Web Summit quits Dublin

KungFuhrer

KungFuhrer wrote: »

On the other hand...



http://observador.pt/2016/11/05/esgotaram-os-bilhetes-para-a-web-summit/

Let's see how transports and wi-fi cope, because the hotel prices didn't improve much from last year.

Half the school kids in Portugal will be getting free tickets if they're to hit those numbers.

strandroad

_Jamie_ wrote: »

I'm confused. Are you saying Websummit was good or bad for your business (mentioning the best November week ever)?

I think they are saying it was bad, as techies were pushing their paying clientele out of accommodation on previous years.

IvyTheTerrible

Bambi wrote: »

WiFehFehFehFehFehFehFeh WiFehFehFehFehFehFehFeh WiFehFehFehFehFehFeh Chriis Waddle

Bhutros Bhutros Ghali?

Fr_Dougal

KungFuhrer wrote: »

Regarding hotel prices:



http://observador.pt/2016/11/03/web-summit-faz-precos-de-hotel-em-lisboa-dispararem/

Even at those prices it's significantly cheaper than Dublin. Rooms were going for €500+ per night.

mahamageehad

I'm flying over tomorrow. My hotel is 200 per night including breakfast, that's the same price I paid in Dublin last year. The transportation isn't free as was previously stated, it's a €30 card for the week valid for trains and buses etc. Still pretty good. I am one of the hundreds (thousands?) that got a free ticket for being a woman. Any other boardsies heading over?

_Jamie_

mhge wrote: »

I think they are saying it was bad, as techies were pushing their paying clientele out of accommodation on previous years.

Sh1t, I misread. I thought they said last year they had the best November weekend.

Debil

https://twitter.com/adrianweckler/status/795698229010636802

lawred2

Chuckle

suicide_circus

what's that warm satisfied sensation I'm feeling?

touts

Newstalk are reporting that 3000 people with tickets were turned away because the venue was full but apparently they can watch it outside on some screens that were set up. Selling 3000 tickets extra for the first evening is a bit of a screwup.

Seth Brundle

touts wrote: »

Newstalk are reporting that 3000 people with tickets were turned away because the venue was full but apparently they can watch it outside on some screens that were set up. Selling 3000 tickets extra for the first evening is a bit of a screwup.

That would be the Portugese governments fault presumably!
Definitely not Paddy's fault!

Hashtag Schadenfreude

Barry Badrinath

kbannon wrote: »

That would be the Portugese governments fault presumably!
Definitely not Paddy's fault!

Schure he will probably still blame the Irish government!

upandcumming

Absolutely delighted for the bellend. What a cint!

uck51js9zml2yt

https://www.rte.ie/news/2016/1107/829929-web-summit/

Opening event in Lisbon

ZeroThreat

Wonder if they still require only 1.1 degree graduates from Unis (2.1 from Trinity allowed as that was what technical whizzkid paddy himself achieved there in a non-STEM field) to work in their business?

Red_Wake

touts wrote: »

Newstalk are reporting that 3000 people with tickets were turned away because the venue was full but apparently they can watch it outside on some screens that were set up. Selling 3000 tickets extra for the first evening is a bit of a screwup.

Wow, that's incredibly bad,

LuckyLloyd

Gabriela Spicy Clarinet wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/news/2016/1107/829929-web-summit/

Opening event in Lisbon

Love an aul dose of schadenfreude as much as the next Irishman, but attendance of 53k up from 28k; and 19k in the side events up from 14k make it a success from a marketing / sales perspective anyway.

Graham

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

attendance of 53k up from 28k

I wonder how many of those were full price tickets compared to 2 for 1, bring a friend, women and children go free.......

suicide_circus

either way paddy's done well

tinpib

Skimming Twitter using #websummit and the main complaint is about huge queues to get into the venue even if you have already registered. One WiFi complaint, 1 Wifi praise, so not an issue at the moment.

Not much whinging in general, the venue does seem wedged alright.

For Forks Sake

tinpib wrote: »

Skimming Twitter using #websummit and the main complaint is about huge queues to get into the venue even if you have already registered. One WiFi complaint, 1 Wifi praise, so not an issue at the moment.

Not much whinging in general, the venue does seem wedged alright.

Meh, novelty value most likely. Once they get accustomed to being fleeced by Paddys Traveling Circus the gloss will wear off.

RasTa

Talking about it on Newstalk now. Sounds like it's running much better. Forgot about the €20 for a burnt burger and bottle of water last year.

http://www.thejournal.ie/websummit-lunch-vouchers-are-how-much-2-2424369-Nov2015/

€25 for unlimited travel on public transport for duration of the event, longest wait for the next tram/train has being 6 mins.

5rtytry56

Statement of the obvious I know, clearly there are people reading this thread like myself who believe that paddy c got his just desserts the way things worked out for his web summit.
There are also most ardent supporters for paddy and his enterprise reading it and making some positive noise.



Just sayin'

tinpib

5rtytry56 wrote: »

Statement of the obvious I know, clearly there are people reading this thread like myself who believe that paddy c got his just desserts the way things worked out for his web summit.
There are also most ardent supporters for paddy and his enterprise reading it and making some positive noise.



Just sayin'

Fair enough, I hope there are other people like myself who are trying to be objective and making their own decision based on whatever information they can find.

gandalf

I attended the Web Summit two years ago and it was obvious then that it had lost it's way and was living off the hype and previous reputation. What I have seen on social media and from reports it doesn't seem to changed from this path at all.

awec

Wish they'd stop calling it a tech conference.

ChikiChiki

The websummit seems to be doing well by its metrics. Are we too bitter to admit that. Even I was hoping it would go t*ts up but it's a loss for Dublin, let's be honest.

TallGlass

I'm confused about something. Why are there footballers giving talks at this? I thought the web in the name was to do with web companies or something do they own web companies or shares in them?

To be honest it sounds like a load of ****e. Surely it couldn't be that hard to start something like it here again, rent out a place, invite a few companies to talk bollix about there products.

Isn't that hard, whys this one so special. Why is it online in Dublin and then moved to Lisbon. Would it not move around a bit more?

gandalf

ChikiChiki wrote: »

The websummit seems to be doing well by its metrics. Are we too bitter to admit that. Even I was hoping it would go t*ts up but it's a loss for Dublin, let's be honest.

The numbers are being boosted by local students getting day tickets for €2 apparently.

Given what I witnessed two years ago I would hate to be trying to pitch a business idea at this as it appeared to be a complete waste of time as the prospective businesses were getting lost in the noise.

Also a lot of reports of some very dodgy, predatory sales practices on people trying to launch start-ups from the last few years.

http://tech.eu/features/6244/web-summit-scam-well-ask/

lawred2

It's hardly a surpise that public transport is an improvement... Dublin is third world where public transport is concerned

brevity

https://twitter.com/adrianweckler/status/795698229010636802

ZeroThreat

suicide_circus wrote: »

either way paddy's done well

Well he's definitely made a lot of money at least.

BMMachine

ZeroThreat wrote: »

Wonder if they still require only 1.1 degree graduates from Unis (2.1 from Trinity allowed as that was what technical whizzkid paddy himself achieved there in a non-STEM field) to work in their business?

I know a few people that work there and that is bullsh*t as I know their grades.
but hey, don't let that stop the small time irish spite thats going on in this thread
THE WIFI DIDNT WORK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA #WINNING

_Jamie_

awec wrote: »

Wish they'd stop calling it a tech conference.

TallGlass wrote: »

I'm confused about something. Why are there footballers giving talks at this? I thought the web in the name was to do with web companies or something do they own web companies or shares in them?

As a layperson, I'm also confused. What is Websummit exactly?

Graham

_Jamie_ wrote: »

As a layperson, I'm also confused. What is Websummit exactly?

A trendy conference for techy types.

Unusually it's not a particularly 'techy' conference, more of a 'conference to be seen at'.

ZeroThreat

BMMachine wrote: »

I know a few people that work there and that is bullsh*t as I know their grades.
but hey, don't let that stop the small time irish spite thats going on in this thread
THE WIFI DIDNT WORK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA #WINNING

Well I was only looking at an old article going back to 2014 the other night and Paddy stated in an interview that the minimum requirements to get an internship with his company at the time was 1.1 from the main unis except for Trinity where a 2.1 was acceptable as Paddy said all the other institutions bar Trinity suffered from massive grade inflation.

He even went as far as to point the finger at Maynooth, claiming it had suffered a ten fold increase in the number of firsts awarded in recent years.

They also said they wouldn't even consider any degree from an IT unless the applicant also had a masters or postgraduate degree.

I guess they may have changed policies since them, but there was a big brughahah about it at the time.

VinLieger

BMMachine wrote: »

I know a few people that work there and that is bullsh*t as I know their grades.
but hey, don't let that stop the small time irish spite thats going on in this thread
THE WIFI DIDNT WORK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA #WINNING

Paddy made his own problems and then blamed everyone else, if he was even the tiniest bit humble and honest I don't think anyone would have as much as a problem with him.

_Jamie_

ZeroThreat wrote: »

well I was only checking looking at an old article going back to 2014 the other night and Paddy stated in an interview that the minimum requirements to get an internship with his company at the time was 1.1 from the main unis except for Trinity where a 2.1 was acceptable as Paddy said all the other institutions bar Trinity suffered from massive grade inflation.

As a Trinity grad, I have to say Paddy is talking through his hoop. Trinity suffers from grade inflation as much as the next college.

beach_walker

I went to it a few years ago (via work). Was a grand day out but I didn't think it was anything amazing. To see the decline of it since (gouging the punters to a ridiculous degree, Paddy throwing a strop) I'm glad that the country has seen the back of it.

awec

_Jamie_ wrote: »

As a layperson, I'm also confused. What is Websummit exactly?

It's just a big networking event.

It is pitched as a place for startups (who may be very loosely described as a tech startup) to pitch their ideas and meet investors. It's not a tech conference at all, more of a business gathering, but "tech conference" is a much more marketable term.

Startups pay money to get a table / booth, investors pay money to get access to startups. The majority of people go home with nothing other than a few new mates and a hangover.

Muahahaha

ChikiChiki wrote: »

The websummit seems to be doing well by its metrics. Are we too bitter to admit that. Even I was hoping it would go t*ts up but it's a loss for Dublin, let's be honest.

Said that last year too and now it is up to 56,000 entrants, that is a success in anyones book and a big economic loss for Dublin. As much of a twat Paddy is I think the government missed a huge opportunity to market and establish Dublin as a place for these mega conferences that attract 25,000+ people. Having the Web Summit here already proved it could be done, after that it needed someone with vision to carry it off.

suicide_circus

the question is - what % of attendees actually benefit from the experience in a way they could not have done at a free networking event

AlmightyCushion

Muahahaha wrote: »

Said that last year too and now it is up to 56,000 entrants, that is a success in anyones book and a big economic loss for Dublin. As much of a twat Paddy is I think the government missed a huge opportunity to market and establish Dublin as a place for these mega conferences that attract 25,000+ people. Having the Web Summit here already proved it could be done, after that it needed someone with vision to carry it off.

What should the government have done though? The reasons Paddy outlined for it leaving aren't really anything the government can do anything about. WiFi issues at the RDS - nothing to do with the government, apparently WebSummit cheaped out on the WiFi option as well which probably didn't help. Hotel costs - nothing the government can really do about that either and the same thing happened in Lisbon and pretty much anywhere. If you have a lot of people visiting the one place at the same time, hotel costs increase, that happens everywhere.

The other two reasons were that they wanted a traffic management plan and public transport set up like major sporting events. Why does the government need to get involved in this? The major sporting organisations manage this without government involvement so they should be able to as well.

I agree with you that I'd rather the WebSummit was here than in Lisbon as it would be good for Dublin/Ireland but the government didn't drop the ball here.

ChikiChiki

lawred2 wrote: »

It's hardly a surpise that public transport is an improvement... Dublin is third world where public transport is concerned

Aint that the truth!

Muahahaha

Agree that there was nothing that could be done about hotel prices, wifi, etc. But I think if any city knows it is going to have an influx of 30,000 visitors then measures should be put in place like extra buses so those attendees dont end up waiting around for already packed buses that dont pick up. Also any major sporting event has to have an event management plan during which several organs of the state plan out how to run the event smoothly. Entire roads are closed down traffic diverted. Its not a fair comparision and even more so when you consider major sporting events tend to occur at the weekends and not during the working week like the Summit does.

During last years Summit it was patently obvious some sort of traffic management plan/increase in public transport services was badly needed as Dublin was completely jammed with traffic for those few days.

Paddy is no doubt a plonker but at the end of the day if someone with a bit of initiative in the Dept of Tourism and Transport had of grabbed the opportunity to solve the traffic problems then Dublin would have been in a very good position to say that hosting large scale conferences was something the city could handle and actively manage. But instead the message that was sent out to organisers of large scale conferences was that Dublins got traffic problems which will have our delegates frustrated at the choice of venue. Plus the government dept with responsibility for attracting visitors to the country doesnt really seem bothered in at least trying to solve the problems of hosting conferences on this scale.

To put the missed opportunity into perspective just last week the Convention Centre hosted 1,200 delegates for a conference on mobile phone technologies. They will have to do those numbers at 25 more conferences just to make up the 30,000 the Summit was pulling in. Imagine the economic boost to the city if we had 3 or 4 30,000+ conferences a year, it would be huge. But instead of trying to chase that opportunity (as Lisbon has done) our lot just sat on their hands and did nothing.

BMMachine

ZeroThreat wrote: »

Well I was only looking at an old article going back to 2014 the other night and Paddy stated in an interview that the minimum requirements to get an internship with his company at the time was 1.1 from the main unis except for Trinity where a 2.1 was acceptable as Paddy said all the other institutions bar Trinity suffered from massive grade inflation.

He even went as far as to point the finger at Maynooth, claiming it had suffered a ten fold increase in the number of firsts awarded in recent years.

They also said they wouldn't even consider any degree from an IT unless the applicant also had a masters or postgraduate degree.

I guess they may have changed policies since them, but there was a big brughahah about it at the time.

well, the 3 people I know that work there didn't get 1:1's. One went to UCD, the other to DLIADT and another to DIT. there is a strong chance that paddy was talking out of his arse about that. in fact from what im told half the engineers come from IT colleges and most of the design team.

but fyi, most of what is said in this thread is utter bullsh*t (don't look so shocked, its After Hours on boards.ie, hardly the intellectual capital of the internet in Ireland). Just another platform for spiteful males to let it all out

ChikiChiki

Muahahaha wrote: »

Said that last year too and now it is up to 56,000 entrants, that is a success in anyones book and a big economic loss for Dublin. As much of a twat Paddy is I think the government missed a huge opportunity to market and establish Dublin as a place for these mega conferences that attract 25,000+ people. Having the Web Summit here already proved it could be done, after that it needed someone with vision to carry it off.

Genuinely can't understand how people continue to ignore it's obvious success. People are declaring it a failure because the burgers were to dear and the WiFi didn't work well last year. Yet the numbers are up! They're doing something right. The stats don't lie.

Like you I'm off the opinion both Paddy and the Govt acted like petulant kids but the Govt should have seen the bigger picture.

AlmightyCushion

Muahahaha wrote: »

Agree that there was nothing that could be done about hotel prices, wifi, etc. But I think if any city knows it is going to have an influx of 30,000 visitors then measures should be put in place like extra buses so those attendees dont end up waiting around for already packed buses that dont pick up. Also any major sporting event has to have an event management plan during which several organs of the state plan out how to run the event smoothly. Entire roads are closed down traffic diverted. Its not a fair comparision and even more so when you consider major sporting events tend to occur at the weekends and not during the working week like the Summit does.

During last years Summit it was patently obvious some sort of traffic management plan/increase in public transport services was badly needed as Dublin was completely jammed with traffic for those few days.

Paddy is no doubt a plonker but at the end of the day if someone with a bit of initiative in the Dept of Tourism and Transport had of grabbed the opportunity to solve the traffic problems then Dublin would have been in a very good position to say that hosting large scale conferences was something the city could handle and actively manage. But instead the message that was sent out to organisers of large scale conferences was that Dublins got traffic problems which will have our delegates frustrated at the choice of venue. Plus the government dept with responsibility for attracting visitors to the country doesnt really seem bothered in at least trying to solve the problems of hosting conferences on this scale.

To put the missed opportunity into perspective just last week the Convention Centre hosted 1,200 delegates for a conference on mobile phone technologies. They will have to do those numbers at 25 more conferences just to make up the 30,000 the Summit was pulling in. Imagine the economic boost to the city if we had 3 or 4 30,000+ conferences a year, it would be huge. But instead of trying to chase that opportunity (as Lisbon has done) our lot just sat on their hands and did nothing.

Yes, a traffic management plan should be put in place but the government doesn't need to get involved. We have 10,000s of people attending the All Ireland, internation football and rugby games, concerts and other events every year and the government doesn't get involved in creating traffic managements plans. The companies themselves do it, so why can't WebSummit? Don't forget that WebSummit wanted the fees associated in closing roads to be waived as well. Why should they get these fees waived when any one else looking to close down a road for an event has to pay?

lawred2

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Yes, a traffic management plan should be put in place but the government doesn't need to get involved. We have 10,000s of people attending the All Ireland, internation football and rugby games, concerts and other events every year and the government doesn't get involved in creating traffic managements plans. The companies themselves do it, so why can't WebSummit? Don't forget that WebSummit wanted the fees associated in closing roads to be waived as well. Why should they get these fees waived when any one else looking to close down a road for an event has to pay?

Because I'm Paddy and I'm great..

That's pretty much it.