Translator for Web Summit Lisbon

Everyone at Web Summit speaks English, right up until the conversation gets interesting. Then the founder switches to Portuguese to explain the thing they actually meant, and the investor from São Paulo does the same. Web Summit runs from 9 to 12 November 2026 in Lisbon; Caliptic sits in your pocket and gives you the other half of those conversations.

Where the language actually breaks

Web Summit runs on stages, stands and the queues between them, and the queues are where the real conversations happen. On stage everyone performs in English; in the queue people relax into their own language, and that is exactly where you want to understand what is being said about your category.

How it works at a stand

Press Start and put the phone between you on one of the standing tables. Each of you speaks your own language and hears the other in theirs — in a hallway conversation that is the difference between exchanging cards and actually agreeing on something. Nobody passes a phone back and forth, and nobody types.

Use the earbuds you already own

In a quiet room almost anything works. In a crowded hall the deciding factor is which microphone hears the sentence, because nothing downstream can recover a word that was never captured. Dedicated translator gadgets lose here for a dull reason: they carry one small microphone, while the noise-cancelling earbuds you already own carry an array built to isolate a single speaker in a crowd. Caliptic uses whatever headset you pair, so the quality of your own earbuds becomes the quality of the translation.

Nobody has to wear your earbud

The hygiene question answers itself once you stop assuming both people need an earbud. You wear yours; the person you are talking to hears the translation out loud from the phone held towards them. At conversational distance that is all it takes, and it works the same way at the tenth stand as at the first. If you sit down for a longer negotiation and both prefer to listen privately, Couple Mode splits one pair of earbuds so each of you hears only your own language, one ear each.

Works without the hall's Wi-Fi

There is no server in the loop. The models sit on the phone, so a crowded hall network and an expensive roaming bill both stop being your problem. The one moment you need a connection is before the trip, when you download the languages you intend to use. Nothing you say is uploaded, which also matters when the conversation is about prices and quantities.

Portuguese, and twenty-one other languages

Lisbon is the host city, so Portuguese is everywhere off the main stages, and the crowd around you carries Spanish, French, German and Arabic in roughly equal measure. The full list: Turkish, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian. You pick your language and the one the person across the table speaks; the interface follows your own, right-to-left included.

Do I need internet at the fair?

Only once, and not at the fair: the language download needs a connection, everything after it runs locally on the handset.

Does it really work in a loud hall?

Better than you would expect with earbuds, worse than you would like with the phone alone in the middle of the noise. The microphone is the limit, so the practical trick is to close the distance: headset on, or step aside from the aisle.

Is my conversation sent anywhere?

It isn't. Everything happens on the device and there is no account behind it, which is the short answer to the question buyers ask when the discussion turns to pricing.

Is it discreet enough for a hallway pitch?

With earbuds in, yes: you hear the translation, the other person hears theirs, and nothing is broadcast to the queue behind you. Without earbuds the phone speaks out loud, which is fine at a stand and less so in a crowded corridor.

What does it cost after the free month?

The free version keeps working: 12 minutes every 30 minutes. Unlimited costs about one dollar a month, tax included; the App Store and Google Play show the exact figure in your own currency.