Web Summit quits Dublin

Lisbon seems so short sighted to me. There are so many places in Europe that have better transport links. I looked it up and there don't appear to be any direct flights from San Francisco or even LA to Lisbon, so what would be a 9 hour flight is now a 15 hour trip with at least one connection. While I'm sure it won't make a difference to some people, others it might.

It seems a bit weird as well to change the venue but then stay in that same venue for three years. It would be much more attractive if it kept moving. I think even Spain would have been a better choice given that a large proportion of Americans (who I assume are the largest group of attendees) speak Spanish.

I think next year will be make or break for them.

BMMachine

so many people being worked by the government here
the spirit of professional wrestling is alive.
yeah they were too demanding, yeah paddy cosgrave ra ra ra ra, yeah you cant blame hotels, it wasnt actually that good anyway etc etc

Do you ever wonder why we have had such awful Governments one after the other and why the stupidest things are just allowed to happen in this country? Why corruption is rife and why the poorest people are *repeatedly* getting absolutely screwed? You are so easy to work, to shift the blame and to bite your noses off that they can literally spin anything at you and get away with it. But let me guess, you are too smart for spin yeah?

JustTheOne

BMMachine wrote: »

so many people being worked by the government here
the spirit of professional wrestling is alive.
yeah they were too demanding, yeah paddy cosgrave ra ra ra ra, yeah you cant blame hotels, it wasnt actually that good anyway etc etc

Do you ever wonder why we have had such awful Governments one after the other and why the stupidest things are just allowed to happen in this country? Why corruption is rife and why the poorest people are *repeatedly* getting absolutely screwed? You are so easy to work, to shift the blame and to bite your noses off that they can literally spin anything at you and get away with it. But let me guess, you are too smart for spin yeah?

The poorest people are screwed?

Can you define the poorest?

If you mean people on social welfare or low paid workers they actually got hit the least during the recession.

700,000 workers on low pay pay little to no tax while middle income earners pay nearly 50%.

Anyway I await your reply to how the poorest get screwed the most.

VinLieger

BMMachine wrote: »

so many people being worked by the government here
the spirit of professional wrestling is alive.
yeah they were too demanding, yeah paddy cosgrave ra ra ra ra, yeah you cant blame hotels, it wasnt actually that good anyway etc etc

Do you ever wonder why we have had such awful Governments one after the other and why the stupidest things are just allowed to happen in this country? Why corruption is rife and why the poorest people are *repeatedly* getting absolutely screwed? You are so easy to work, to shift the blame and to bite your noses off that they can literally spin anything at you and get away with it. But let me guess, you are too smart for spin yeah?

Can you point to me the numerous examples of government spin at play here?

Cus all ive seen is paddys constant bitching and moaning via any means he could. The government sat back and let him do their work for them. The only acknowledgement or mention I saw by them was the request to give the money back apart from they they stayed shtum cus their PR people advised them pretty well. Id say paddy is wishing now he hired whoever they were using instead.

gandalf

Muahahaha wrote: »

Enda himself said it is worth €108m a year to the Irish economy. All the secret FGers on this thread dispute this figure but that's what came out of Enda Kennys mouth. €108m is a lot of economic activity.

Lol I am definitely not a secret FGer! So you trust the amount that "ATM Enda" quoted. I prefer to trust Failte Ireland's figure over the word of a man who has been caught on numerous occasions telling porkies. Paddy and Enda are well suited both are liberal with the truth and have a neck on them like a jockies bollix!

machiavellianme

Muahahaha wrote: »

Exactly. As Tubridy said yesterday once you get successful in Ireland people are out to clip your wings. Perhaps the best example of this is the developer Tom Gilmartin who made a fortune in the UK and came home to invest in Ireland. His treatment was shocking and resulted in the Flood tribunal.

A bit rich coming from Tubridy. Both have things in common alright, they have limited "talent" and got extremely lucky with their work but are too self obsessed to realise it. At least paddy is willing to try and test himself abroad. Pity Tubridy wouldn't do likewise. Then we'll find out if they're really worth the huge paychecks.

Calina

Muahahaha wrote: »

I dunno, cos his company has been valued at $60m and at the young age of 32 he is clearly far more successful than most people? Jealousy is a pretty common trait you know.

Only if you measure success in purely monetary terms. There are med staff saving lives up and down the country every day and I think that while they don't get rewarded with an unknown number of millions, their success is probably more essential to humanity.

BMMachine wrote: »

so many people being worked by the government here
the spirit of professional wrestling is alive.
yeah they were too demanding, yeah paddy cosgrave ra ra ra ra, yeah you cant blame hotels, it wasnt actually that good anyway etc etc

Do you ever wonder why we have had such awful Governments one after the other and why the stupidest things are just allowed to happen in this country? Why corruption is rife and why the poorest people are *repeatedly* getting absolutely screwed? You are so easy to work, to shift the blame and to bite your noses off that they can literally spin anything at you and get away with it. But let me guess, you are too smart for spin yeah?

One of the biggest things I see in this country, as it happens, is the desire to eulogise the undeserving. Paddy Cosgrave is not a tech entrepreneur, he's an event organiser. By the sounds of things, he doesn't appear to be very good at the underlying organising side but talks a good talk, or at least did. If you think you're immune to spin, I think you need to consider whether you're just selective in the spin you accept to be spun by.

As an industry show where deals are done, Websummit is more useful small and select than it is big and chaotic. I don't have a start up on the go at the moment, but the last time I looked at putting one together, if I were looking for funding, websummit as it exists now is absolutely not where I would have started looking for glory or contacts. Being one of 100 selected is worth more to be than being one of 1000 selected. If I've got a product worth considering, then being selected or not by Websummit is not going to make any great difference to my life. Do I think I'll do good networking business at websummit?

Based on some of the people I know who've gone - mostly in the marketing and PR sector it must be said - the argument has to be no. Other people's experience may vary.

You're free to think that the lose of this trade show is a catastrophe of catastrophes. While I'm not going to castigate them for getting 30,000 people through the door, the point remains that as an event, it is not now as useful or as effective for a start up as it might have been 3 years ago when it was smaller. There are just too many people flooding the place now and there's a lot of bandwagon hopping. By growing the attendance beyond all order, and aiming for celebrity rather than effectiveness, I think the brand has diluted anyway. And the highest profile deals done at it, I am certain would have happened anyway without it.

The reason we get bad governments by the way is that people generally vote in the general direction of their own self interest plus, the way people treat politicians in this country makes it an unattractive option. If you want really competent politicians, then you change the value proposition to something that doesn't involve the savagery that goes on in political discourse here where image and perception are everything and reality has scant regard.

SEPT 23 1989

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Lisbon seems so short sighted to me. There are so many places in Europe that have better transport links. I looked it up and there don't appear to be any direct flights from San Francisco or even LA to Lisbon, so what would be a 9 hour flight is now a 15 hour trip with at least one connection. While I'm sure it won't make a difference to some people, others it might.

It seems a bit weird as well to change the venue but then stay in that same venue for three years. It would be much more attractive if it kept moving. I think even Spain would have been a better choice given that a large proportion of Americans (who I assume are the largest group of attendees) speak Spanish.

I think next year will be make or break for them.

Lisbon is the cheapo option any other major European city would cost a lot more

fungie

WarZ wrote: »

There were very little actual volunteers. There were hundreds and hundreds of people working in security, cleaning services, stewarding, marques, electricians, audio and visual people and probably a **** load more of areas that I can't think of but what you would expect at an event hosting over 30,000 people!

Then there's all the extra staff put on in hotels, restaurants and popular bars and nightclubs (places like Opium jammers on a Tuesday) to cater to the influx of people. All the extra fares for taxis and rickshaws (I saw tons of people getting rickshaws all the way to Ranelagh last night so taxis must have been very busy).

I'd imagine the event created extra shifts/jobs for thousands of workers across the city.

There were 2000 volenteers.

my friend

Won't someone think of the Adrian Weckler?

The Corinthian

Muahahaha wrote: »

This is a salient point. Cosgrave might have pressured sales tactics and clearly some start ups are annoyed at him. Rather they should be annoyed at themselves for being naive enough to fall for it.

It's the nature of business in Ireland, certainly in IT.

Over the years I've worked in companies who would happily pitch for projects that they simply did not have the resources or skills to do. I've worked in the PSMS sphere and have seen sales practices that make WS look like a bunch of choirboys. One company I worked for would also regularly inflate the number of employees - when there were 30 of us, they'd say we had 60, when 60, we were 150 (which was all the more amusing when someone came knocking on our door to ask why we didn't have software licenses for all these employees). Stretching payment terms is the norm, and trying to screw over freelancers on the last payment all too commonplace. And then there's the brown paper envelopes in the B2G market...

I'm not exonerating WS on their high pressure sales tactics, but any Irish company that didn't see it coming clearly didn't do their homework, which is also all too common - Irish start ups are all too often just as fly-by-night as the more established companies out there.

bucketybuck

Muahahaha wrote: »

Before you make demands of posters I think you should learn how to search a thread. The citation you've begged for was linked, hence the reason your demands have fallen on deaf ears.

More spoofing and deflection, have you a cite or not?

Sofiztikated

So did he turn up on the Late Late?

BMMachine

JustTheOne wrote: »

The poorest people are screwed?

Can you define the poorest?

If you mean people on social welfare or low paid workers they actually got hit the least during the recession.

700,000 workers on low pay pay little to no tax while middle income earners pay nearly 50%.

Anyway I await your reply to how the poorest get screwed the most.

oh right, you are one of those people that has trouble recognising what a human is. I bet you are great

http://www.dubsimon.ie/Homelessness/HomelessStatistics/DublinStatistics.aspx

but theres no issue really is there. Just dont think about it and it will eventually go away

Crimsonforce

I was listening to the second captains podcast yesterday and they were talking about the web summit.

Ken early was "hired" to interview a high ranking guest on their web strategy. He was interviewing Ian Eyre, the MD of Liverpool football club.

So ken was tasked with doing all the things you need to do for an interview, questions, facts, figures and running the interview in front of 1000s who paid in...

He was paid ZERO to do this. so web summit was trying to hire professional people who are skilled in their discipline and pay them nothing, not even a lunch..
He did it because he could use the interview for second captains podcast but he spoke about how emmet Malone, the off the ball guy, had declined their "great news,your hired for nothing offer"

I'm happy to see this Muppet leave the country.

Annasopra

WarZ wrote: »

To save the governments face coming up to an election.

That is just laughable really. The government doesn't have an online fanbase and the crticisms of websummit/cosgrave are not coming entirely from government or government fans. It's also hilarious because you absolve WS/Cosgrave of all blame for everything that went wrong.

BMMachine

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

The government doesn't have an online fanbase

what? like, the Kardashians or something? very confusing statement

JustTheOne

BMMachine wrote: »

oh right, you are one of those people that has trouble recognising what a human is. I bet you are great

http://www.dubsimon.ie/Homelessness/HomelessStatistics/DublinStatistics.aspx

but theres no issue really is there. Just dont think about it and it will eventually go away

The homeless crisis is a range of different issues as your man said last night every country in the word has this problem, the UK has a worst one than us.

It happens after a recession and always had.

Yes its a problem but to say the government screwed the poorest in society and then point to homeless figures is way off.

There is houses for everyone in the country but people aren't willing to move away from their area.

2,000 social houses were turned down last year.

How many is in emergency accommodation?

800 families?

There is enough houses to house these families twice over but were turned down.

darkpagandeath

So it's a no to the figure of 60m ? I mean if it's worth that much the link should be easy to find.

VinLieger

darkpagandeath wrote: »

So it's a no to the figure of 60m ? I mean if it's worth that much the link should be easy to find.

The government are hiding the link

copacetic

Crimsonforce wrote: »

I was listening to the second captains podcast yesterday and they were talking about the web summit.

Ken early was "hired" to interview a high ranking guest on their web strategy. He was interviewing Ian Eyre, the MD of Liverpool football club.

So ken was tasked with doing all the things you need to do for an interview, questions, facts, figures and running the interview in front of 1000s who paid in...

He was paid ZERO to do this. so web summit was trying to hire professional people who are skilled in their discipline and pay them nothing, not even a lunch..
He did it because he could use the interview for second captains podcast but he spoke about how emmet Malone, the off the ball guy, had declined their "great news,your hired for nothing offer"

I'm happy to see this Muppet leave the country.

It was mentioned earlier that they pay all the 'comperes' nothing. Which is pretty cheeky ****e.

However it's not a bad deal if only doing one job and if you have an interest in the summit as it gets you in for free combined with the use of the interview itself if it's of use to you.

I was at that 'interview' and basically it was an 18 minute chat, in front of about 500 people so not too tricky for Ken and saw him cycling back to town a little later. Ken mostly asked him about stuff he would know of the top of his head also re transfer committees etc.

Crimsonforce

copacetic wrote: »

It was mentioned earlier that they pay all the 'comperes' nothing. Which is pretty cheeky ****e.

However it's not a bad deal if only doing one job and if you have an interest in the summit as it gets you in for free combined with the use of the interview itself if it's of use to you.

I was at that 'interview' and basically it was an 18 minute chat, in front of about 500 people so not too tricky for Ken and saw him cycling back to town a little later. Ken mostly asked him about stuff he would know of the top of his head also re transfer committees etc.

he is a professional who studied his profession for many years and therefore should be paid.
He knows stuff because he has studied it over a number of years.... you didn't see him him hanging around cause he got in free...
On his podcast he was saying he still didn't understand what exactly the web summit is,
But as a person who attended do you feel you got your moneys worth? Was it worth sitting in on these chats.? I'm curious....

dloob

my friend wrote: »

Won't someone think of the Adrian Weckler?

I imagine he is at home on his couch now with a box of Kleenex, a tub of ice cream and a bottle of Chardonnay watching old recordings of paddy.
In the background "all by myself" plays.

copacetic

Crimsonforce wrote: »

he is a professional who studied his profession for many years and therefore should be paid.
He knows stuff because he has studied it over a number of years.... you didn't see him him hanging around cause he got in free...
On his podcast he was saying he still didn't understand what exactly the web summit is,
But as a person who attended do you feel you got your moneys worth? Was it worth sitting in on these chats.? I'm curious....

God of course he should get paid, I'm just saying that if it was just one session of 20 mins it might make sense for some journos to do it for free for the fringe benefits. Eg their were plenty of other speakers and sessions of interest to sports journos. Although I'm sure he could have got media accredited for free also if desired.

There were a lot of Irish journalists and media people across a lot of the sessions, don't think that will work so well in Lisbon for a start. Local free talent won't work as well with the guests.

Personally I wouldn't have paid their fees to go, prob worth €100 a day to hear some of speakers but otherwise it's not of major value to me.

Montjuic

Paddy Cosgrave is obviously an obnoxious full of himself D4 type pox which first off puts most Irish people's backs up. I take issue with him being referred to as a Tech entrepreneur as I was under the impression until recently that he was a software engineer of some kind. He's a normal enough arts grad from Trinity pretty run of the mill really with no tech background at all. Essentially he's an event coordinator who obviously just ripped off lock stock and barrel Steve Jobs persona and mannerisms just compare you tube videos it's uncanny. No great innovation there copying someone else's playbook.

However Idespite all that it's a pity it's going anything that puts Ireland in positive spotlight is welcome and he brought a lots of influential people in really this event was gold dust and the D4 till should have been indulged.

Crimsonforce

copacetic wrote: »

God of course he should get paid, I'm just saying that if it was just one session of 20 mins it might make sense for some journos to do it for free for the fringe benefits. Eg their were plenty of other speakers and sessions of interest to sports journos. Although I'm sure he could have got media accredited for free also if desired.

There were a lot of Irish journalists and media people across a lot of the sessions, don't think that will work so well in Lisbon for a start. Local free talent won't work as well with the guests.

Personally I wouldn't have paid their fees to go, prob worth €100 a day to hear some of speakers but otherwise it's not of major value to me.

20 mins for one session, 2 days to prepare.
I thought you attended? Did you get a free ticket?

Canadel

Crimsonforce wrote: »

he is a professional who studied his profession for many years and therefore should be paid.

Surprised the right wing, libertarian boards brigade isn't all over this gem. He should only be paid if market forces dictate that he be paid.

Crimsonforce

Canadel wrote: »

Surprised the right wing, libertarian boards brigade isn't all over this gem. He should only be paid if market forces dictate that he be paid.

Do you feel he shouldn't have been paid?

Canadel

Crimsonforce wrote: »

Do you feel he shouldn't have been paid?

I don't care. If the market dictated that he should have been paid, he would have been paid.

CatFromHue

Montjuic wrote: »

Paddy Cosgrave is obviously an obnoxious full of himself D4 type pox which first off puts most Irish people's backs up. I take issue with him being referred to as a Tech entrepreneur as I was under the impression until recently that he was a software engineer of some kind. He's a normal enough arts grad from Trinity pretty run of the mill really with no tech background at all. Essentially he's an event coordinator who obviously just ripped off lock stock and barrel Steve Jobs persona and mannerisms just compare you tube videos it's uncanny. No great innovation there copying someone else's playbook.

However Idespite all that it's a pity it's going anything that puts Ireland in positive spotlight is welcome and he brought a lots of influential people in really this event was gold dust and the D4 till should have been indulged.

Paddy is from Wicklow and went to Glenstal Abbey so nothing to do with D4.

Canadel

CatFromHue wrote: »

Paddy is from Wicklow and went to Glenstal Abbey so nothing to do with D4.

D4 doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with having being born or raised there.

Turpentine

Crimsonforce wrote: »

I was listening to the second captains podcast yesterday and they were talking about the web summit.

Ken early was "hired" to interview a high ranking guest on their web strategy. He was interviewing Ian Eyre, the MD of Liverpool football club.

So ken was tasked with doing all the things you need to do for an interview, questions, facts, figures and running the interview in front of 1000s who paid in...

He was paid ZERO to do this. so web summit was trying to hire professional people who are skilled in their discipline and pay them nothing, not even a lunch..
He did it because he could use the interview for second captains podcast but he spoke about how emmet Malone, the off the ball guy, had declined their "great news,your hired for nothing offer"

I'm happy to see this Muppet leave the country.

Canadel wrote: »

Surprised the right wing, libertarian boards brigade isn't all over this gem. He should only be paid if market forces dictate that he be paid.

Crimsonforce wrote: »

Do you feel he shouldn't have been paid?

If there are people willing to do a job for free, whether it be with the promise of "exposure" or "contacts" or whatever else they can get out of it, it becomes essentially a non-paying role unfortunately.

Personally I think he should have been paid. On the other hand, he should have just not done it if he wasn't being paid.

As a wise man once said, "If you're good at something, never do it for free".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYMnAUGFuG0

CatFromHue

Canadel wrote: »

D4 doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with having being born or raised there.

Ha, it's a state of mind, a state of mind!

It's an Irish psychologist dream for a local mental phenomenon

copacetic

Crimsonforce wrote: »

20 mins for one session, 2 days to prepare.
I thought you attended? Did you get a free ticket?

There is no way that it would take Ken more than a couple of hours to prepare for that 20 min session, not with his knowledge.

I got access via a company, The vast majority of Irish people I met there didn't pay, whether working for some slightly related company, corporate tickets etc, partner tickets etc etc.

darkpagandeath

So was there a press release in relation to the LLS no show ?

Valetta

Brilliant article by Brendan O'Connor in today's Independant.

http://m.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/brendan-oconnor/ireland-reaches-peak-summit-34179550.html

It sums up the whole fiasco and shows what a dick Cosgrave really is.

Edit: Article quoted in full below by copacetic.

copacetic

Paddy has a lot to answer for, first he make this government look reasonable and level headed, then he manages to make Brendan O'Connor of FF come out with a relativity sensible article. That's impressive levels of BS to make the other two seem OK by comparison.

Sharon Ni Bheolain's sole purpose in life. Was she inserted into RTE all those years ago as a sleeper, just waiting for this moment? Was she some class of a Manchurian candidate who would be triggered by the sight of Daire Hickey at the Web Summit? Daire clearly got more than he bargained for as Sharon asked him basically why we were all expected to pay for bus tickets for the millionaires who have presumably made Daire and Paddy Cosgrave millionaires.


Daire and Paddy are clearly hurt at their treatment at the hands of the media this past week. Paddy seems to have been so hurt that he started pulling out of interviews.
Clearly recognising that it had been a smart move to pull out of the Sharon Ni Bheolain interview, Paddy subsequently pulled out of The Late Late Show too. And that was despite Tubs playing Kofi Anan by heading down to the Web Summit and appealing for peace and love and an end to wing-clipping.

Clearly, Paddy wondered why he, whose only crime is to try to make the world a better place, should be subjected to questioning by ingrates on old media.
And it had all started so well. Paddy did a mini-wikileaks, where he released emails showing that the Government was rubbish. But suddenly it all backfired badly and Paddy's PR strategy began to unravel.
People started awkwardly pointing out that the Web Summit was a business, that it made plenty of money, even on burgers, and people wondered why we were all supposed to bend over backwards for these tech millionaires, who have made a fortune from selling our own lives back to us.
Paddy was justifiably shocked that people decided to take the Government's side in this, given that we don't take the Government's side in anything in this country. So then he tried to make it clearer that we were making a choice between him and an unpopular Government, by claiming that the Government had manufactured the spat with the Web Summit in order to distract from homelessness and Irish Water and stuff.

Which people found confusing, because as far as we could see, it was Paddy who manufactured the spat.

Paddy went on to claim that the Government had given him hush money. To which people responded that maybe then he should give it back. If it was indeed hush money, he sure didn't keep up his end of the deal.

Ultimately, the Web Summit guys provided a masterclass in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. We were prepared to feel a bit bad about losing the Web Summit.
But by the end of the week, we were feeling sorry for the poor bastards in Portugal who have to deal with this petulance for the next few years. And watching with pleasure as Lisbon hotel prices rose.
And remembering that the last people who promised to make the world a better place were totalitarian regimes.

darkpagandeath

http://www.independent.ie/business/article30688369.ece/ALTERNATES/h342/2014-10-24_bus_4145863_I1.JPG

:pac:

Poochie05

Brendan had it easy this week, all he had to do was summarise this thread!

Tivoli1300

Poochie05 wrote: »

Brendan had it easy this week, all he had to do was summarise this thread!

Great summary all the same😄

mzungu

darkpagandeath wrote: »

So was there a press release in relation to the LLS no show ?

Nothing that has been released to the public anyway AFAIK. It was RTE who announced he pulled out. WS have been silent on it.

copacetic wrote: »

Paddy has a lot to answer for, first he make this government look reasonable and level headed, then he manages to make Brendan O'Connor of FF come out with a relativity sensible article. That's impressive levels of BS to make the other two seem OK by comparison.

I'd say the government were only too happy to have this dominate the news this week. More scandals in the HSE and PC pops along and manages to deflect a lot of attention away from it. The FG spin doctors didn't even have to try this time, all the work was done for them.

gandalf

Ffs I can't believe this has made me agree with Brendan O'Connor!

Seth Brundle

gandalf wrote: »

Ffs I can't believe this has made me agree with Brendan O'Connor!

I know, me too. I feel dirty

Tarzana2

CatFromHue wrote: »

Paddy is from Wicklow and went to Glenstal Abbey so nothing to do with D4.

You don't have to be from D4 to act like a D4 stereotype. It's a state of mind. Though I'm not sure it's accurate to describe PC.

RedemptionZ

Tarzana2 wrote: »

You don't have to be from D4 to act like a D4 stereotype. It's a state of mind. Though I'm not sure it's accurate to describe PC.

What exactly has he done to be a D4 stereotype? He has a posh accent but that's about it.

I'm glad to see the back of him, but that's because of the childish way he's reacted to the government not giving into his demands, not because he's snobby, or whatever else a D4 'state of mind' is.

Fleawuss

O'Connor is probably pissed off because WS made the govt look good.

Colonialboy

first farmgate , and claims Paddy Cosgrove is a tech genius ,
and now theres claims Brendan O'connor had written a decent article... christ things are worse than i thought .

For Forks Sake

Colonialboy wrote: »

first farmgate , and claims Paddy Cosgrove is a tech genius ,
and now theres claims Brendan O'connor had written a decent article... christ things are worse than i thought .

I think these may be signs the apocalypse is nigh,

micromary

Good riddance to Web Summit. It brings in all these guy like Rio Ferdinand and that guy who wrote the Di Vinci Code at the ordinary punters cost. I remember 2 years ago I had my own business and had to go for a interview with this bunch of tossers. In the end I gave them my opinion of the whole thing. They then started to advise me what good value the €600 + tickets are. e What??????????? To hear for the most part a load of crap from people who have nothing better to do. Glad Cosgrove and his Summit have gone. Feel sorry for Lisbon though.

awec

The price of the tickets is fairly standard for that sort of conference. Most tech conferences (even though the Web Summit isn't really a tech conference) would be more expensive than that.

And of course it brings over Rio Ferdinand etc at the punters cost. That's what the ticket is for. Do you expect the speakers to pay for themselves to come over and give a talk?

The WS deserves a lot of criticism but you can hardly moan about the speakers being paid for by those attending.