA founders, global investors, and international operators created a room where geography no longer felt like a limitation.

What We Heard (That Reinforced What We Already Believe)

We attended talks across the AI Summit and Fintech Summit tracks, and one theme kept surfacing: execution design is the differentiator.

Founders at the 100-person stage and the 100,000-user stage were grappling with the same problem — their product works, but users don't experience it that way. Onboarding flows are confusing. Dashboards are cluttered. Mobile experiences lag behind the desktop. The underlying tech is solid. The design layer is where trust is lost.

That's exactly the gap MyDesigner.gg exists to close.

We also found genuine interest from MENA founders in working with design partners who understand the startup context — not just aesthetics, but velocity, conversion, and the business logic behind every design decision.

Startup Island Was Our Favourite Corner

Web Summit's Startup Island is worth calling out specifically. Hundreds of early-stage companies from across the world were showcasing their products — and it was a masterclass in what separates memorable products from forgettable ones.

The startups with the most attention weren't always the ones with the most impressive technology. They were the ones with the clearest value proposition on the screen, the most intuitive demo flow, and the most confident visual identity. Good design was doing heavy lifting, even at the seed stage.

The Night Summit

The evenings belonged to the Night Summit in the DECC Park — a rare event format that turns networking into something actually enjoyable. Under the open Doha sky, the formal conference energy gave way to real conversations: founders talking to investors without rehearsed pitches, designers swapping war stories, and ideas forming that probably won't be announced for another 12 months.

It reminded us why in-person still matters, even in 2026.

What We're Bringing Back

Attending Web Summit Qatar wasn't just a trip — it was a reality check on where the global startup ecosystem is moving, and where design fits in that movement.

A few things we're carrying home:

• Founders are investing in design earlier. The days of "we'll fix the UX after product-market fit" are fading fast. The founders we spoke to understand that design is part of finding PMF, not a reward for it.
• The MENA market is real. The energy in the room was unlike anything we'd expected. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE — there's a generation of founders building ambitious products who need world-class design partners.
• AI is a capability, not a category. The most interesting companies at the summit weren't pitching "AI products." They were using AI as infrastructure and competing on experience, trust, and brand.

Let's Build Something Together

If you're a founder in the MENA region — or anywhere — and you're thinking about levelling up your product's design, we'd love to connect. We came back from Doha with a full notebook and a clearer sense of where we want to take MyDesigner.gg next.

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